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Harare -
Zimbabwe on Thursday halted a controversial sale of 300 000
carats of diamonds, but blamed bureaucratic hold-ups rather than a
scandal over rights abuses by the military in the diamond fields.
"The auction of diamonds has been stopped, but no sales were
made," said Augustine Rukwaya, CEO of Mbada Diamonds, one of the
two companies running the Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe.
"There are some issues within various inter-government
departments which had to be addressed," he told AFP.
"Buying diamonds is a very complex process. We will be issuing a
full statement later in the day."
In November, Zimbabwe escaped a ban on its international diamond
sales by the Kimberley Process, a scheme that aims to prevent
"blood diamonds" from entering the mainstream market.
"Unacceptable and horrific violence against civilians"
A Kimberley investigation found "unacceptable and horrific
violence against civilians by authorities", including forced
labour, torture and beatings by soldiers against villagers.
Despite calls for Zimbabwe's suspension over abuses in Marange,
the global body gave Harare a June 2010 deadline to make reforms to
comply with its regulations.
Zimbabwe went into partnership with two South African-owned
firms, including Mbada, to extract diamonds in October.
The following month, Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said soldiers and police had withdrawn from the fields and that Zimbabwe
had complied with more than 90% of the reforms set by
Kimberley.
- Sapa-AFP