The families moved out of the Chiadzwa diamond fields to make room for diamond mining operations will receive compensation only if Zimbabwe is allowed to sell its diamonds, Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu said this weekend.

Last week, Zimbabwean news outlets reported that soldiers and employees of the Chinese mining company Anjin were forcing the 40 families remaining in Chiadzwa out of their homes. Anjin has reportedly refused to pay the $50,000 per family that the residents are demanding, a sum that activist Farai Maguwu says is in accordance with UN guidelines on compensation for relocation.

Mpofu told a Daily News reporter that it was "idiotic and nonsensical" that the "same people" pushing Zimbabwe to compensate the relocated families were the nations that supported the international embargo of the country's diamond exports.

Mpofu said that the government would only have money to compensate the Chiadzwa villagers when its diamonds were "sold freely internationally."