Zimbabwe has been allowed to resume exports of its controversial diamonds, in a move likely to prop up the African's nation ailing economy, dpa quoted a senior government official as saying Friday. "At last we can now sell our diamonds and raise money that our people want," said Zimbabwe mines minister Obert Mpofu in a reference to the so-called Kimberley Process (KP), which lifted the trade embargo at a meeting in Kinshasa on Thursday in spite of objections from the United States and others. Since 2008, Zimbabwe's diamonds have drawn international attention due to reports of human rights abuses associated with their mining by the country's armed forces. The allegations prompted the KP to suspend trading in diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange fields. Still, Zimbabwe raised about 100 million dollars from 400,000 carats worth of sales last year. Mpofu was quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper as saying that Thursday's meeting had endorsed exports from two Zimbabwe mines "with immediate effect and without supervision" from the KP. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called on the KP to lift its objections and allow Zimbabwe to trade its diamonds on the international market. "It is clear (that) if the diamonds are traded legitimately, this would assist in the economic recovery of Zimbabwe," his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said in a statement.
