BY CHARLES LEMOS
Few companies have controlled an industry as De Beers has controlled the diamond industry. De Beers, established in 1888, is the world’s leading diamond company with unrivalled expertise in the exploration, mining and marketing of diamonds. Effectively, the company’s history is that of the diamond industry. Among the founders of the company was [...]
Why Botswana is “bailing out” De Beers
Massacres, forced labour haunt Zimbabwe diamond fields
BY ALEX MATTHEWS
Military control over diamond mining in Zimbabwe’s eastern Marange district has resulted in a brutal mix of massacres, forced labour, beatings and rape.
This is according to a comprehensive report released last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based rights NGO, which interviewed over 100 people in the region in February 2009.
Mining [...]
