Cabinet has reportedly agreed to sell a multi-million dollar stockpile of Zimbabwe's controversial diamonds, despite the gems not having legal certification allowing their sale.

The state-controlled Herald newspaper on Wednesday quoted Mines Minister Obert Mpofu as saying Cabinet agreed to proceed with the export of diamonds from the Chiadzwa diamond field. He said this would happen whether or not the diamonds were certified by the Kimberly Process, the international watchdog tasked with ending the trade in conflict stones.

Kimberley Process members last month failed to reach consensus on whether or not to certify the diamonds, resolving to further discuss the issue at another meeting later this month. The meeting pitted Western governments and Human Rights Groups against, mainly, African governments. Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United States all opposed a recommendation to approve diamond sales from Chiadzwa.

This recommendation was made by the Kimberley Process monitor to Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane, who since been implicated in the arrest of diamond researcher Farai Maguwu. Maguwu, who has exposed the ongoing rights abuses at Chiadzwa has spent four weeks behind bars since his arrest last month. His arrest came shortly after meeting with Chikane last month and providing him with details about the ongoing abuses. He has since said Chikane deliberately 'shopped' him to the police and human rights groups have said he is being deliberately silenced while the Kimberley Process deliberates on Zimbabwe's trade future.

The legal certification of gems from the Chiadzwa diamond fields, which would allow their sale, was suspended after evidence surfaced of massive human rights abuses, as well as high level corruption. Human rights groups have been calling for Zimbabwe's complete suspension from international trade until the abuses stop. But the Kimberley Process instead gave Zimbabwe more time to meet 'minimum' international trade standards and follow guidelines to reach this objective.

Part of these guidelines was to have Chikane in place as a monitor, and it is Chikane's recommendation that Minister Mpofu is now using to justify his decision to sell the diamonds. Mpofu told the Herald that Chikane said that Zimbabwe met the Kimberley Process' "minimum requirements" for diamond mining and "so now everything is in place to resume the sales."

It's understood that $1.7billion in diamonds has been stockpiled for sale; a sale that economists have said would amount to about 17% of the annual value of the global diamond trade. These profits are set to line the pockets of ZANU PF's elite, and it's highly unlikely that any money will go towards rebuilding the country.

Gabriel Shumba from the Zimbabwe Blood Diamonds Campaign told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that it is "extremely shocking" that Zimbabwe is considering selling the diamonds without Kimberley Process approval. He said that it is this "arrogance" towards different regulatory bodies that has seen Zimbabwe become a "pariah state." Shumba added that it is unlikely that "any profits of diamonds sold outside of the Kimberley Process will trickle down to the ordinary person."

"It is widely feared that the profits will instead go towards securing the next elections for ZANU PF," Shumba said.

The diamonds fields and the gems meanwhile remain at the centre of a legal battle of ownership, with UK based African Consolidated Resources still fighting to reclaim their legally obtained mining title. The Supreme Court had ruled that no mining should take place until the ownership wrangle is sorted out, but this order is being completely ignored.