:00:47. > :00:49.Tonight on Panorama, would you buy a diamond from Zimbabwe?
:00:50. > :00:57.TRANSLATION: It's like selling dripping blood.
:00:57. > :01:01.In the diamond fields we hear evidence of torture camps. The dogs
:01:01. > :01:11.were biting him. One of his ears was torn off.
:01:11. > :01:15.
:01:15. > :01:18.We ask, will President Mugabe be prosecuted for these crimes? Is the
:01:18. > :01:23.international community turning a blind eye to these atrocities?
:01:23. > :01:33.says we are taking care of human rights abuses. We are stopping the
:01:33. > :01:50.
:01:50. > :01:54.flow of diamond, and human right Out of the bowels of the earth come
:01:54. > :01:59.these wonders - diamonds, symbolising pur ritty. People spend
:01:59. > :02:05.billions of them each year and buying a diamond can have an impact
:02:05. > :02:10.far beyond the ring on your finger. Diamonds have a potential to do
:02:10. > :02:15.unbelievably good things. There is a reason God scattered them among
:02:15. > :02:22.the poorest people of the world and the richest people in the world buy
:02:22. > :02:27.them. This natural blessing of riches, some call it a curse.
:02:27. > :02:34.Diamonds in the Marange area were created 1.1 billion years ago. It
:02:34. > :02:44.is a miss fortune in history that they were just discovered now.
:02:44. > :02:51.
:02:52. > :02:56.What's the real story behind these This town on the west coast of
:02:56. > :03:00.India is the gate way of the world's diamond industry. It is
:03:00. > :03:05.literally an epicentre, because almost all of the world's diamonds
:03:05. > :03:08.are here to be cut and polished. We are here on the trail of the most
:03:08. > :03:15.controversial diamonds in the world today. It is one of the few places
:03:16. > :03:20.in the world where you can find blood diamonds. Two legal shipments
:03:20. > :03:25.came through here. Otherwise they have been banned from world markets
:03:25. > :03:30.since 209 because of allegations of human -- 2009 because of
:03:30. > :03:34.allegations of human rights abuses. The world is running out of
:03:34. > :03:39.diamonds N the last 20 years we have not found a significant new
:03:40. > :03:44.deposit. Diamonds are rarer and rarer. Then all of a sudden
:03:44. > :03:49.Zimbabwe, Marange came in. The most significant find for many, many
:03:49. > :03:53.years. If the ban is lifted Marange diamonds could represent one-fifth
:03:53. > :03:57.of world diamond production. Now, through the EU, Britain is helping
:03:57. > :04:02.to push for the sales ban to be partially lifted and Marange
:04:02. > :04:07.diamonds could end up on your high street. There's a reason why
:04:07. > :04:16.Marange diamonds were banned for so long, the disturbing allegations
:04:16. > :04:22.surrounding them lay far off in Zimbabwe.
:04:22. > :04:27.Well, we are thousands of miles away from India's diamond polishing
:04:28. > :04:31.centres now. We are in Mozambique and we are heading towards
:04:31. > :04:35.Zimbabwe's border region, just down there, where the diamonds are
:04:35. > :04:42.actually produced. On the other side of the mountains lies
:04:42. > :04:51.Zimbabwe's diamond fields. This is the area known as Marange. An
:04:51. > :04:56.extraordinary 26-squarekms saturated with gems. Miners dig for
:04:56. > :05:01.diamonds. There are several full- scale mining areas too. Now the
:05:01. > :05:05.area is tightly sealed off by police and soldiers. We sent
:05:05. > :05:10.undercover cameras in to look for witnesses to violence. Police
:05:10. > :05:17.stopped them. They got through. Their goal - to find locals brave
:05:17. > :05:22.enough to come and meet us. Reports have been seeping out of
:05:22. > :05:26.the area of abuses and killings, and for monthsvy been investigating
:05:26. > :05:32.those reports and crucially a reported massacre of civilians that
:05:32. > :05:37.took place there in 2008. Back in late 2008, people had
:05:37. > :05:41.flocked to the diamond fields from all over. Teachers, drivers,
:05:41. > :05:45.parents were toiling to find a way to feed their families. Here, in
:05:45. > :05:49.one of the world's poorest countries, billions of dollars
:05:49. > :05:54.worth of gems were tantalising. Then, one day, the military
:05:54. > :06:01.launched an operation to clear the diamond fields.
