Mugabe to Diamond Sanctions: “To Hell With Them!”

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe decided to turn his younger sister’s funeral into an opportunity to comment on the Kimberley Process limitations on his country’s diamond production.  In a disorderly speech to the seven-thousand mourners in attendance, Mugabe lashed out at the West for continuously imposing sanctions and limitations on his country, his family members and his political party.

In November, 2009, Zimbabwe’s diamond trading had been suspended temporarily by the Kimberley Process, the international diamond control organization, after numerous reports of human rights abuses and illegal activities in Zimbabwe’s eastern diamond mines came to light. These abuses included diamond smuggling, child labor, physical abuse and even murder.

In July, Kimberley Process officials met with Zimbabwe politicians and diamond industry representatives in Russia and reapproved a limited sale of rough diamonds from the controversial diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe. Mugabe spoke to the crowd only weeks after this decision was made to gradually lift the country’s temporary suspension on diamond production.   

In an especially wild outburst he cried, “to hell with [the West]! To hell, hell, hell with them.”  Mugabe continued by accusing the West of attempting to take control of the African country and dominate the countries natural resources.

He called for “greedy people” to restrain their urge for self-promotion and instead make a concerted effort to ensure that the revenues from the upcoming sale of Zimbabwe diamonds benefit the country.

“Sanctions must go. They are hurting our people, regardless of political affiliation. We just had our inclusive delegation paying a visit to Europe to seek the removal of sanctions, and the delegation came back empty handed,” Mugabe said.

Many Western Ambassadors and other political representatives in attendance including Ambassadors from the United States, Germany, Greece and the European Union walked out of the funeral in anger.  “The president told us to go to hell, we tried to find out way there but we couldn’t. We waited for him to finish his speech and we left,” said one of the diplomats. “This was a Christian funeral and those of us who came to pay our last respects were told to go to hell.”

Human rights groups have opposed the Kimberley Process decision to lift Zimbabwe’s diamond trading suspension claiming that members of the Zimbabwe military and Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party were guilty of extreme abuse and illicit diamond trade.

The Zimbabwean government, on the other hand, is claiming that these sanctions are creating economic troubles for their people.  They claim that they have mined approximately $175 million worth of precious gemstones in the past 7 years and that the past 18 months have seen a massive slump in profits.  Mugabe has been criticizing Western governments for their refusal to support the country’s recovery.

Ten years ago, Western governments imposed banking, business and travel bans on over 100 senior Zimbabwean leaders and numerous state-owned companies due to reports of human rights abuses.  Since then, the relations between Zimbabwe and the west have been strained at best.  Only last year did the EU and Zimbabwe reopen talks in an attempt to repair relations.

Previous opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tzvangirai, who joined Mugabe in ‘unity’ government last year, also supports Mugabe’s battle against the sanctions.  Their government has put lots of work into boosting the economy, but has been unsuccessful in attracting foreign investment that would help increase employment.

Supporters of Mugabe blame Western imperialism for the economic difficulties, but critics of Zimbabwe’s government claim that many strict government policies concerning large companies are unfriendly to foreign investors.