1 1 MAP OF ZIMBABWE AND THE MARANGE DIAMOND FIELDS NEAR MUTARE IN EASTERN ZIMBABWE 2 THE RETURN OF THE BLOODY DIAMONDS: MINERS AT GUNPOINT IN ZIMBABWE - 19 SEPTEMBER 2009 Daily Mail (UK) journalist Dan McDougall and photographer Robin Hammond risked their lives to visit the Marange diamond fields of Eastern Zimbabwe: “The closer we get to the mining fields the purer the stones become and the more our translator warns us our lives are in danger. Even with our cover as diamond dealers we are out on a limb here. At each checkpoint the soldiers tell us that most of the dealers are black - Nigerians…. As we set off, in the darkness, everyone is terrified….. 'If we are caught they'll shoot us and bury us in the bush until our bones are ready to be taken away elsewhere,' our translator says….. Sometimes reporting from Africa is hard; unless you have seen it for yourself, you are wary of fully accepting any account at face value. But these wounds are unmistakable; they are raw and open and stand out against his skin. He sits in excruciating pain and tells us he is not finished. On his chest there are puncture marks from knives and through his kneecap a piercing hole - an open wound the size of a golf ball. 'The soldiers came here and found us at a digging site close by,' he says. 'We were working for them at that time but they told us we had produced no diamonds and we deserved to be punished…. I looked at my two friends… their legs were streaming with blood. One of them had died, and blood was streaming from his eyes and ears. I passed out.' …..