Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE OWNERSHIP OF major diamond mines in Zimbabwe and their impact on human rights has come under the spotlight again today.
Global Witness says that there is a risk that any violence that takes place in the country during its next elections could be funded by diamond revenues.
It released a report today into the complicated ownership of two mines in the Marange field area: Anijin Investments and Mbada Diamonds.
Global Witness says that it is concerned diamond purchases may help to fund the Zimbabwean military.
Nick Donovan, senior campaigner at Global Witness, explained:
Zimbabwe desperately needs diamond revenues for health and education services, not AK 47s and flash cars for the elite. Zimbabwe must ensure that diamond mining companies are not used as an off-budget cash cow by ZANU PF loyalists in the military and police. If the next election is accompanied by violence there’s a real risk that any bloodshed will be funded by diamond revenues.
Global Witness says that in 2008, the Zimbabwean army took control of the Marange fields “using troops and helicopter gunships” and killed and wounded small scale miners in the process.
In 2008, the Kimberley Process banned the export of diamonds from the Marange field due to evidence of human rights abuses there.
Global Witness says that since then, several companies have been allocated diamond concessions “in questionable circumstances”.
It says these include Anjin Investments and Mbada Diamonds.
Anjin Investments has Zimbabwean board members including the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence as well as retired military and police officers, says Global Witness, while Mbada Diamonds has a “complex structure”.
It says secrecy surrounding the real owners of Mbada has a number of potential consequences, “including a possible loss of tax revenues and the potential opportunity for officials or military figures to personally benefit from a state asset”.
Global Witness today called on the Zimbabwean Government and Mbada to publish all their contracts and details of revenue flows to allay fears of corruption, tax avoidance or off-budget government spending.
The Kimberley Process is a government-to-government certification scheme for rough diamonds, which was set up in 2003 to prevent diamond-fuelled conflict and human rights violations.
The Kimberley Process (KP), the intergovernmental diamond certification scheme, recently approved unlimited diamond exports by Mbada and is considering giving the same endorsement to Anjin. Over the past three years the scheme, which was set up to stop the trade in blood diamonds, has failed to address state-sponsored violence in the Marange diamond fields and resisted calls for reform. Global Witness left the KP in December 2011.
Donovan said that the diamond industry “urgently needs to implement a system of ‘supply chain due diligence’ in order to give consumers the confidence to buy diamonds without any risk that they fund human rights abuses”.
Global Witness recommends that the Zimbabwean Government should:
Diamonds were discovered in the Marange fields in 2006, and tens of thousands of diamond panners went there. The government attempted to secure the mines in 2008.
Global Witness says that accurate figures about revenues from Marange diamonds are “notoriously difficult to find”. It says customers should not buy diamonds originating from Marange mines until they can be certain they will not fund human rights abuses
You can read the full report by Global Witness here.
A lot of ifs used on this article, so I’ll add 2 more, if the largest nations don’t start doing their part and they rely on Ireland to save our planet then we’re certainly in trouble.
@Fintan Stack: and one more, if you think more taxes will save the glaciers then there’s something seriously wrong!
@Fintan Stack: they’re relying on the average Joe and Josephine to pick up the tab, unfortunately their real money needs to be spent. All that robber baron money needs to take a pill and recognise why we’re in pollution to begin with….. Utilisation of the industrial use of plastics corporate responsibility has to play a larger part, yrs civilians and govt too but corporatations doing very little.
What about the times when there was no Glaciers, and also no ice at the poles, ie when the Earth was hotter twice before with no fossils being burnt by man, there wasnt always ice at the poles,and Glaciers wernt always here
@Gavin Power: Those changes happened over millennia, similar changes happen in less than 100 years. We and the ecosystem we’re part of simply cannot adapt at this rate.
@Urban Living Dublin: *similar changes happen in less than 100 years at the moment.
@Gavin Power: there wasn’t, but it was caused by the same thing, a build up of CO2. Although it was much much slower. The problem isn’t thats it happening, but the rate its happening at.
