Zim diamonds could be financing international terror groups

HARARE - Diamonds being illegally extracted and smuggled from Chiadzwa, Marange could be financing activities of international groups regarded as terrorists by the United States Administration and European Union member States, intelligence sources said this week.

The sources said suspicion that the gems’ final destination could be international terror groups has caused alarm within Zimbabwe’s intelligence and security establishment who fear this can have a serious bearing on how the country is perceived by the United States and European countries that are targets of terror attacks from radical Islamic groups such as Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based Islamic militant group. 

The Zimbabwe government supports the war against international terrorism and has put measures to stop the illegal trafficking of diamonds.

Relations between the Zimbabwean government and the US administration and European Union member states have been frosty since the 2000 violent farm invasions.

This, the sources said, resulted in the government tightening security around the diamond fields.

Heavily armed soldiers and police officers guard the diamond fields round the clock. The fields have also been fenced off but it is believed the diamonds cover a much wider area.

Despite the heavy security presence diamond leakages continue on a large scale largely because deposits continue to be discovered in areas close to Chiadzwa and other places such as Chimanimani and Hot Springs.

The heavy leakages have also been attributed to corruption within the security agents who work hand in glove with illegal miners and foreign buyers.

Zimbabwean intelligence sources said there is an unprecedented influx into Mutare and Marange of nationals from Arabic countries such as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

They said the Arabs, just like other illegal international buyers could have taken advantage of the haphazard manner in which the gems are being extracted.

“Most of the guys look very suspicious," said a senior Zimbabwean intelligence officer.  “We are worried because our diamonds could be funding operations by international terror groups.”

He added: “We need to move in quickly and restore order but the problem is that we have to involve the police who are very corrupt and may not be very effective.”

In May last year a six-member team from the international diamond certification body was in Zimbabwe to assess whether the southern African country was compliant with its regulations.

The Kimberly Process Committee (KPC) team visited Chiadzwa, the scene of unprecedented looting of minerals after the government had cancelled a claim by a British international mining company, Africa Resources Consolidation.

The visit by the KPC - which certifies that diamonds are not being used to finance wars - followed an outcry by the chairman of the World Diamond Council; Eli Izhakoff that Zimbabwe and Venezuela  were not complying with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
Early his year Zimbabwe 's central bank governor Gideon Gono estimated the cash-strapped economy had lost US$400 million worth of revenue due to smuggling out of diamonds from Marange.

The country's security minister Dydmus Mutasa told journalists last year that diamonds looted from Marange district had been sold in places as far away as Israel.

Mutasa said the gems from Marange were awash in the streets of Tel Aviv.

Government officials have also been implicated in the smuggling, though no-one has yet dared name any senior figure.