HARARE -- Zimbabwe will resist attempts to appoint British national Simon Gilberts as the Kimberley Process (KP)’s new monitor for the country’s controversial Marange diamond mines, Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said on Wednesday.

"I have heard about him (Gilberts) but he will never come to Zimbabwe as a monitor …. he is welcome as a tourist," said Mpofu, adding that as far as Harare was concerned South African diamond executive Abbey Chikane was still the KP monitor because he has not formally resigned the position.

"Chikane is a KP employee and as far as I am concerned he is an employee of the KP and he has not resigned as an employee of the KP," said Mpofu.

Harare fears that should Gilbert, a former employee of diamond giants De Beers, become KP monitor he might come under pressure from his home country Britain to produce negative reports about Marange to buttress calls by London for a ban of gemstones from the notorious Zimbabwean mines.

Britain is among several Western countries that have called on the KP, that regulates the world diamond industry, to ban diamonds from Marange citing human rights abuses allegedly committed by Zimbabwe army soldiers guarding the mines to the east of the country.

The fate of the Marange diamonds remains uncertain with KP chairman Mathieu Lapfa Lambang Yamba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo said to have last month unilaterally gave Zimbabwe permission to export the stones. The KP takes decision by consensus

Several countries among them the US and Britain as well non-governmental organisations that are KP members have said they will not recognise Zamba’s decision to authorise exports of the Marange gems.

Top diamond trade groups such as the World Diamond Council, Jewelers of America and the Diamond Manufacturers & Importers Association of America have also refused to recognise Yamba’s decision and have instructed their members to stay away from Marange diamonds.

The KP banned Zimbabwe from selling diamonds from Marange in 2009 over allegations of human rights abuses in the extraction of the gems and failure to meet minimum requirements for trading in the precious stones.

But the organisation allowed Zimbabwe to conduct two supervised sales which took place in August and September last year following a report by Chikane that said Harare had met all KP conditions.

However subsequent KP meetings failed to reach agreement on whether to permanently lift the ban on Marange diamonds. The monitoring group had said the stones would remain prohibited until there was consensus on the matter – a position which Yamba has apparently overturned by his decision last month.

The issue of Zimbabwe selling the Marange diamonds has divided the KP along political lines, with Western countries led by the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia calling for the extension of a ban.

African and other countries, including Russia, have however opposed the calls to ban the diamonds. 

By Special correspondent