:06:01. > :06:07.We were moving towards a rendezvous point to meet the witnesses. We
:06:07. > :06:12.could work discretely in these border hills. This is the first
:06:12. > :06:18.batch coming over now. They are scared to be identified. This, at
:06:18. > :06:25.least, is a quiet place where we can talk. It was a Thursday back in
:06:25. > :06:33.208. One man was quietly digging for diamonds with his twin brother.
:06:33. > :06:37.He had no job and children to feed. TRANSLATION: Suddenly military
:06:37. > :06:43.trucks arrived and surrounded the fields. There were different sound.
:06:43. > :06:50.What I clearly remember is the sound of guns and grenades. When my
:06:50. > :06:55.brother was running he was shot in the back and died instantly.
:06:55. > :07:01.firing came from all directions. You can see one soldier here moving
:07:01. > :07:07.in. In this, one of the only existing snapshots. Out of sight
:07:07. > :07:13.were around 1500 more soldiers. TRANSLATION: We were shocked when
:07:13. > :07:21.we saw the soldiers. The three of us, all friends, got
:07:21. > :07:28.up and ran in different directions. My first friend was shot in his
:07:28. > :07:38.stomach. The second was shot in the knee. A bullet went through my
:07:38. > :07:38.
:07:38. > :07:42.genitals. We were all running with our backs to the soldiers.
:07:42. > :07:45.We spent time with many more witnesses. They told us how
:07:46. > :07:51.soldiers fired down on them from helicopters.
:07:51. > :07:59.The intense attacks went on for three weeks. They left the deepest
:07:59. > :08:03.of scars. It wasn't just the guns. This woman had been selling clothes
:08:03. > :08:07.to other diggers. Then her life changed.
:08:07. > :08:13.TRANSLATION: What I can remember is being dragged into the bush by one
:08:13. > :08:19.soldier. He then raped me. I could hear other people screaming and
:08:19. > :08:23.crying - female voices. It meant they were being raped, like me.
:08:23. > :08:30.The badly injured were being finished off by soldiers.
:08:30. > :08:33.This was an atrocity, all for the sake of diamonds.
:08:33. > :08:41.Our secret cameras got into the local hospital, where some of the
:08:41. > :08:46.injured were taken. We have copied documents from here.
:08:46. > :08:50.We've built up a huge body of evidence on the mass kaer.
:08:50. > :08:55.-- on the massacre. We have 53 written testimonys, in addition to
:08:55. > :08:59.the testimonys of the people we have spoken to ourselves. We have
:08:59. > :09:04.smuggled and compiled these hospital records. There were over
:09:04. > :09:09.250 entries. It is basically page after page of dog bites, rape,
:09:09. > :09:13.beatings and killings. We re- organised the documents into date
:09:13. > :09:18.order. The gunshot wounds clearly showed up in the period of the
:09:18. > :09:23.operation and the disturbing pattern emerged. The wounds were
:09:23. > :09:27.strikingly similar. Many victims told us they were forbidden from
:09:27. > :09:31.getting medical help. Now the victims who were there were
:09:31. > :09:36.illegally panning. They should not have been there. This wasn't just a
:09:36. > :09:39.legitimate policing operation to flush them out, no. It was a full-
:09:39. > :09:42.scale military operation against civilians. Our evidence clearly
:09:42. > :09:52.shows that its aim was to maim and kill.
:09:52. > :09:52.
