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Ingle & Rhode call for ban on Zimbabwean diamonds as issue reaches crisis level

Ingle & Rhode, the UK's principal retailer of ethical jewellery and custom engagement rings produced using conflict-free diamonds and fair trade gold, are calling for a ban on Zimbabwean diamond exports following recent reports of brutality and the slaughter of up to 200 workers in a diamond field.

The latest reports claim that soldiers moved into the Marange fields, which were formerly worked by local prospectors, late last year and have forcibly taken control, killing up to 200 hundred people in the process, and compelling workers to mine for diamonds while all profits go to Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party.

According to Ingle & Rhode, continuing to allow exports of Zimbabwean diamonds in such circumstances would make a mockery of the Kimberley Process — which was established in 2003 to assure consumers that the diamonds they were purchasing were not funding conflicts or human rights abuses — that is meant to avoid just such practices from occurring.

The company is also calling for tougher controls to be implemented, highlighting the fact that as the process only applies to rough diamonds, its credibility as an effective tool is in serious doubt as it remains vulnerable to smuggling and administrative corruption, thus allowing atrocities such as that of the Marange fields to continue.