Harare  - Zimbabwe's military has begun to withdraw from a contentious diamond field as private investors move in, the head of a South African mining company investing in the area was quoted Thursday as saying.

The state-controlled daily Herald newspaper cited David Kassel, chief executive of Johannesburg-based New Reclamation, as saying that his company had hired 200 private security guards to replace the military around the field in eastern Chiadzwa, which has controlled the 60,000-hectare site since last year.

The military is alleged to have killed several people in a violent crackdown last year on wildcat diamond diggers operating in the fields, which the government seized from British-owned African Consolidated Resources (ACR) in 2006. The government denies there were any killings.

Zimbabwe narrowly escaped having its Chiadzwa diamonds banned from certified world trade earlier this month.

A team of inspectors from the Kimberley Process (KP), the international body of governments that screens diamonds for "blood diamonds", recommended that Zimbabwe be suspended from the diamond trade after visiting the area in July and receiving reports of killings, rape, torture and forced labour by soldiers.

The KP at a meeting in Namibia decided to stay Zimbabwe's suspension on several conditions, including that the military pull out of the area.

"We are taking control of all areas that we have claimed but still working with state security agents in areas where we are still exploring," Kassel was quoted as saying. "But they will move as soon as we have secured those areas."

New Reclamation, a major scrap metal company in which South African insurance giant Old Mutual has a small shareholding, is one of two companies who have entered into a joint venture agreement with the Zimbabwean government to exploit the field.

The controversy over the fields was compounded by a High Court decision in September declaring the government's seizure of the Chaidzwa claim as illegal. The court declared African Consolidated Resources the legal owner.

ACR chief executive Andrew Chadwick has warned that anyone buying Chiadzwa diamonds is buying stolen property. (dpa)