:09:53. > :09:59.It was called Operation You Shall Never Return. What were the orders,
:09:59. > :10:03.and who gave them? To find out, we travelled to
:10:03. > :10:09.neighbouring South Africa. We've come here to Johannesburg,
:10:09. > :10:12.where millions of Zimbabweans have taken refuge from the Troubles of
:10:12. > :10:19.their country. Some were involved in the operation. We are here to
:10:19. > :10:23.see if we can track down some of the perpetrators.
:10:23. > :10:27.We are the first ones to piece together full details of the
:10:27. > :10:32.military operation. These former soldiers and policemen took place
:10:32. > :10:38.in it. They've never talked publicly before, but agreed to meet
:10:38. > :10:42.us just outside Johannesburg. All of them were plagued with guilt.
:10:42. > :10:47.This man was an officer in Zimbabwe's army. He said the
:10:47. > :10:55.operation had a specific military goal - to surround the diggers and
:10:55. > :11:03.trap them. TRANSLATION: The first thing we did was to close all the
:11:03. > :11:06.supply routes. We then stationed armoured cars and deployed an
:11:06. > :11:11.infantry battalion who dug pits from where they could fire their
:11:11. > :11:20.light weapons. We then set up booby traps.
:11:20. > :11:25.At the end there was no way out. The soldiers started to fire live
:11:25. > :11:32.ammunition, killing people instantly.
:11:32. > :11:40.The massacre was the culmination of violent security sweeps. This was a
:11:40. > :11:45.military takeover of Zimbabwe's astounding new treasure trove. This
:11:45. > :11:48.man was with the paramilitary police unit, known in Zimbabwe as
:11:49. > :11:53.the Black Boots. He was stationed in the inner ring around the
:11:53. > :12:03.diggers. He would not let us show his face. REPORTER: Did you show
:12:03. > :12:18.
:12:19. > :12:28.The soldiers had encircled not a handful, but many thousands of
:12:28. > :12:33.civilians. A makeshift town full of people. TRANSLATION: Women and
:12:33. > :12:40.children had come to sell food, clothes, even water so that the
:12:40. > :12:48.panners could bathe. All of them were caught up in the operation.
:12:48. > :12:51.They were also killed. Our cameras went deeper inside the diamond
:12:51. > :12:57.fields. Covertly they got into these - the premises of a key
:12:57. > :13:02.company set up a year after the killings. Now it mines diamonds on
:13:02. > :13:07.a large scale, here in the richest part of Marange. For President
:13:07. > :13:10.Mugabe, faced with an economy in ruins the diamonds are a miracle.
:13:11. > :13:15.The company is run by one of his close friends. The military and
:13:15. > :13:20.police mine much of the rest of the diamond fields themselves. Diamond
:13:20. > :13:30.profits, insiders told us, were the whole point of the military
:13:30. > :13:36.
:13:36. > :13:42.So, how many were killed for the diamonds? We travelled around the
:13:42. > :13:49.edge of Zimbabwe's borders to the banks of a river in South Africa.
:13:49. > :13:53.We were here to get records. We had deployed our undercover team
:13:53. > :13:59.to this mortuary back in the diamond area inside Zimbabwe to
:13:59. > :14:04.find a book we knew was in this room. It catalogued the dead. At
:14:04. > :14:07.night, they hand copied the pages and smuggled them out.
:14:07. > :14:11.We've been planning this rendezvous for weeks. The documents we are
:14:11. > :14:14.after have passed through the hands of various people who have been
:14:14. > :14:19.working for us. Now one of our key contacts has driven through the
:14:19. > :14:22.night to get them to us. Zimbabwe's Government has acknowledged there
:14:22. > :14:26.was an operation to clear illegal miners out. It says, no-one was
:14:26. > :14:36.killed by the security forces during the operation. And that
:14:36. > :14:39.
