Blood Diamonds

Honey, you’re better off wearing pearls.

Last weekend, I saw the much-talked about ‘Blood Diamond‘ movie, over which I have mulled before. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds mined in war zones and sold to finance the conflicts. Even though there is a great deal of violence in this movie, it captures the reality of the country to a remarkable degree. It is a soul stirring film which tells you some facts about blood diamonds and Sierra Leone. Archer says at one point in the movie: " God has left Africa long back". This perhaps sums up the tragic situation there.

Blood diamonds, often called conflict diamonds, are mined in war torn African countries by rebels to fund their conflict. The rebels grossly abuse human rights, often murdering and enslaving the local populations to mine the diamonds. Sierra Leone's diamonds have been blamed for prolonging the brutal civil war that lasted 11 years. I was astonished to know that Wars have costed an estimated 3.7 million lives. The most worrying aspect of the war in Sierra Leone is the international community’s belated response.Although the United Nations first identified the conflict diamond issue in 1998 as a source of funding for war, it was the diamond industry that took steps to address the conflict diamond issue by convening a meeting to plan a process by which diamond origin could be certified. Finally, in 2003, an international certification scheme alled the Kimberley Process was launched, making it illegal to trade in conflict diamonds.

It is very important to develop ethical and fair diamond trade in countries like Sierra Leone as it will help miners and their communities benefit from their country's beautiful natural diamond resource. Botswana is a perfect example of this. Botswana used to be a poor farm country but today its government works hand in hand with the Diamond industry to give Botswana a living standard 7 times higherthan its neighbors. Recent figures show that the illicit diaomond trade has fallen to approximately 1%, which isa very good sign.

Kayne West’s song and video about “blood diamonds” makes us take an honest look at ourselves and ask: Is my fascination with diamonds contributing to the violence in Sierra Leone? But U.N. efforts alone won’t stop the senseless killing in Sierra Leone over illicit diamonds. People can stop this by purchasing legitimate and conflict free diamonds.

As the UN website says, war is the price of peace and the countries like Angola and Sierra Leone have already paid too much. We should let them live a better life. Diamonds are forever, but lives are not!