Soon after the field was discovered, the Zimbabwean military took control of the area.

A coalition of European civil society organizations opposes Zimbabwean government participation on human rights grounds.

Based on information gathered by the UNCTAD secretariat from the Zimbabwean Competition and Tariff Commission.

The Zimbabwean Government should start by accepting the recommendations of the Secretary General's Special Envoy.

The exporting arm of the joint venture would deprive the local Zimbabwean market of furniture items.

It is therefore encouraging that concerns about Zimbabwean diamonds are being raised within the diamond trade itself.

Most recently, the Zimbabwean police suspended the work of numerous human rights organizations that were documenting the recent violence.

Joyce's mother is now taking care of her daughter, like so many other Zimbabwean children who've been orphaned by the epidemic.

When Farai Maguwu, a Zimbabwean human rights activist, disseminated information about the abuses, he was arrested (he has since been released).

Zimbabwean authorities claim that the violent human rights abuses have stopped, but the ethical problem with Marange diamonds goes much deeper.

We once again urge the Government of Zimbabwe to allow the international community to alleviate the suffering of the Zimbabwean people.

An online community for Zimbabwean activists, Kubatana uses the Internet, email, SMS, blogs and print materials to disseminate information to the general public.

Here in our offices in Johannesburg, we have two Zimbabwean lawyers who fled their country after receiving death threats for their work defending human rights.

Under Secretary General Gambari should encourage African nations to step up their engagement with all Zimbabwean parties to promote timely solutions to Zimbabwe's economic crisis.

We would like also to see a more active engagement on the part of African Governments in the region with the Zimbabwean Government to improve the situation.

Steinhoff is dominant in the neighbouring South African market and might abuse that position dominance in the Zimbabwean market by undercutting prices or becoming a price leader.

The persistence of the Zimbabwean crisis profoundly damages South Africa s claim to leadership of efforts at African transformation via organizations such as NEPAD, which is largely dependent on Western aid.

I will begin with Southern Africa, by welcoming the dialogue with the Zimbabwean authorities that began during Mr. Egeland's visit to that country and the agreements arrived at during that visit.

According to the Zimbabwean finance minister, Tendai Biti, four years after the military took over the diamond fields, the national treasury has received not one penny of royalties from the sale of Marange diamonds.

In the face of Western and, in particular, American skepticism about South Africa s failure, and that of the Africa Union, to engineer an acceptable outcome to the Zimbabwean crisis, money may not be forthcoming.

It was also noted that the transaction had a number of public interest benefits, such as (i) foreign direct investment (ii) foreign currency generation through exports (iii) additional employment creation and (iv) technology improvement in the local Zimbabwean furniture industry.

We take note of signs that the Zimbabwean authorities appear willing to work with the United Nations. We believe that following Mr. Egeland's visit it would be useful for the Secretary General to visit Zimbabwe as well, as I understand has already been suggested.

Limiting the measures taken by the European Union in the framework of article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement depend, we believe, on such dialogue and on concrete efforts by the Zimbabwean authorities within the framework of the dialogue towards finding a solution to the problems that they themselves created.

Dambudzo Marechera's Facebook page celebrates the life and times of one of the most eccentric figures in African literature. Marechera was a Zimbabwean writer and poet who died at the age of 35 in 1987 after leading a life that he described as an attempt to make myself a skeleton in my own cupboard.

Whatever is decided about Zimbabwe s participation at the Cannes summit will also have an impact on plans for a major EU Africa Summit in Lisbon this fall, during Portugal s presidency of the EU. During the last Portuguese Presidency (January June 2000), the EU Africa Summit had to be cancelled because of a visa ban on Zimbabwean officials and the reluctance of Africans to attend if Mugabe was excluded.