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.
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, scheduled to meet in Swakopmund, Namibia, from November 2 to 5, 2009, should immediately suspend Zimbabwe for continuing human rights abuses and widespread smuggling in the Marange diamond fields.
Human Rights Watch writes to South Africa Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu to encourage South Africa to support Zimbabwe's suspension from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
Human Rights Watch writes to Indian Minister for External Affairs S. M. Krishna and Ambassador to Zimbabwe Venkatesan Ashok to encourage India to support Zimbabwe's suspension from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
Human Rights Watch writes to Belgian Vice-Prime Minister and Finance Minister Didier Reynders to encourage Belgium to support Zimbabwe's suspension from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
Equatorial Guinea is perhaps the world's most striking example of why oil hurts, rather than helps, many of the countries that have it. Will the Obama administration stop the country's dictator from sucking its people dry?
Zimbabwe has failed to remove its armed forces from the diamond fields in Marange and to end related human rights abuses there. As a result, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) should suspend Zimbabwe immediately.
A group of international non-governmental organizations calls on the European Union to take the lead in initiating stronger international action to break the links between the mineral trade and the continuing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The government of Equatorial Guinea has set new low standards of political and economic malfeasance in handling its billions of dollars in oil revenue instead of improving the lives of its citizens.
They might end up as costly baubles on sale in shops around the world. But for some diamonds mined in Zimbabwe, the journey begins in massive illegal pit mines where men, women, and children are forced to work long days under the brutal authority of government troops, who took over the mine in a spree of bloodshed.
