Mining, Marange, Mugabe, and the Military
Zimbabwe has started withdrawing troops from the country’s diamond fields at the behest of the countries behind the Kimberley Process. Now, to be fair, this is one Zim-related narrative that is not simply part of a larger “Mugabe = Bad” narrative. The troops were posted at the diamond fields in Marange in the eastern part of the country in order to clamp down on illegal mining. But before long the solution was worse than the problem, as Mugabe’s troops began engaging in pretty blatant human rights violations, which is too frequently par for the course for Zimbabwe’s military, which has operated with impunity for too long, especially after 2000 or so.
