Correspondent|On 27 October 2008, without prior warning, the government of Zimbabwe deployed the Zimbabwe National Army to violently capture the Marange diamond fields from an estimated 35 000 artisanal miners who were panning in the 150 000 ha diamond fields.
According to Human Rights Watch, more than 200 artisanal miners were gunned down in less than 4 weeks during the operation, codenamed Operation Hakudzokwi (You shall not return).
Farai Maguwu led Centre for Natural Resources Governance will on Thursday host the sixth commemoration of the painful period. Up to five thousand people from around Chiyadzwa and delegates from around the country are expected to attend the ceremony.
CNRG has continued to investigate and document human rights abuses in the diamond fields and more than 1000 artisanal miners have been killed since 2008. In 2016 former President Robert Mugabe said more than $15 billion had been siphoned in illicit diamond trade.
Since 2012, CNRG has led the campaign for justice for the Marange community. This has been done through the civic education and the increasingly popular Operation Hakudzokwi Commemoration which is held early November every year.
Thousands of villagers from all over Marange and civil society activists villagers gather in the community to remember and honor those who were slain in the diamond fields and to count their collective loss cultural, social, financial and land. In 2017 more than 3000 people attended the annual gathering.
In 2018 CNRG, working in partnership with 8 Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Marange, organized the first ever community demonstration against the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC).
The demonstration triggered a series of responses from ZCDC and the Zimbabwe government which culminated in the All Stakeholders Marange Security Conference held on the first of June in Mutare. Government followed with an announcement of a cash deposit of USD5 million into the Zimunya Marange Community Share Ownership Trust.
CNRG continues to demand that the trustees of the CSOT be selected by the Marange community to whom they must be accountable. CNRG will continue to build power from below through capacitating the community to embark in non-violent direct action against injustice in Marange.