6 4.1 Operation Chikorokoza Chapera – November 2006 The massive police operation initiated the following month was described by HRW: “On November 21, 2006, five months after the discovery of diamonds in Marange, the government launched a nationwide police operation code-named Chikorokoza Chapera (End to Illegal Panning), which was aimed at stopping illegal mining across the country, including in Marange. During the operation, police deployed some 600 police officers, arrested about 22,500 persons nationwide who it said were illegal miners [some 9,000 of them were arrested in Marange], and seized gems and minerals with an estimated total value of US$7 million. The operation was marked by human rights abuses, corruption, extortion and smuggling.” 20 (See Human Rights section for more information). Many former farm workers who had been deprived of their livelihoods during the fast-track land reform programme, as well as small traders who had been deprived of their market stalls by Operation Murambatsvina (Drive out the Rubbish) in 2005, were affected. 21 4.2 November 2006 - October 2008: Chaos Reigns and Human Rights Abuses Continue For the next two years, “From November 21, 2006 to the end of October 2008, police committed numerous human rights abuses, including killings, torture, beatings and harassment of local miners in Marange.�� 22 When the scramble peaked in October 2008, more than 35,000 people from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Lebanon, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Belgium and India were either mining or buying diamonds in Marange. 23 4.3 Operation Hakudzokwi – October 2008 On October 27, two years after Operation Chikorokoza Chapera, the government launched Operation Hakudzokwi (No Return) in Marange. HRW noted that the operation, involving elements of the Zimbabwe National Army, Air Force and Central Intelligence Organisation, appeared to have been designed both to restore a degree of order and to allow key army units access to riches at a time when the country was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Shortly after its inception, HRW 20 Human Rights Watch, ‘Diamonds in the Rough’, June 2009, pg 19: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2009/06/26/diamonds-rough 21 Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, ‘Evictions from mining areas’, 1 July 2011: http://www.internaldisplacement.org/idmc/website/countries.nsf/(httpEnvelopes)/4E599256499D9B2BC12576E100639FE8?Open Document 22 Human Rights Watch, ‘Diamonds in the Rough’, June 2009, pg 24: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2009/06/26/diamonds-rough 23 Human Rights Watch, ‘Diamonds in the Rough’, June 2009, pg 14: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2009/06/26/diamonds-rough