Zim's Former World Cup Referee In Diamonds Violence

In the 32-page report Diamonds and Clubs: the Militarised Control of Diamonds and Power in Zimbabwe released by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), Mudzamiri is the only top police officer named among the perpetrators of violence.

However Mudzamiri denied that he was the police officer in question.

“I was never stationed in Chiadzwa in 2009. I was stationed here (Support Unit in Harare) were I have always been based and so I cannot comment on that report,” Mudzamiri said.

The report said “While identifying individual perpetrators remains a problem, one exception to this is District Commissioner Brighton Mudzamiri, who earned small notoriety during the 2002 FIFA World Cup for keeping law and order on the pitch as a FIFA referee.

“More recently he has been implicated in numerous atrocities in the Chiadzwa area, including at least three deaths.

“On one occasion, an eyewitness reported seeing a foreign panner by the name of Musa die after Mudzamiri beat him repeatedly in the groin with a baton (stick) a few days before Christmas 2009.

“Another victim was 25-year-old Takunda Neshumba, who died on April 30, 2009 from injuries inflicted during an interrogation by Mudzamiri.

Cashel Valley police station opened a criminal investigation but Mudzamiri was never charged. He has since been reassigned from Chiadzwa to an unknown location”.

Mudzamiri made history when he became only local referee to officiate at World Cup finals in 2002.
He was appointed an assistant referee at the World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.

The Diamonds and Clubs report chronicles the gruesome acts of violence against civilians at Chiadzwa diamond fields.

The report said it has been hard to get the numbers of the people maimed by the uniformed forces owing to the “ fluid nature of the rush”.

“Getting hard numbers on how many people have been killed or injured in Chiadzwa is an inexact science.
Much of it has to do with the fluid nature of the rush, the panners, and the iron-fisted control that the military and police exert over the area.”

The most reported death tolls relate to the 2008 crackdown launched between October and December 2008.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch claimed at least 214 miners were killed in the first three weeks of the operation, between October 27 and November 16, 2008 although other analysts have put the figure at 500.