:14:39. > :14:43.reports of many deaths are These documents show clearly that
:14:43. > :14:47.bodies were coming in in large numbers during the three weeks of
:14:47. > :14:52.the killings. Each body was given a burial order number. It is
:14:52. > :14:56.extraordinary, but all of this was documented in meticulous detail. We
:14:56. > :15:00.have it, hard evidence of large- scale killings. More than 80 bodies
:15:00. > :15:10.were brought into this mortuary during three weeks at the end of
:15:10. > :15:10.
:15:10. > :15:14.2008. This means - brought him dead. Many of them stated, from the
:15:14. > :15:19.Marange diamond fields. Most of the dead were unnamed, which is highly
:15:19. > :15:25.irregular. We located a mass grave, here at the cemetery near the
:15:25. > :15:31.diamond fields. A man who prepared the bodies for burial told us more
:15:31. > :15:35.than 100 bodies lay in two deep holes amongst the gravestones. One
:15:35. > :15:42.of our team went to the cemetery to make a worker who witnessed the
:15:42. > :15:46.burials. The details are disturbing. TRANSLATION: The body parts were
:15:47. > :15:50.broken. It was possible to pack them. They were packed in black
:15:50. > :15:57.plastic bags. You could see the bones piercing through the plastic.
:15:57. > :16:01.Blood was dripping everywhere. It was disgusting.
:16:01. > :16:05.We log reports of several other mass graves in the area from single
:16:05. > :16:11.witnesses. Separately, numerous people told us they had seen
:16:11. > :16:17.clusters of bodies left out in the fields or in shallow graves. 20-30
:16:17. > :16:23.people would die every day. I'm talking about the ones I saw with
:16:23. > :16:33.my own eyes. It was very shocking and disturbing. After seeing it all,
:16:33. > :16:34.
:16:34. > :16:44.you could not sleep. These events We do not know the exact number who
:16:44. > :16:51.
:16:51. > :16:55.died, but for our Research, it is We have come here to The Hague to
:16:55. > :16:59.bring our evidence to the chief prosecutor of the International
:16:59. > :17:09.Criminal Court. That's the organisation that's meant to
:17:09. > :17:30.
:17:31. > :17:36.Is there anyway this military operation could have happened
:17:36. > :17:40.without it being commanded from the very top, Robert Mugabe?
:17:40. > :17:45.TRANSLATION: Without orders from the top, this operation would not
:17:45. > :17:49.have been possible. President Robert Mugabe has overall
:17:49. > :17:53.responsibility for Zimbabwe's military. We have tested me that
:17:53. > :17:58.this general, next in command, travelled to the area at the time
:17:58. > :18:02.of the killings, and that the helicopters used were deployed from
:18:02. > :18:07.the air base of this air marshal. These are the same men are accused
:18:07. > :18:10.of being behind the ethnic killings of thousands in the 1980s. The
:18:10. > :18:16.International Criminal Court has not been able to prosecute - those
:18:16. > :18:19.killings happened before it was formed, in 2002. So, our evidence
:18:19. > :18:29.of this massacre could present a first chance to put these men on
:18:29. > :18:35.
:18:35. > :18:45.If there were to be a prosecution in the future, would you be able to
:18:45. > :18:54.
:18:54. > :18:58.But the reality is that President Mugabe, who recently turned 87,
:18:58. > :19:01.after three decades in power, is unlikely to be prosecuted.
:19:01. > :19:08.Currently there is not the international will to push for it.
:19:08. > :19:12.So, for the foreseeable future, those implicated will walk free. We
:19:12. > :19:16.made contact with a military officer in the Diamond area. He
:19:16. > :19:26.took a great risk to speak to us. He told us where many of the
:19:26. > :19:28.
:19:28. > :19:32.TRANSLATION: Diamond revenue is not benefiting the bulk of the people
:19:32. > :19:37.of Zimbabwe, only a very small section of the population. The
:19:37. > :19:47.people who benefit start from the top. From President Mugabe,
:19:47. > :19:57.
