Zimbabwe diamond fields open up
The state-owned Heralddaily newspaper cited David Kassel, chief executive of Johannesburg's New Reclamation, as saying that his company had hired 200 private security guards to replace the military at the field in eastern Chiadzwa. The army has controlled the 60000ha area since last year.
The military is alleged to have killed several people in a crackdown last year on illegal diamond diggers. The fields were seized by the government from British-owned African Consolidated Resources in 2006. The government denies that there have been killings.
Zimbabwe narrowly escaped having its Chiadzwa diamonds banned from certified world trade earlier this month.
A team of inspectors from the Kimberley Process, an international body, recommended that Zimbabwe be suspended from the diamond trade after its representatives visited the area in July and received reports of killings, rape, torture by soldiers, and forced labour.
At a meeting in Namibia, the Kimberley Process decided not to suspend Zimbabwe's participation in the international diamond trade on several conditions, including that the military pull out of the area.
"We are taking control of all areas that we have claimed but are still working with state security agents in areas where we are still exploring," Kassel was quoted as saying.
New Reclamation, a major scrap metal company in which South African insurance giant Old Mutual has a small shareholding, is one of two companies that have entered into a joint venture agreement with the Zimbabwean government to exploit the field.
The controversy over the fields was compounded by a high court decision in September that the government's seizure of the Chaidzwa claim was illegal. The court declared African Consolidated Resources the legal owner.
The chief executive of African Consolidated Resources, Andrew Chadwick, has warned that anyone buying Chiadzwa diamonds is buying stolen property.
It has urged the South African government not to buckle to pressure from Zimbabwe to exclude the land reform programme from the agreement.
Investors have been invited to participate in an investment seminar next Friday in Harare at which the agreement was to be signed.
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