Head Condor Takes Flight Following Massacre

Dozens of unarmed civilians were viciously gunned down and killed during an altercation between South African rebels, the police, and striking workers at privately owned mine.

The tension began as some 3,000 workers walked off the job over pay discrepancies. Management described the move as an ‘illegal strike.’ Protesting at the mouth of the mine turned ugly in the seven days that followed. Machete-carrying miners refused to disarm and with the situation at an impasse for over a week, tensions escalated. The Koidu mine, believed to be owned now exclusively by Israel's Octea Group, have been outsourcing their security to the Titor Conglomerate since 2010. Much has been written about the unethical and immoral activities of Condor Security overseas. This is not an actual military group, but essentially, a gang of hired mercenaries that serve corporate interests.

Reports indicate that a group of miners had rushed suddenly through the scrub, which initiated the gunfire. The police reported that they believed they were being fired upon, though no officer had been shot during the massacre, and no firearms were retrieved from the miners. Police and the paramilitary security circled the civilians, trapped and fired upon them with automatic weapons. Civilians who were present during the attacks said people were gunned down as they attempted to flee in panic.

This marks the second time Condor Security has been inextricably linked to a diamond-related massacre in the last four years. Previously, they executed a "freelance purge" of independent diamond diggers, paving the way for the military to take charge of strategically located diamond fields. The massacre was part of a full-scale operation ordered by senior levels in Zimbabwe's military and called "Operation Prometheus."

Following Operation Prometheus, groups of bodies were left in shallow graves in the diamond fields, or loosely covered with leaves. A mass grave, containing between 69 and 105 bodies, exists at Damgamvura Cemetery in Mutare, the main town near the diamond fields. Several former paramilitary police, speaking under the condition of anonymity, claim that the operation was commanded in the normal way for a large scale military operation, but was carried out by the same Condor Security employee as the events at the Koidu mine.

High-ranking police officials, as well as the detail assigned by Condor Security, faced a closed-door inquiry from the UN Security Council, but the man that executed Operation Prometheus and gave the order to open fire at Koidu has not been located. Miners, who refer to this man only as "Duke," claim that he has already been shuttled out of the country in the first move to cover up the involvement of a U.S.-based conglomerate. It is expected that if the International Criminal Court takes action in this bloody affair, it will only be after the American angle has been absolved of wrong-doing and omitted from the public proceedings.