The people of Marange, Zimbabwe, have seen little good from the enormous diamond wealth that was discovered in their lands. In 2006, a diamond rush by thousands of artisanal miners met with a violent crackdown from government forces, resulting in the loss of over 200 lives and the forcible eviction of 1,500 families. The government then restricted access to this 795,000-hectare zone by designating it a protected area. It awarded most of the land to a range of mining companies in dubious deals that served to conceal governmental elites’ siphoning of diamond revenues.
The approximately 20,000 people still residing in Marange live a difficult life. Their freedom of movement and association is curtailed, with roadblocks on all access roads and complete militarization through widespread police, army and private security patrols. Their livelihood options have been drastically reduced, as mining concessions occupy the land where they used to crow crops, herd livestock, or fetch water and firewood. They live in constant fear that they or their family members will become victims of the regular assaults, harassment and intimidation that security brigades inflict on locals, including women and children.
These difficult conditions have led many — mainly young men — to look for diamonds in their ancestral land, from which they derive little or no benefit now that it has been awarded to mining companies. With public and private security forces known to use brutal violence, intruders are aware that they’re risking their lives, but they see no other options to make ends meet.
The cruelties have given Zimbabwean diamonds a bad reputation internationally. Various major retailers have banned them from their supply chains, and in 2019, US Customs and Border Protection issued a withhold-release order for Marange diamonds over suspicions of forced labor. This prompted the Zimbabwean government to launch a charm offensive, which culminated most recently in the acceptance of its bid to chair the Kimberley Process (KP) in 2023.
Claims by the government are difficult to verify, as access to Marange is restricted, with civil society and independent observers particularly unwelcome. Yet in the first weeks of 2022, we managed to collect direct testimonies from locals in Marange. These reveal that little has changed there, and human rights violations continue unabated.
Most of the reported violations were committed by private security guards of the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), but also by police and military officers. They have predominantly targeted those looking for diamonds or panning inside and outside the concessions. Their testimonies reveal that the rule of law does not exist in Marange.
Public as well as private security forces play a dubious role, as they both organize illegal syndicates that mine for diamonds and impose brutal punishments on those who do not play by their rules. They severely torture artisanal miners who have not paid protection money. Various miners showed severe injuries inflicted by guards who had beaten or set vicious dogs on them while they were handcuffed. After long sessions of torture, victims said, they were loaded onto trucks and abandoned deep in the forest. The most notorious security guards whose names the miners mentioned were Gumbo, Lewis, Bepete and Matanda, who is now disabled after artisanal miners crushed his leg in a revenge mission.
As this scare campaign is presumably authorized by the highest echelons of power in Zimbabwe, perpetrators enjoy total impunity, while victims have no recourse to a remedy. Spreading even more fear, ZCDC guards, army and police reportedly raid public markets in search of diamonds on occasion. They indiscriminately and extrajudicially arrest locals and take them to detention centers at the so-called Diamond Security Bases, where they must pay a fine or bribe their way out. Those men and women who fail to pay are subjected to forced labor and detained for days in a cramped and mosquito-infested5- by 2-meter cage that only provides partial shade and has no toilet.
Artisanal miners and state security officials interviewed during the investigation estimated that between five and 10 people are either bitten by dogs or tortured every day, while over 30 are rounded up and detained per week across the diamond field. Most cases go unreported and remain undocumented because the miners are afraid of being identified and arrested for trespassing. Those who have suffered injuries do not even seek medical treatment at health facilities, because nurses ask them to produce police reports before staff will attend to them.
Whether as an investment or even as art to hang on a wall, contemporary jewelry is finding a lucrative retail channel at the likes of Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
