Diamond miner killed in Zim
2007-04-20 17:22
Special Report
Four Chinese men face deportation from Zimbabwe after they were arrested for killing more than 40 tortoises for meat, a report says.
A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Johannesburg - An illegal diamond miner in eastern Zimbabwe bled to death after being shot by police in a raid on a hideout in the country's rich Marange diamond fields, said reports on Friday.
The panner was shot dead after attacking two police officers using an iron bar and a knife, Obert Benge, the officer commanding Manicaland province told the state-controlled Manica Post.
"We are no longer on the defensive, but on the offensive," Benge told the paper.
"We will continue hitting them hard where it matters most because force is proving to be the only language the panners understand."
The dead man, Samuel Musimwa, was shot through the thigh and died before reaching hospital, the paper quoted another police spokesperson, Brian Makomeke as saying.
Musimwa is the second person to have been shot dead by police this year. An illegal gold miner was shot dead by a police patrol near the central mining town of Shurugwi in January.
In the latest incident, at least 35 other miners were arrested in the raid on their mountain hideout.
Massive losses
Last year President Robert Mugabe's government gave villagers in the impoverished Marange district permission to start mining the Chiadzwa diamond fields, despite claims to the area by an international firm.
Tens of thousands of fortune-seekers flocked to the area, and many are reported to have struck it rich.
But the government, worried by massive losses in potential revenue as a result of the free-for-all, has now fenced off the diamond fields. Miners require a letter of clearance from the police to enter the area, reports say.
Central Bank governor Gideon Gono estimates the total loss to Zimbabwe's struggling economy as a result of illegal diamond mining and smuggling in the last nine months to be in the region of $400m.
A countrywide government-driven blitz against illegal miners and dealers has seen more than 30 000 people arrested since November. More than 250 of those have been jailed for periods of up to five years.
- SAPA