:19:57. > :20:01.ministers from his party and the Every evening, in India, the
:20:01. > :20:07.streets of Surat, live with diamond traders. This place is literally
:20:07. > :20:11.awash with diamonds. There is an organisation that meant to make
:20:11. > :20:18.sure that diamonds on world markets do not benefit perpetrators of
:20:18. > :20:26.violence. It is called the Kimberley Process, or the KP. The
:20:26. > :20:36.KP did eventually impose a sales ban after the massacre on the
:20:36. > :20:39.
:20:39. > :20:49.diamonds from Marange. But now changes are being planned. We're
:20:49. > :20:53.
:20:53. > :20:57.here in Brussels, at the head of the Kimberley Process. The Delors
:20:57. > :21:03.plan which would allow these diamonds to be openly sold on world
:21:03. > :21:06.markets, in spite of the violence - so what's going on? The KP Centre
:21:06. > :21:11.team to Zimbabwe last August and concluded that the situation in the
:21:11. > :21:16.Diamond area was still problematic, but much better. But we have
:21:16. > :21:21.established their team only spent two and a half days in the Diamond
:21:21. > :21:26.area, and only met a handful of miners. As far as the Kimberley
:21:26. > :21:30.Process is concerned, what is the situation in the Marange diamond
:21:30. > :21:35.fields right now in terms of human rights? The air has been an
:21:35. > :21:40.improvement. On what basis do you think there has been significant
:21:40. > :21:45.progress in human rights? This was on the basis that there was far
:21:45. > :21:51.less military in the area, that the two concessions covered by the
:21:51. > :21:55.Kimberley Process were showing visible and verifiable improvement.
:21:55. > :22:05.That view that there has been some improvement has led the EU,
:22:05. > :22:12.including Britain, to push for exports to resume from two Ky mines.
:22:12. > :22:16.The UK strongly condemns the operation, and it insists that
:22:16. > :22:20.human rights monitoring should continue, and that the sales and
:22:20. > :22:24.should remain on the other mining areas for now. But our
:22:24. > :22:29.investigations revealed serious human rights abuses which
:22:29. > :22:38.international monitors completely missed, and which taint the whole
:22:38. > :22:42.of the Marange area. We were told about this camp, and given its
:22:43. > :22:50.location. We managed to film a few glimpses of it. It is run by police
:22:50. > :22:57.and soldiers. Our cameras could not stay long, it was dangerous. The
:22:57. > :23:06.former policeman we had met, Tino, knew what this place was - he used
:23:06. > :23:13.to work here. We tracked down this man, who just got out of the camp
:23:13. > :23:20.in February. He could not use his arm or walk properly.
:23:20. > :23:25.TRANSLATION: They took us and put us in an enclosure. They started
:23:25. > :23:30.beating us, 48 in the morning, 40 in the afternoon, 40 in the evening.
:23:30. > :23:39.I was beaten on the ankles by a stone, and by a plank on the soles
:23:39. > :23:44.of my feet. Other recent prisoners had consistent stories. Prisoners
:23:44. > :23:50.are held in a razor wire enclosure behind these tents. Everyone gets
:23:50. > :24:00.three severe beatings a day. Bones have been broken. Military dogs are
:24:00. > :24:04.used to maul. This is amateur video of basic training which many
:24:04. > :24:07.Zimbabwean policemen go through. A former policeman we had met had
:24:07. > :24:15.been through this training before working in the camp in 2008. They
:24:15. > :24:22.had been taught brutality. One policeman turned torturer said they
:24:22. > :24:29.took it to an extreme in the camp. TRANSLATION: I saw one person who
:24:29. > :24:34.was handcuffed at the back. The dog handler was making the dog maul him.
:24:34. > :24:43.One of his ears was torn off. One finger was nearly severed. The
:24:43. > :24:47.whole body was covered in blood. The prisoners are illegal miners.
