MDC-T minister blasts NGO on Marange diamonds

Mines Deputy Minister and MDC-T senior official, Gift Chimanikire, has scoffed at advocacy group Global Witness Foundation (GWF)'s decision to pull out of the Kimberly Process (KP) in protest to the licensing of Marange diamonds, saying the human rights group's move has no bearing on Zimbabwe's diamond trade.

GWF withdrew its membership from KP on Monday on grounds that body was now governing "blood diamonds".

Chimanikire described the move as a deliberate attempt to reverse the KP's early November certification of two Zimbabwean operations ' Marange Resources and Mbada Diamonds ' to trade their diamonds.KP is an industry, government and civil society body formed in 2003 to stem the flow of diamonds mined in conflict situations or used to fund conflict.

Chimanikire yesterday told the Daily News that GWF's manoeuvres were "too late" to stop Zimbabwe from exporting stones from Marange.