Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), a non-governmental organisation involved in work to prevent conflict related to the exploitation of natural resources, calls for the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process arguing that JOC and the Zanu PF elites were now behaving like a "rebel movement."
In the report titled Diamonds and Clubs: The Militarised Control of Diamonds and Power in Zimbabwe, PAC says the obsessive control of the country's diamonds resources by a small clique threatens the viability of the unity government and may plunge the country into chaos if it continued unchecked.
The report was released a week before a crucial meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP) in Tel Aviv, Israel between Monday and Wednesday.
The meeting would tackle the thorny subject on whether Zimbabwe's precious stones can be classified as "blood diamonds", which means that they have to be banned from the international market.
The KP Certification Scheme (KPCS) is a process introduced by the United Nations to certify the origin of rough diamonds from sources which are free of conflict fuelled by diamond production.
But critics say the KP is losing credibility because the narrow definition of blood diamonds has meant that countries such as Zimbabwe can escape censure.
The Tel Aviv meeting will deliberate on recommendations by a KP monitor Abbey Chikane that says Zimbabwe must be allowed to release the Marange diamonds onto the international market notwithstanding protests by human rights campaigners that he ignored continuing human rights abuses and rampant smuggling.
PAC's major contention is that what is occurring in Zimbabwe's two contested areas -- Marange in the eastern province of Manicaland and River Ranch in the south -- cannot be seen in isolation.
"They are inextricably linked to the same pursuit of political power and the same defiance of KP protocols," reads the 32 page report.
Retired army general, Solomon Mujuru in 2004 controversially seized control of the River Ranch mine from Bubye Minerals owned by Adele and Michael Farquhar. The PAC says the River Ranch has been operating outside the KP radar.
The report argues that the treatment of the Farquhars by Mujuru and the violence that emerged with the discovery of the Chiadzwa diamonds in Marange should not be seen in isolation but as part of larger political dynamics: a response by Zanu PF hardliners to the national contestation of their political power base.
Mujuru and Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa lead Zanu PF factions that are angling for President Robert Mugabe's post in case he dies.
But PAC argues that JOC will likely decide who will succeed the ageing leader.
"While the succession issue is far from being settled between these two camps, both Mujuru and Mnangwagwa are intimately involved with efforts by JOC to monopolise the country's diamond resources -- just as they have done with all previous economic self enrichment schemes on which the JOC has embarked," PAC said.
JOC, which is made up of commanders of the armed forces, the spy agency and the prison service has never hidden its opposition to the unity government.
The report says the commanders' strategy was to starve treasury of any revenue from Marange, now viewed as the country's only salvation as international donors are not willing to come on board until there is progress in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.
"Other than their obvious and absolute control of the means of state violence, the JOC considers their control of Marange to be their instrument through which to engineer the defeat of the GPA that underpins the fragile unity government," adds the report.
"Starving the national treasury of any revenues from Marange is their most effective weapon in that regard."
It says the major strategy by Zanu PF hardliners is to play as obstructionist a role as possible in order to undercut any major political and economic reform championed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono in 2008 said the country was losing US$400 million worth of diamonds through smuggling and estimated the country could generate US$1,2 billion a month from Marange diamonds if they were properly exploited.