HARARE — Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday threatened to defy the Kimberley Process to sell diamonds from a field where the global regulator accuses the military of forced labour and other abuses.

The Kimberley Process (KP) has given Zimbabwe until June to rectify abuses by its army against civilians at the eastern Marange diamond fields, but Mugabe threatened to sell the diamonds without the watchdog's permission.

"We are trying to play it their own way, that is following the KP, but we can do it otherwise," Mugabe told reporters in the capital.

"We can sell our own diamonds elsewhere," he said.

The Kimberley Process covers about 99.8 percent of the world's production of rough diamonds, with 49 members representing 75 countries working within the scheme.

Major diamond bourses already refuse to sell diamonds from Marange, and an auction of 300,000 carats in Harare last month was cancelled at the last minute because the sale had not won Kimberley approval. Selling diamonds outside the scheme would essentially mean turning to the black market.

Mines minister Obert Mpofu says Zimbabwe has already met key Kimberley requirements by withdrawing the police and army from Marange. The government says two South African firms now run Marange.

But the British-based watchdog Global Witness, which is a member of the Kimberley Process, said last month that the military still appears to controls large swaths of the diamond field.

The eastern Marange diamond fields cover some 66,000 hectares (163,000 acres), but the gems were only discovered there in 2006.

Global Witness had pushed for a ban on Zimbabwe's international sales over the abuses at Marange, after a Kimberley investigation documented "unacceptable and horrific violence against civilians by authorities", including forced labour, torture and beatings by soldiers against villagers.

Instead, Zimbabwe was given until June to comply with Kimberley's regulations.

By Reuters