AAG hits out at NGOs for undermining Zimbabwe's right to sell diamonds

THE Affirmative Action Group has hit out at non-governmental organisations that continue to seek relevance by attacking and undermining Zimbabwe's right to sell it's Marange diamonds unconditionally.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the President of the AAG, Supa Mandiwanzira, said  since the Kimberly Process certified Marange and Mbada diamonds to sell their  rough diamonds, a host of clue-less non-governmental organisations have started making unsubstantiated allegations of human rights abuses in Chiadzwa.

"Thankfully, right thinking citizens of the world are no longer taking these western-backed groups seriously as everyone,  including the European Union, are now aware that the Marange diamonds are the most clean diamonds in the world when measured by the Kimberly Process's blood diamonds yardstick," said Mr Mandiwanzira.

The AAG president's comments come ahead of an NGO seminar exclusively to discuss Marange Diamonds at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa today.

The seminar has brought together anti-Zimbabwe NGOs among them Crisis  Coalition, Centre for Research and Development, Partnership Africa Canada, Southern Resources Watch, Solidarity Peace Trust and several other Anti-Zimbabwe and anti-Marange diamonds organisations.

Harsh critics like Centre for Research and Development's Farai Maguwu and political commentator Brian Raftopolous are some of the headlined speakers.

All are known for their rabid views on government's stance in Marange and are trying to push for the banning of selling of Zimbabwe's gems worldwide.

It is alleged that some of these individuals are on the payroll of huge diamond mining companies that lost out of Marange diamond fields.

The seminar has been organised by the Centre for Research and Development and the South African Institute of International Affairs and bankrolled by a German NGO – Heinrich Boll Stiftung.

The AAG President is leading a delegation to the seminar together with Secretary General Tafadzwa Musarara and members of their Johannesburg Chapter after a spirited fight to be involved.

After initially accepting an AAG request to take part in the seminar, officials wrote back a day later saying the seminar was full and there would be no room for AAG to participate.

"We had to fight to get our voice heard at this seminar, especially given the fact that we are part of the civil society in Zimbabwe," wrote Mandiwanzira.

"But the seminar was clearly organised to up the tempo in the anti-Marange diamonds agenda. When we began to make our complaints louder, they quickly rushed to invite only one person from AAG."

He added: "We were are so surprised that a prestigious university like Vits would play host to such a partisan forum. Had it not been for our insistence to participate it would have been a Zimbabwe-bashing party. But we are going there armed with facts, a lot of facts,"  the AAG president said.

The seminar in Johannesburg, follows a blatantly false documentary by the BBC Panorama programme that alleged there were torture camps in Marange.

The documentary was discredited by EU officials who said there was no evidence of such camps and that the EU was no longer opposing the sale of Marange diamonds unconditionally.

Another Israel diamond expert  and publisher √¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Chaim Even Zohar also lambasted the BBC documentary for being false.