The Zimbabwean army, controlled by the political party of President Robert Mugabe, violently seized the diamond fields of the country last year, and used the illegal income to buy the loyalty of insubordinate soldiers and enrich party leaders, according to a report released yesterday by organization Human Rights Watch.

Zimbabwe‘s government strongly denied the accusations in the report from Human Rights Watch. The report said that its researches visited the diamond fields in February this year, as well as interviews with soldiers, prospectors and other witnesses.

The Minister of Information, Webster Shamu, said in a telephone interview that the goal of the report is harming the image of the country, blocking the international sale of diamonds and it is an attempt to prevent foreign investment in there.

But the report from Human Rights Watch accused the army of having killed over 200 miners and used the operation to confiscate the fields of Marange and that residents of the area have complained of harassment, beatings and arrests, some of them children, are being forced to work in the mines controlled by military.

The report is the latest sign of international growing concern over the allegations of killings and human rights abuses in the diamond fields of the southwestern city of Mutare.

Representatives of the Kimberly Process, an alliance of business authorities, civil and government created to curb the trade of so-called “bloody diamonds”, will travel to Zimbabwe to determine whether the country is meeting their demands, if not, Zimbabwe will be expelled from the Kimberly Process.

Via: NYT.