‘KP demands squeezing Zim’

prejudice both to Government and the country, a senior official has said.

“So far in the execution of the scheme, the country’s interests are largely negatively affected resulting in unprecedented economic prejudice both to Government and its citizens,” said Mr Edward Chindori-Chininga, chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy, while addressing the civic society in South Africa recently.

The KP is an international governmental certification scheme that was set up to prevent the trade in diamonds that fund conflict. The scheme requires governments to certify shipments of rough diamonds are conflict free.

“This is so because the KP has allowed itself to digress from its noble apolitical and development-oriented agenda, and is regrettably promoting devastating political and economic vested interests of stronger states, particularly Western countries.”

Mr Chindori-Chininga said since the commencement of the KP in 2003, Zimbabwe has remained committed to the implementation of the scheme.

This had been demonstrated many times through the country’s quest to meet KP minimum requirements and upholding co-operation and transparency.

“So far, Zimbabwe is the only over-controlled country in the history of the KP. The country has been subjected to a minimum of four KP review visits and missions and several KP monitoring excursions, apart from other high-level envoy visits, whereas the majority of KP participants have merely experienced a single visit,” he said.

Mr Chindori-Chininga said the transparency in the KP should be within defined parameters of the minimum requirements as defined in the KP working document and applied on all members.

But he noted Zimbabwe’s experience was that the KP allowed itself to digress and selectively interpret and apply its statute to the expense of some of its stakeholders.

“For example, extreme demands and devastating conditions have been applied on Zimbabwe many a times, particularly since 2009 leading to extraction of commercially sensitive information and stifling of diamond trade at the expense of the country and its citizens,” said Mr Chindori-Chininga, a former mines minister.

“For the record, Zimbabwe is the only country in the KP where massive mine level data from technologies used, production and market statistics have been collected against the agreed KP principle and minimum requirement that mine level data is commercially sensitive and that such data can only be submitted as aggregated national level data.”