Corruption and New Resource Discoveries in Afghanistan and Zimbabwe

[eli123]

Recently, valuable mineral deposits have been found in nations with a history of corruption such as Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. I'm curious to know what everyone thinks will be the effects of these discoveries. Here's some articles on these developments for background info:

Diamonds in Zimbabwe

Lithium in Afghanistan

(If you have a suggestion for a new SWA homepage poll, post your poll on the forum and send an email to gio@studentworldassembly.org to let us know about it!)

[sara320]

See the article below for an update of Zimbabwe's diamond trade. It also discusses the Kimberley Process ("set up in 2002 by countries, diamond industry representatives and advocacy groups to counter sales of so-called blood diamonds") and the problems it faces, as well as the goals it hopes to attain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/wo..._r=1&ref=world

[AfroKid]

I want to know what name we can give to a "business" of selling something from a ground that you killed hundreds of innocent people.

That ain't business,that's theft,killing and oppression.CAN THE WORLD HEAR THESE PEOPLE???
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-diamonds.html

[MaxSWA]

Originally Posted by AfroKid

I want to know what name we can give to a "business" of selling something from a ground that you killed hundreds of innocent people.

That ain't business,that's theft,killing and oppression.CAN THE WORLD HEAR THESE PEOPLE???
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-diamonds.html

Thank you for posting, AfroKid.

I wholeheartedly share your discontent over this issue and think that problems like these, unfortunately, are going to persist in the near future, particularly in Africa and Central Asia.

"We found that people were still being forced to mine, to dig for diamonds at gunpoint by the army, by soldiers," said senior researcher Tiseke Kasambala of the area outside the two fenced off mines. "We found children as young as 11 still working in these mines."

High levels of corruption in a developing country like Zimbabwe are certainly the causes for such exploitation and violations of basic human rights. I think that if the United States and the UN do not make any significant interferences into the situation, the corruption (and subsequent exploitation of people) will persist.

What I found interesting, is the list of countries where the diamond-buyers are from:

"Buyers from Belgium, Russia, India, Israel, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates flew into Harare on private aircraft to inspect the stones and present bids in sealed envelopes. They refused to speak to reporters."

These countries, particularly Russia, India and Lebanon, have high levels of corruption themselves, in addition to fringe politico-economical factions within (or associated with) the government and government officials. This allows these states participate in such atrocious actions.

[ClaireB]

Here is an interesting article from a Zimbabwean online newspaper describing the "blood diamond" phenomenon in the country, and Mugabe's role in it. While there are many alternate opinions on "who's to blame", this is in an interesting argument:

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30261 :mugabe-has-lost-it&catid=35pinion-a-analysis&Itemid=31[/URL]