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	Kimberley Group fails to suspend Zimbabwe on Mining Abuses by Celia Dugger International Herald Tribune / Global Witness Zimbabwe   November 6, 2009   An international body charged with stopping the illicit trade in diamonds that fuel conflict has decided not to suspend Zimbabwe, officials said Friday, though its investigators had concluded that Zimbabwe’s military had organized smuggling syndicates with the government’s permission and used “extreme violence” against illegal miners.   Instead, the countries that are part of the body, the United Nations-endorsed Kimberley Process, decided to send a monitor to decide whether future exports of rough diamonds from the troubled Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe could be certified as not supporting conflicts.   Human rights campaigners and nongovernmental organizations immediately denounced the decision, saying that the Kimberley Process had shown it was incapable of stopping gross abuses and the flouting of international standards.   Bernhard Esau, the Namibian deputy mining minister who heads the Kimberley Process, said in an interview on Friday that the nations that belong to the body had listened to what Zimbabwe “told us as a Kimberley family” and decided to give the government a chance to come into compliance with international standards under a monitor’s supervision and agreed timelines.   The plan agreed to on Thursday calls for private security companies, Zimbabwe’s police force and its mining ministry to secure the fields, while the military withdraws in phases.   Zimbabwe’s mining ministry, the police and the military forces are all under the control of President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party.   Zimbabwe mining minister, Obert Mpofu, told the Kimberley gathering, held this week in Swakopmund, Namibia, that the situation in the Marange fields was improving.   Annie Dunnebacke of Global Witness, an organization that has advocated strict controls on diamond production, said: “This failure to act has sent a bad message. It says if you don’t follow the rules there will be no serious consequences.”   Advocates pointed out that the body’s decisions must be made by consensus, which means that a single country or small group of countries can block tough action. A suspension of Zimbabwe from the group would have curtailed its diamond sales, depriving Mr. Mugabe of a source of patronage for the military, analysts said.   Critics angrily noted that under the plan approved for Zimbabwe, its mining ministry has been put in charge of “education of villagers on the dangers of illegal mining.”   “The government already did that by killing more than 200 villagers and by beating and setting dogs on hundreds more,” said Ian Smillie, a researcher and advocate who was an architect of the Kimberley Process.   The report of the Kimberley investigators did not accuse Zimbabwe of having produced so-called conflict diamonds, those used to support armed conflicts, but said the military-run smuggling operation undermined the controls on the industry, allowing an opening for them to enter the market.   Kimberley investigators who visited the country in July found credible evidence that members of the Zimbabwean security forces had raped, assaulted and set dogs on illegal miners who flocked to the Marange fields. Human Rights Watch made similar findings in June.   The Kimberley team also found that Zimbabwe had provided it with information that was “false, and likely intentionally so.”   * Global Witness ‘Combating Conflict Diamonds campaign, launched in 1998, exposed the role of diamonds in funding conflict. This put the diamond industry, previously shrouded in secrecy, into the international spotlight. Growing international pressure from Global Witness and other NGOs demanded that governments and the diamond trade take action to eliminate the trade in conflict diamonds. Visit the related web page
	UN expert urges end to inhuman practices after recent stonings by Shamsul Bari UN Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia Somalia   An independent United Nations human rights expert has condemned the series of stonings that have been taking place in Somalia, and called for an urgent end to such “cruel, inhuman and degrading” practices.   Shamsul Bari said the public stonings, floggings and summary executions carried out by Islamist armed groups in central and southern Somalia highlight the “deteriorating” human rights situation in the strife-torn nation, where Government forces have been battling Al Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam opposition groups for many months.   Mr. Bari, the Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia, noted that under Al Shabaab"s interpretation of Sharia law, anyone who has ever been married – even a divorcee – and has an affair is liable to be found guilty of adultery and punished by stoning.   According to reports from a village near the town of Wajid, 400 kilometres north-west of the capital, Mogadishu, a 20-year-old divorcee accused of committing adultery was stoned to death by Islamists in front of a crowd of 200 people on 18 November.   Earlier this month, a man was stoned to death for rape in the port town of Merka, south of Mogadishu, and in October two men are reported to have been executed after being accused of spying. Similar executions took place earlier in the year.   “I strongly condemn these recent executions by stoning in Al Shabaab-controlled areas of Somalia,” Mr. Bari stated in a news release.   He called on all parties to immediately end such cruel, inhuman and degrading practices, including stoning, amputations, floggings and other unlawful acts of torture and murder.   In addition, he urged all Islamist groups, including Al Shabaab and other armed groups, and religious leaders to abide by their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian laws.   He also urged the international community to engage with Somalia"s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to identify priorities in terms of security, humanitarian and human rights, and to strengthen the Government"s capacity to investigate rights abuses and hold the perpetrators accountable. Visit the related web page
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