16 000 arrested in Zimbabwe diamonds rush

16 000 arrested in Zimbabwe diamonds rush

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• Mugabe gives nod to mine grab proposal

• Zimbabwe doubles gold prices

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• Political patronage threatens Zim mines

• Zim clarifies Mugabe mine-grab policy

• Mugabe wants 50pc shares in mines

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• Mugabe gives 49pc mining rights to blacks

• Mnangagwa in dirty gold scam

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S police have arrested more than 16,000 people in a blitz on illegal miners, razing some of their makeshift homes more than a year after a controversial government slum clearance campaign.

The official Herald newspaper said on Thursday that 16,290 people in illegal mining were arrested in the past three weeks as police sought to end unlawful but thriving trade in minerals.

Police were not immediately available to comment.

The slum clearance, officially dubbed "Operation Restore Order", was seen by senior U.N. officials as drastically worsening Zimbabwe's economic crisis as bulldozers destroyed the homes or livelihoods of more than 3 million people.

President Robert Mugabe has defended the campaign as necessary to root out crime.

Police have burnt temporary homes used by the panners near the mining fields, recovering 3.2 kg (7 lb) of gold, 524,000 kg of gold ore and 4,876 pieces of diamonds.

Zimbabwe is in the throes of a deep economic crisis marked by unemployment above 80 percent, the world's highest inflation rate above 1,000 percent, shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency and increasing poverty levels.

The collapse of commercial agriculture -- once the largest employer -- has pushed thousands of people into illegal mining with the minerals being sold to middlemen on the black market and smuggled to neighbouring countries where prices are higher.

Many people are especially attracted to gold panning, which offers a quick return despite dozens dying each year from the collapse of shallow mines.

The government accuses powerful politicians and businessmen of buying minerals from panners and smuggling it outside.

"A few greedy fat cats have monopolised the industry and engaged every other person in the villages, farms and elsewhere to recklessly pan for gold and other precious minerals," Augustine Chihuri, the country's Police Commissioner was quoted as saying by the Herald.

"We are also worried about the level of siltation in our dams and land degradation," Chihuri said referring to extensive destruction of the environmental by the panners, who include women and children.

Mining has overtaken agriculture as the top foreign currency earner, with critics blaming Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms for blacks, for plunging the farming sector.- Reuters
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