After watching a film that was related to the civil struggles in Sierra Leone I remembered a brilliant documentary that I watched last year. Sierra Leone has suffered 10 years of civil struggles between the government and the RUF (Revolutionary United Front).The blood or conflict diamonds are the diamonds that “are mined in a war zone and sold clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgent or invading army's war efforts.”The finance of wars through diamond mining not only occurred in Sierra Leone but in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In Sierra Leone the government started to make a huge profit out of illegal diamond mining and trading in their country. In 1991 the RUF attempted assaults on the government in order to get control of the mining business. They attacked villages were they captured people that made them work in the mines like slaves. Many children were abducted from their families and trained to be RUF soldiers. Anyone that opposed to the RUF practices was killed or amputated.
The UN in 1999 recognized that diamonds are funding the civil war. In 2003 the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) was created. Every government in Africa would issue a certificate that would accompany any rough diamond when they export it that certifies that the diamonds are conflict free.
The civil wars in Sierra Leone ended in 2002. More than 40,000 ex-combatants were demobilized and a war crimes court indicted a dozen of those deemed most responsible for the war and its atrocities. In Angola the war has ended and in Congo the political situation is fragile. Liberia is under a diamond embargo by the UN but it is expected to be lifted during this year. The only major source of conflict diamonds at present is in the rebel-held areas of northern Côte d’Ivoire. In a 2004 survey conducted by Amnesty international concerning diamonds they found that only 11% of retail stores in the United States had a policy regarding conflict diamonds. Therefore, conflict diamonds are still sold.
I think that what happened in Africa with the diamond trade demonstrates that in profit people, governments and organizations can look the other way and ignore the suffering as people die while diamonds are forever…
