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For Immediate Release

Kimberley Process: Zimbabwe Action Mars Credibility

Diamond Monitoring Body's Failure to Suspend Allows for Sale of "Blood
Diamonds"

(Johannesburg, November 6, 2009) - The credibility of the world's "blood
diamond" monitoring group has been damaged after its failure this week
to suspend Zimbabwe despite overwhelming evidence of serious human
rights abuses and smuggling in the Marange diamond fields in eastern
Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch said today.

"The group that monitors blood diamonds essentially ignored the blood
being shed in Zimbabwe's diamond fields," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa
director at Human Rights Watch. "That decision puts diamond consumers at
risk of buying blood diamonds."

As recently as late October, 2009, Human Rights Watch uncovered rampant
abuses by the military in Marange including forced labor, child labor,
killings, beatings, smuggling, and corruption. Human Rights Watch
confirmed that stones coming from these fields are mined in the context
of serious human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch called on the diamond industry and diamond consumers
to boycott Marange diamonds until Zimbabwe ends all abuses and removes
the military from the area. With the failure of the Kimberley Process to
stand resolutely for clean diamonds, it is now up to consumers to insist
on conflict-free gems, Human Rights Watch said.

The Kimberley Process, an international body governing the diamond
industry, held a plenary meeting November 2 through 5 in Swakopmund,
Namibia. The group deliberated whether to suspend Zimbabwe after a
review mission, sent by the group itself, found "credible indications of
significant non-compliance" with the group's minimum standards.

In particular, the review mission, from June 30 to July 4, documented
extensive smuggling of diamonds and rampant violence against local
miners and residents by Zimbabwean police and army officers. The review
mission recommended suspension of Zimbabwe and the appointment of a
human rights expert to examine further abuses in Marange. The mission
also said the military should withdraw immediately from the diamond
fields.

Despite these recommendations, the group's plenary, which works by
consensus, instead asked Zimbabwe to adhere to a work plan that Zimbabwe
had proposed. The plan commits the country to a phased withdrawal of the
military without specific time lines, directs police to provide security
for the area, and provides for a monitor, agreed to by both Zimbabwe and
the Kimberley process, to examine and certify all shipments of diamonds
from Marange.

"These benchmarks are weak, at best, and they won't prevent serious
abuses from occurring around Marange, nor halt the smuggling of
diamonds," Gagnon said. "Without stronger action, the group cannot
certify that the diamonds coming from Zimbabwe are clean."

Israel and Canada pushed unsuccessfully for suspension of Zimbabwe, but
South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, and
Russia supported Zimbabwe and called for technical assistance without
suspension. The Russian delegation stated that "at present there are no
conflict diamonds in Zimbabwe."

Human Rights Watch has urged the Kimberley process to interpret broadly
the definition of "conflict diamonds," explicitly to include diamonds
mined in the context of serious human rights abuses. The Kimberley
Process, Human Rights Watch said, should also review its consensus-based
decision-making mechanism and provide for a voting system that will
enable the body to make difficult decisions without compromising the
group's core mandate.

"To its discredit, the Kimberley Process showed a lack of political will
to compel Zimbabwe to end abuses that the group's own review team has
condemned," Gagnon said. "This diamond monitoring body has utterly lost
credibility."

To read the Human Rights Watch report, "Diamonds in the Rough: Human
Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe," please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/06/26/diamonds-rough-0
<http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/06/26/diamonds-rough-0>  

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Zimbabwe, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/en/africa/zimbabwe
<http://www.hrw.org/en/africa/zimbabwe>  

For more information, please contact:

In Johannesburg, Tiseke Kasambala (English): +27-79-2205-254 (mobile)

In Johannesburg, Sipho Mthathi (English): +27-11-484-2640

In Washington, DC, Jon Elliott (English, French): +1-202-612-4348; or
+1-917-379-0713 (mobile)

In New York, Georgette Gagnon (English): +1-212-216-1223; or
+1-917-535-0375 (mobile)

In Brussels, Reed Brody (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish):
+32-2-737-1489

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