Own Correspondent|When diamonds were discovered in the Marange area of Manicaland, the community there thought that they had finally reached their Canaan but alas.
Since the first diamond stones were officially discovered in 2008 life for the community in Marange turned to hell on earth.
At the time the rich stones were discovered, government moved in and condoned off the diamond fields. Villagers were forced out of their land in the most brutal manner, worse than what the colonialists would even have done.
In the two weeks of removing the villagers from the diamond fields under a brutal “operation hakudzokwe” the state using the army killed over 400 people who were resisting the forced evictions or would be found sneaking back into the fields to pick up the alluvial diamond.
Fast forward to today, ten years on. The Marange community is living far from being independent people. The brutality and killings on the people have continued though government has deliberately tried to block off information on the life of the people of Marange.
When the villagers were forced off the fields, the government declared much of the area a “no go area” where soldiers, police and some guards have been deployed under an order to shoot to kill anyone found to be illegally within the no go area.
The difficult part for the Marange community is that some of the villages were rounded up inside the protected area zone automatically turning them into captivity.
Villagers who are living within the protected area are now forced to have monthly renewable permits that allow them to be found within the area but never to be found anywhere near the diamond fields where government and its Chinese partners are mining.
The permits are not locally available but have to be sourced from police in Mutare some 125 kilometres away at a transport cost of up to $20.
Any other person wishing to visit their relative in Marange and Chiyadzwa areas must also first go to Mutare and apply for a short term permit to visit the area.
Villagers in the area who spoke to ZimEye.com told scary tales of mass brutality in the hands of hundreds of soldiers and police deployed to man the area.
According to the villagers life in the area is extremely unbearable which has seen some people voluntarily opt to quit their father land and go and start a new life elsewhere away from the eyes of the police and the army.
“Life in Marange is extremely unbearable,” said one villager. “We lived better under smith regime than under our own black government that has turned us into hopeless ants that they can easily crush with their feet without any fuss,” he said.
Early this year, the villagers were thoroughly beaten and some were arrested when they decided to demonstrate against the permits and the presence of the army and police in their district.