Zimbabwe: Blood diamond team describes `horrific violence` by army in Marange

11 July, 2009 in Zimbabwe

source: SW Radio Africa
By Alex Bell
09 July 2009

A confidential memo by the head of a delegation of the Kimberley Process, which recently wrapped up an investigation into the reports of violence and killings in Marange, has detailed the ‘horrific violence’ used by the army against civilians there.

The Kimberley Process, a scheme tasked with halting the trade in ‘blood diamonds, sent the delegation to investigate Zimbabwe’s ‘compliance’ with international diamond trade standards. Their visit came days after a Human Rights Watch report detailed the ongoing human rights abuses at the Marange diamond fields, which in turn followed numerous accounts of abuse and killings there.

Accounts from survivors of the military onslaught at Marange detailed the killings, speaking of machine-gun attacks by helicopter and armed attacks by troops on [continue reading]