:24:47. > :24:54.Here, they are taught the rules. The diamonds are only for police
:24:54. > :25:00.and soldiers - any diggers must work for them. Demand too much
:25:00. > :25:05.money, work for the wrong rival, and they're punished. We heard they
:25:05. > :25:15.carried out mock drownings, burnings and worse. Was that
:25:15. > :25:21.
:25:21. > :25:25.routine, if a woman was taken to We know there is at least one more
:25:25. > :25:29.camp like this. Several of the prisoners we met had been in this
:25:29. > :25:38.camp both two years ago and very recently.
:25:38. > :25:41.TRANSLATION: I was there in 2009. As I see it, nothing has changed.
:25:41. > :25:47.We put our evidence to the Zimbabwean Government, but have
:25:47. > :25:54.received no reply. It has publicly stated that its operations in
:25:54. > :25:59.Marange are compliant with the Kimberley Process. Is the Kimberley
:25:59. > :26:06.Process formally aware of the fact that there are torture camps
:26:06. > :26:12.operating now in this area? Mega this is not something which has
:26:12. > :26:17.been notified to us. How is it that journalists know more than the
:26:17. > :26:21.Kimberley Process about the human rights situation on the ground?
:26:21. > :26:24.do not have a huge secretary out to go out and investigate. We have to
:26:24. > :26:29.operate on the basis of evidence which has brought to the intention
:26:29. > :26:33.of those of us running the monitoring group. This man, a well-
:26:33. > :26:38.known diamond industry trader, thinks the Kimberley Process is a
:26:38. > :26:44.bad joke. Fundamentally, the Kimberley Process says, we are
:26:44. > :26:49.taking care of human rights abuses, but they are not. It is wrong, it
:26:49. > :26:56.is evil, and the Kimberley Process is impotent, it is incapable of
:26:56. > :27:00.dealing with that issue. The KP is in turmoil over Zimbabwe. Some
:27:00. > :27:04.members already considered the sales ban lifted, and some Marange
:27:04. > :27:08.diamonds are already on sale. But pending wider approval of the EU
:27:08. > :27:13.proposal, Britain is still boycotting the diamonds. You would
:27:13. > :27:18.think it would be impossible to buy one here, but is it? We went down
:27:18. > :27:26.to Hatton Garden, a Premier diamond retail street in London, to find
:27:26. > :27:33.out. I'm going to go into this shop, which has been selling diamonds
:27:33. > :27:42.since 1875. I'm going to ask them if they or any high-street jeweller
:27:42. > :27:46.knows whether diamonds come from. This dealer was adamant... I have
:27:46. > :27:51.no idea where they come from, not even the shopkeeper would know.
:27:51. > :27:57.Even the supplier would not know. So you could end up buying
:27:57. > :28:00.Zimbabwean diamonds without knowing it. Quite easily, absolutely.
:28:00. > :28:04.approached 26 other jewellers on this street, none of them would
:28:04. > :28:09.talk to us. We asked them if they had paperwork stating which country
:28:10. > :28:16.their diamonds came from. In some cases, jeweller's in the UK can
:28:16. > :28:19.clearly prove the origin of the diamonds, but often they cannot.
:28:19. > :28:24.The British jewellers Association says the industry is working to set
:28:24. > :28:31.up a system for more responsible supply chains. It has called on
:28:31. > :28:35.British Jor-Els to say that they do not want Marange diamonds. We must
:28:36. > :28:41.have had 1,000 customers coming in, but most of them do not even care,
:28:41. > :28:45.they just want something to put on their finger. People may not care,
:28:45. > :28:51.but behind these diamonds lies a terrible massacre, and ongoing
:28:51. > :28:55.abuse. Do you think people in Britain should buy these diamonds?
:28:55. > :29:04.I don't think people have the right to buy these diamonds. As of now,