Human rights lawyers are demanding the full release of a government report into an army massacre of around 200 people in Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields. Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights say the government has been attempting to bury the report, which has already been leaked online, to avoid pulling the army out of the region. The army began the spree of murders in August 2008 as part of an initiative by senior army chiefs to take control of the area’s potentially highly-lucrative resources and have remained in the area ever since.

During the initial raids, dubbed Operation Hakudzokwi, thousands of civilians were displaced and at least 200 people murdered. Since then, the army has been repeatedly accused of looting the diamonds having effectively declared martial law.

In reports brought out shortly after the killings, it was alleged that government figures were colluding with soldiers on the ground to use local villagers as forced labour to extract the diamond. By November of that year, helicopter gunships had allegedly been brought out to force army officers who were unwilling to order their troops to use deadly force against villagers who weren’t co-operating.

The carve-up of the region is thought to be the driving force behind the government’s reluctance to release the report, which would put it on a collision course with the army and elements of the administration as the recommendations contained within include a total army withdrawal.