EU Calls for Zimbabwe Diamond Probe

The European Union called on Monday for a probe into Zimbabwe’s diamond industry, EU officials in Brussels were quoted by Reuters. The EU also added 27 individuals and 36 companies to internationally imposed sanctions because of their links to suspected human rights abuses.

The latest additions to the list are all allies of President Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe’s diamond fields have been plundered and the goods smuggled out of the country. But while in the past it could have been argued that the looting was done by forigners against the governments will, recent reports indicate direct government involvement.

After Mugabe sent the army to drive out the illegal diggers, the army is now accused of orchestrating the continued diamond mining using local villagers as forced labor.

The leaders of 15 African countries are meeting on Monday in South Africa for a summit on a brokered power-sharing agreement between Mugabe and his opposition. Mugabe is expected to hear harsh criticism from a number of leaders, including Botswana's President Seretse Khama Ian Khama.

Zimbabwe is suffering from a breakdown in its health and economic structure, leaving it with a government that fails to address wide spread epidemics such as cholera and HIV as well as runaway inflation.