@Gavin Power: Humans have never existed in any era of geological time that there hasn’t been ice at the poles. Only with ice did we evolve fully into species that now resemble monkeys and eventually humans.
@Gavin Power: Wet bulb temperatures. Effects of.
Sure 99% of the people reading the journal today will be dead by then, so don’t worry about it…
@Andy O’B: You do have a point, not a great one, but a point. Imagine if our ancestors just gave up and let humanity die off? Humans are a long way from being perfect but we may be the only sentient beings in this universe. That’s something worth protecting at least.
@Maximus_Demonus: yes but not letting the population die off is pleasurable for most – so I doubt it was a tough task ..
@Andy O’B: Your kids won’t be, so all the best to them. Would be nice to pass down a little more than environmental destruction no?
@Maximus_Demonus: I agree, I think he does have a point, a sort of indirect one, the apathy of people the more and more they hear the same thing but don’t have the power to change. What is the ffing point of our small time recycle bins when you’ve massive govt and corporate pollution ongoing, people are sick of being the scapegoat. Yes we’d love to be the environmentally friendly icon but unfortunately you just have to look at what your bread and vegan tofu are wrapped in to know we’re not winning and individual consumers are not going to win the battle, corporation globe, pick up the tab please, the average Joe and Josephine needs help
@Urban Living Dublin: Ah shur they’ll be able to google what the earth used to be like on their smart devices as they sit in a coffee shop chain sipping on coffee imported from around the world as they look cool in their throw away fashion.
Whatever people’s beliefs are about climate change rest assured that there is no stopping it and all climate taxes do is create more poverty.
I’ll be gone and so will my daughter and girlfriend so won’t affect us in any way….by then half the world will be gone to due to governments and war.
@Brian Corr: How will governments and war get rid of half the world in the next 100 years? The same 2 factors have seen the population rise from 1.5 billion to 8 billion over the last 100 years.
@Dan Broderick: “could”.
But won’t.
@Dan Broderick: moron
@Dan Broderick: Ha, ha.
@Dan Broderick: How’s that new tinfoil hat you got for Christmas? Does it fit OK?
With 80% of the glaciers melted by 2100,
there will be a 6 inch rise in sea level.
That’s not much of a rise..
Looks like nothing to worry about..
@Roger Bond: Melting glaciers are only part of the reason for sea level rise. There’s also melting Arctic ice caps, as well as the thermal expansion of the oceans.
If we don’t do anything to reduce emissions, 106 climate experts polled on the subject, think sea level will rise between 2 and 4 feet by 2100.
If we reduce emissions, and keep warming under 1.5 Celsius, the optimistic scenario, the 106 experts polled think sea level rise will be kept between 1 and 2 feet by 2100.
So 12 inches of sea level rise is a highly optimistic prediction.
Horton, B.P., Khan, N.S., Cahill, N., Lee, J.S., Shaw, T.A., Garner, A.J., Kemp, A.C., Engelhart, S.E. and Rahmstorf, S., 2020. Estimating global mean sea-level rise and its uncertainties by 2100 and 2300 from an expert survey. NPJ climate and atmospheric science, 3(1), pp.1-8.:
Corporates pull your weight, stop guilt tripping the public.
So our Grand children will be about 50 if you are 38 now with a 8 year old.
Scarey legacy to leave.
@Data Backup: you ok and not crazy?
@Data Backup: no our grandchildren will be told the same bs but it will be 2200
This climate change is inevitable, we only can do is slow it down and buying more time for mankind. the most important is how we adapt and evolve, in the future human May live and breathe under the water or move to other planets… tech is the key. Don’t be afraid of the tech, it depends how to use it, eg nuclear bomb and nuclear power plant
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: why inevitable?
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: What planet would we move to exactly?
@Shaner Mac: Uranus.
Should have postponed the building of the titanic
I’d feel for the rats in 2100 so because there won’t be too many humans left my then
have your say