WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-09-16 Time: 05:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Alex Bell
International diamond buyers who participated in a weekend auction of Zimbabwe’s stones, are believed to be bypassing the targeted sanctions placed on Mugabe’s inner circle, by having the sale in secret.
The auction went ahead over the weekend, but the Mines Ministry has refused to make any details of the sale public. Officials had said last week that future diamond sales in Zimbabwe would be private affairs for the benefit of potential buyers.
But observers have commented that the secrecy is suspicious because of the corruption that is believed to still be rife in Zimbabwe’s diamond sector.
An international network of diamond buyers and suppliers meanwhile has also said the lack of transparency in the sale could be allowing international diamond traders to evade the law against dealing with companies on the US and European Union (EU) sanctions lists.
The US-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network (RapNet) has cautioned its members against trading in stones mined from the Chiadzwa diamond fields, partly because of the involvement of groups on the US targeted sanctions list.
The parastatal Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) took over Chiadzwa in 2006, after the legal title holders, London based African Consolidated Resources (ACR), was forced off the claim at gunpoint. In 2009 the ZMDC joined forces with two South African owned entities to mine the alluvial fields, in a partnership that will see the ZMDC take 50% of the diamond profits. But the ZMDC is still listed on the targeted sanctions lists of both the US and EU and, legally, American and European diamond groups are restricted from dealing with the ZMDC.
RapNet’s Chairman, Martin Rapaport told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that “there seems to be an attempt to evade the law,” by having the auction in secret. He said the key concern over the secrecy “is where exactly the diamond profits are going.”
“Is it being used in bad ways? Is it being used by one political party to abuse the supporters of an opposition group?” Rapaport said, adding: “By making things non transparent you don’t have to explain where the profits are going, and it’s difficult to hold people accountable if the wrong people are benefiting.”
Rapaport continued by saying; “We don’t think it is appropriate for our members to be trading in diamonds whose profits will benefit entities on the sanctions list.”
Zimbabwe has only just returned to the international trade market after the diamond watchdog, the Kimberley Process (KP), in July agreed to certify Chiadzwa stones as conflict free.
Sales were banned last year because of rampant human rights abuses that rights groups said qualified Zimbabwe’s stones as ‘blood diamonds’. But the KP, which has been tasked with ending the trade in blood diamonds, refused to ban Zimbabwe over the abuses and instead gave the country six months to clean up its act and fall in line with international standards.
The KP appointed a monitor to oversee the progress in making these changes, and it was on this monitor’s recommendations that diamonds sales resume. The monitor, South African Abbey Chikane, has been accused of pushing for a resumption of sales, despite ongoing rights atrocities.
Rapaport said on Wednesday they have not been able to confirm or deny that rights abuses are continuing at Chiadzwa, because NGOs and investigators have been repeatedly barred from the area. He explained that RapNet members are being cautioned against buying the stones for this reason “because we simply don’t know if abuses are continuing.”
“Should a RapNet member be found to be trading in diamonds involved in severe human rights violations, they will be expelled from RapNet and named. We strongly urge RapNet members to exercise extreme caution regarding all Chiadzwa stones, even if the diamonds are legal in other jurisdictions,” Rapaport said.
The Mines Ministry hosted the first diamond auction last month, not long after coming to an agreement that paved for the way for the resumption of exports under monitoring conditions. The agreement reached with the KP allows the Mines Ministry to sell a stockpile of diamonds mined at Chiadzwa over the past year. KP monitor Chikane last month certified a portion of that stockpile as ‘conflict free’, allowing their legal sale.
An estimated US$72 million was generated from the sale, and it’s understood the government claimed US$30 million of the profits as the 50% shareholder in the firms mining in Chiadzwa.
The sale went ahead despite the diamonds being at the centre of the ongoing legal battle over the Chiadzwa site’s ownership. The legal title holders, ACR, has warned that the sale was in contempt of a Supreme Court ruling, which ordered the firms mining at Chiadzwa to cease all operations until the ownership fight was settled. The Supreme Court ruling came a few months after the High Court ruled that ACR was the legal title holder, validating the company’s rights to mine at Chiadzwa.
But the High Court has since made a shock u-turn in revoking that earlier ruling. Critics have said this was at the behest of the government to ‘clear the air’ over the contested diamonds, in preparation for the second auction.
Original date published: 15 September 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009160016.html?viewall=1