Diamonds may be beautiful, but many of the jewels have sordid stories behind them. In Zimbabwe, in particular, the US-based lobby group Human Rights Watch alleges that the country’s official army has forced thousands of villagers, including children, to work in dangerous conditions in the diamond mines. Those who are unwilling to do so have been brutally assaulted.

Even more disturbingly, HRW’s report alleges that when the military regime illegally took over the Marange diamond fields last year, they murdered more than 200 people in their struggle to gain control of the property.

"The police and army have turned this peaceful area into a nightmare of lawlessness and horrific violence," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Zimbabwe's new government should get the army out of the fields, put a stop to the abuse, and prosecute those responsible."

Human Rights Watch workers traveled to the diamond fields in February to conduct a series of individual interviews with more than 100 workers, and discovered some shocking stories.

"Three policemen on horseback raided us while we worked in the diamond fields and immediately fired their shotguns at us," one miner told the group. "I was shot in the left thigh. Two of my friends were shot and killed during that raid."

The government has raided the diamond fields and forced workers into slavery in order to enrich their own pockets. While the money could go towards funding the economic development and basic humanitarian aid that Zimbabwe so desperately needs, the diamonds are typically smuggled out of the country, and income for their sale is not publicly accounted for.

Human Rights Watch hopes to stop future human rights abuses at the Marange diamond fields by asking the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to be sure that all diamonds from the Marange field are obtained lawfully, and by requesting that South Africa create policies to prevent the importation of smuggled diamonds into their country from Marange.