No room for EU in Zim diamonds

When it was announced that a delegation from the European Union was going to tour Chiadzwa diamond fields, we readily welcomed the move thinking that the Western bloc was seeking to establish true facts about the operations.

Thinking that the visit was objective, we commended it as an opportunity for the EU members to collect empirical information on the diamond operations at the world renowned Chiadzwa fields. This was an appealing gesture considering that the group had traditionally relied on doctored reports from civic society activists who had never set foot in Chiadzwa.

The visit therefore became a window of opportunity for the EU delegation to scrounge for pertinent information that will suitably instruct their policy formulations on Zimbabwe. Interestingly, the tour also came high on the heels of re-engagement meetings between Zimbabwe and the EU where the Western grouping had promised to revisit the callous illegal economic sanctions regime it imposed on our country.

We naturally took the visit to Chiadzwa as one of those efforts by the EU to build bridges with Zimbabwe. But alas, after the visit the EU representative to Zimbabwe, Ambassador Aldo Dell'Ariccia said that the visit had nothing to do with the "restrictions (sanctions) or KP:, but was just a "familiarisation tour".

Unbeknown to us, the visit had from the onset had nothing to do with the so-called fact finding mission, but more to do with fault finding. The delegation ignored all the positive operational developments on the ground and chose to focus on amplifying the tired mantra, spread by the Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, that there is no transparency and accountability in the extraction and marketing of diamonds from Chiadzwa.

It came as no surprise therefore that the EU ambassador was later quoted in the media saying, "We note that there is a problem of transparency in the mining sector's revenues, which is reflected in the position that the Zimbabwe minister of finance has expressed publicly." We cannot help, but vehemently ask how the delegation came to that lopsided conclusion. Do they have any shred of evidence from their visit to Chiadzwa that justifies their claim that diamond operations were muddied by lack of transparency and accountability?

Surprisingly, the EU delegation has witnessed that transparency and accountability of diamond output are strictly guarded by officials from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Minerals Unit and other private security organisations resident at diamond mines in Marange diamond.

What more transparency do they need when Zimra officials are on the ground to verify and authenticate the amount of diamonds being produced and marketed by all the diamond mines? It also behooves upon us to establish why Biti thinks there is no transparency and accountability in operations at Marange diamond fields

when his officials are permanently on the ground to verify and certify diamond output.

During the visit by the EU envoys, Munyaradzi Machacha of Anjin gave a hint as to why Biti thinks there is corruption in the extraction and promotion of diamonds at Chiadzwa. Machacha emphatically revealed that Minister Biti erred in his budget estimations when he computed that diamond revenue will contribute US$600 million to treasury on the assumption that a carat of diamond is worth US$1 300, when in actual fact its average value is US$60. Where in the world is a carat of diamond sold at US$1 300?

It is therefore evident that the alleged lack of transparency in the diamond sector is actually a well choreographed mathematical misdemeanour meant to perpetuate the stage managed vilification of the Chiadzwa diamonds for some regime change purposes.

The intention is to continuously pockmark these diamonds so as to justify their exclusion from international trade and thus subsequently deliver debilitating blows on the struggling economy of Zimbabwe, which was about to recover on the strength of expected revenue from these gems.

In addition, the EU has realised that they have been left out in the massive diamond investments in Chiadzwa and would like to shamelessly smuggle themselves into our lucrative diamond sector by offering technical support where none is needed.

This became vividly clear when Ambassador Dell' Ariccio offered the EU's unsolicited inspection support to the country's diamond operations.

He was quoted saying, "Therefore, if so required by the Government of Zimbabwe, the EU could provide the necessary technical assistance to update, upgrade and complete the national installed capacity to carry out proper inspections."

This is despite Zimbabwe having received a pat in the back from the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) inspectors for meeting the diamond body's minimum requirements, which included its inspection mechanisms.

So what would the EU really want to "update or upgrade" when everything has been certified to be up to date? The EU is fighting to scuttle our diamond industry and therefore has no place in Chiadzwa.

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Tendai Moyo is a researcher and social commentator