"Killings and assaults at Petra Diamonds’ Tanzanian mine undercuts ‘ethical’ claims"

Petra Diamonds’ claim that its gems are ‘ethical’ are seriously undermined by accounts of killings and brutal assaults of local residents at its Williamson Mine in northern Tanzania, UK corporate watchdog RAID said today. Petra Diamonds is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE4Good Index, which is intended for companies that demonstrate robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures.

In a new report and video released today, RAID provides extensive details of at least 7 deaths and 41 assaults by security personnel at the Williamson Mine since it was acquired by Petra Diamonds in 2009. The report describes people shot with little or no warning, stabbed, detained, stripped, beaten, incarcerated for days in a filthy and cramped holding cell by the mine’s entrance, deprived of food and medical treatment, and/or handcuffed to hospital beds at the mine’s medical facility.