The Government of Zimbabwe has opposed the US ban on diamonds mined in the Marange fields and criticised the assessment that the stones are produced with the help of ‘forced labour’, even as the US customs agency clarified that the ban order also allows “importers an opportunity to re-export their goods or to provide evidence that their goods are not produced with forced labour”.

It may be recalled that in an announcement made on October 1, 2019, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it had issued five Withhold Release Orders (WROs) a day earlier, covering five different products, imported from five different countries. One of these was rough diamonds from the Marange Diamond Fields in Zimbabwe. Apart from diamonds, gold mined in artisanal small mines in DRC, and bone black, disposable rubber gloves and garments made by particular companies in Brazil, Malaysia and China were also covered by the ban.

The CBP said its action was based on information obtained and reviewed by it that indicates that the products are produced, in whole or in part, using forced labour.

Under U.S. law, it is illegal to import goods into the U.S that are made wholly or in part by forced labour, which includes convict labour, indentured labour, and forced or indentured child labour, the CBP said.

While responding to the ban on Marange diamonds, Zimbabwe government spokesman Nick Mangwana told the local media, “It’s unfortunate that the US authorities have been misinformed or misled to believe that Zimbabwe is mining diamonds through forced labour.”

He further clarified, “As a government we have a very strong revulsion towards any form of slavery or servitude. To even suggest that Zimbabwe has some form of corporate forced labour is either mischievous or simply ignorant.”

The government statement also said, “This move constitutes a grave and serious attack on Zimbabwe’s interests and is no less than a manifestation of undeclared sanctions.”

Reports also quoted Polite Kambamura, Zimbabwe’s deputy mines minister as saying, “If they had concerns they should have contacted us, our doors are open. If they request to go to Marange, our doors are open. It’s so disturbing that they made this announcement.”

State-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Co. (ZCDC), now the only authorised company having mining operations in Marange, was reported to have said in a statement, “We are a responsible state miner that operates within the laws of the country and we observe strict adherence to critical tenets of corporate governance.  ZCDC employs labour in terms of the Labour Relations Act and there is no compromise on that.”