Conflict diamond

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A conflict diamond (also called a blood diamond or a war diamond) is a diamond mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgent or invading army's war efforts.

In some cases, the United Nations has sanctioned the export of conflict diamonds, arguing that their trade finances armies in fighting against legitimate governments and perpetrating human rights abuses, and prolongs devastating wars. It points to the UNITA rebels in Angola and to the Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone (who it states were financed by the government of Liberia, also through diamond sales) as purveyors of conflict diamonds.

The UN is attempting to implement certification procedures to decrease the number of illicit diamonds on the world market. On July 19, 2000, the World Diamond Council adopted at Antwerp a resolution to strengthen the diamond industry's ability to block sales of conflict diamonds.

In 2002, the UN approved the Kimberley Process scheme aimed at preventing conflict diamonds entering the market.

On July 29, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush signed executive order 13312, a furthering of earlier executive orders 13194 and 13213. Its preamble contains this statement:

Countries such as Canada have used concerns about conflict diamonds to present domestically-produced diamonds as an ethical alternative which avoids the risk of unknowingly purchasing a blood diamond. The same argument is used by makers of cultured diamonds such as Gemesis and Apollo Diamond.

Other substances are sometimes sold the same way as conflict diamonds, such as coltan.

Conflict diamond references in popular culture

In the film The Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio scheduled for a 2006 release is about a diamond smuggler in a conflict region.

In the 2005 film, Lord of War, much of the plot centered around the sale of arms to Liberia, financed by conflict diamonds.

A large part of the plot of the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day revolved around smuggling of conflict diamonds. For many people, this was their first mainstream exposure to the term and the concept.

The topic of conflict diamonds was also the subject of an episode of Law & Order, titled "Soldier of Fortune".

Blood diamonds were the main theme of the 2004 Australian/Nigerian film Death is a Diamond.

Rapper Kanye West touched upon the issue of conflict diamonds in a song titled Diamonds from Sierra Leone, found on his sophomore album Late Registration. Another rapper by the name of Lupe Fiasco has a song named Conflict Diamonds using the backing track from Diamonds from Sierra Leone.

Rapper Talib Kweli hit on the issue of conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone in his song Going Hard, which is on his album The Beautiful Struggle.

In the 2004 computer and video game , set in 1992, advertisement of the Ammunation firearms store chain can be heard in ammunition stores, stating that buyers can purchase goods with conflict diamonds.

Malaysian thriller writer John Ling has written a [non-fiction essay] on the subject.

References

Bergner, Daniel, In the Land of Magic Soldiers, New York: Picador (2003), ISBN 0374266530.
Campbell, Greg, Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious Stones. Boulder: Westview Press (2002), hardcover, ISBN 0813339391; trade paperback, 252 pages, ISBN 0813342201
Epstein, Edward Jay, The Rise and Fall of Diamonds, New York: Simon&Schuster (1982), ISBN 0671412892
[ The Diamond Invention, book online version]
Levy, Arthur V. (ed.), Diamonds and conflict : problems and solutions , Hauppauge, N.Y. : Novinka Books, (2003), ISBN 1590337158.
Tamm,Ingrid J. Diamonds in peace and war : severing the conflict-diamond connection, Cambridge, Mass.: World Peace Foundation, (2002), ISBN 097210335X

External links

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