VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe — A leading diamond trade watchdog charges that $2 billion worth of diamonds have been stolen from Zimbabwe's eastern diamond fields and have enriched President Robert Mugabe's ruling circle and international gem dealers.
Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) — a member of the Kimberley Process, the world regulatory body on the diamond trade — issued a report Monday that alleges Zimbabwe's Marange fields have been plundered by the Mugabe regime.
The report said vast earnings from Zimbabwe's eastern Marange fields — one of the world's biggest diamond deposits — have not reached the state treasury.
The PAC report, released Monday to coincide with the Zimbabwe government's conference on the diamond trade here in Victoria Falls, casts a shadow over the Mugabe regime's effort to win international respectability for its gem trade.
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