diamonds in Zimbabwe?

My beloved father was an exploration geologist in Zimbabwe. He worked to locate and excavate mineral resources in Zimbabwe over his lifetime working for both foreign companies and the Zimbabwean government. I am quite sure I remember, as I was growing up, him saying that no diamonds had been discovered in Zimbabwe but that he believed they were there and one day he was going to find his diamond pipe and make it big. Well I was surprised to see the article in the NYTimes today about corruption, massacres and human rights abuses in diamond mines in Zimbabwe.

Diamonds in Zimbabwe? Diamonds were only discovered in 2006 in the mine mentioned in the NYTimes article, Marange diamond fields. A search on Wikipedia turned up a couple of entries on diamonds in Zimbabwe. It seems diamonds were first discovered in Zimbabwe in 1997. Father dear passed away in 1998. I wonder if he had heard of this discovery. Judging from the NYTimes article and the references at the end of one of the Wikipedia entries it is a good thing he never did get involved in diamond mining. Literally a cutthoat field to be in. Which reminds me, I still haven't seen the movie Blood Diamond and it is something I have been planning on watching.

In spite of my beloved father's dream of finding his diamond pipe, all this violence surrounding diamonds makes me feel very pleased with the simple gold wedding band I have on my finger.