Introduction

For a bankrupt country in the middle of hyperinflation, the discovery of a major diamond deposit in Zimbabwe in June 2006 should have been good news. Instead it has provided sustenance to a volatile and violent political elite that suppresses the majority. The power sharing/coalition government in Zimbabwe came into...

Diamonds are impossible to fake to a moderately trained eye. But it is much harder to detect where a diamond is from. And because diamonds are often found in places run by dictators and despots, there is a business in faking a "blood" diamond's provenance to pretend it was mined elsewhere.

A new policy in Zimbabwe effectively means that all of Zimbabwe's foreign-owned industries are to be nationalized, which may well be the final straw for what's left of Zimbabwe's economy.

The Kimberly Process has become a whitewash; Roger Bate reports from Africa.

Zimbabwe can take a page out of Liberia's playbook.

There is new hope in Zimbabwe, or at least that is what everyone wants to believe.

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe does not recognize any African authority.

Africa's leaders have helped Robert Mugabe remain in power.