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Zimbabwe: Diamond Cash Hidden in Tax-Free Havens
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The timely revelations by Global Witness of unspecified amounts of diamonds cash being hidden in tax-free-havens of Mauritius, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands vindicate our earlier concerns.
The diamonds report caught Mugabe's militarised loyalists unawares, in the wake of a major propaganda campaign about "how sanctions were causing typhoid".
The inner circle has try every trick in the book to be de-listed by the EU and the US, especially after SADC colleagues led by Zuma failed to sway the EU Parliament, the 2 million signature petition flopped and Tomana's litigation of the EU appears to have died a natural death.
The expose shows the devastating power of information over propaganda and its serious implications for the Mugabe regime and the Kimberley Process.
The busting of the regime's alleged secret diamonds looting spree sounds like "The Emperor's New Clothes".
According to Answers.com, the story by Hans Christian Anderson goes like this. An emperor hires two tailors who promise to make him a set of remarkable new clothes that will be invisible to anyone who is either incompetent or stupid.
When the emperor goes to see his new clothes, he sees nothing at all - for the tailors are swindlers and there aren't any clothes.
Afraid of being judged incompetent or stupid, the emperor pretends to be delighted with the new clothes and "wears" them in a grand parade through the town.
Everyone else also pretends to see them, until a child yells out, "He hasn't got any clothes on!"
In this case, as some NGOs are reportedly pleading for 'Mugabe's bail', Global Witness has pointed out the emptiness of the pretensions of the regime's propaganda about Marange diamonds being "clean" and "knocking down world prices".
Now that the regime has been exposed about the dubious ownership patterns and dodgy diamond transactions, its next line of defence is naturally victimisation and blackmailing of poor civil society organisations.
In one pre-emptive strike, Mugabe's government has banned 29 local non-governmental organisations in Masvingo for allegedly not registering with the Zanu-pf Governor for the area.
In another more daring retaliatory move, Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has reportedly turned down a request by KP Civil Society representatives to visit Marange diamond fields claiming they had shown unwillingness to cooperate with the KP family by boycotting the DRC Plenary in 2011.
Obviously, Zimbabwe has no power to stop the civil society representatives who include Global Witness from visiting Marange because the KP protocol allows them to do so as part of the Joint Work Plan.
Understandably, in a fear society that is synonymous with Mugabe's Zimbabwe, some Harare-based NGO spokespersons remembering the 2008 'war on NGOs' are nervously trying to convince the outside world about the "foolishness" of the EU and the U.S. restrictive measures ahead of elections.
No-one would blame them. Neither is there no precedence to this. Natan Sharansky called them "double thinkers". They may be doing so under duress - with full knowledge of Chibondo mine's fresh skeletons.
The major implication of the Global Witness's report for the Kimberley Process is embarrassment and humiliation for its (KP's) inadequate homework and pre-mature lifting of the ban on Marange diamonds.
Equally, the European Union may have to re-list some of the 51 it may have de-listed prematurely, in the light of revelations by Global Witness about who-is-who at Marange diamond fields and possible money laundering of the proceeds.
Copyright © 2012 SW Radio Africa. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
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