Child Exploitation

In 2006 at Chiadzwa, in the province of Manicaland, in the eastern Zimbabwe lowlands, the Marange alluvial diamond fields were discovered, a vast area of 400 square miles of scrubland surrounded by mountains, and possibly the world's largest diamond field.

The discovery was made by African Consolidated Resources (ARC), however for a country such as Zimbabwe, with its hyper inflation and empty coffers, the find was too much for its President to overlook.

In October 2006, a year after legally securing the claim to the mining rights, Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe president, was facing unparalleled dissent from his army who were no longer getting paid, or what they were getting paid was virtually worthless. Faced with losing support of those who could keep him in power, he seized back ARC's mining rights and ceded them to the army and police in exchange for their on going support.

The diamond field was a virtual licence to print money and the army then forced local villagers at gunpoint, including women and children, to mine for diamonds a situation that remains today. Today women and children are still being tortured by the army in their pursuit of diamonds although this is denied by the Zimbabwe government.

Recently, in June 2010, the US Department of State released a human trafficking report denouncing the slavery of "men and young boys" at the mine site, a claim furiously denied by the Zimbabwean authorities.

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