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Zimbabwe restarts diamond sales amid 'blood diamond' accusations
Zimbabwe reentered the legal diamond market this week with Tuesday's $72 million sale of 900,000 carats of the gems. The sale was supervised by an international 'blood diamond' watchdog group amid ongoing allegations that the Zimbabwean military is abusing gem miners and forcing them to work at gunpoint... In a June 22 report, HRW [Human Rights Watch] says that more than 200 people were killed when the Zimbabwean military seized the Marange diamond fields in 2008. Local villagers, including children, are now forced to mine the diamonds at gunpoint, HRW says... According to the independent news website Zimbabwe Online, two "little known" South African companies, Mbada and Canadile, are running the Zimbabwe mines in cooperation with the state-run Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.