Diamonds - A Step In The Right Direction

Diamonds from Sierra Leone has become famous enough to make it into the sphere of

contemporary hip hop, as Kanye West put the connection between the civil war-torn part of western Africa and the gemstone industry on the map once and for all. The conflict surrounding the mining and export taking place in Sierra Leone has been a problem since back in the 60's, when then prime minister Siaka Stevens started to fully grasp the true value of this resource hidden within the country's boundaries. With the lethal combination of being a business person with a sensitive nose for money and the personality of a ruthless despot, Stevens made a fortune in smuggled goods.

The Civil War

The country erupted into civil war in 1991 as The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) declared open war against the sitting government. Although the government were far from a group of charming gentlemen concerned about the well-being of their people, it soon became clear that the revolutionary banner waved by the rebels, and their rhetoric of ending crime and corruption, were no more than a thinly veiled argument in order to conceal their primary objective: to get control over the mines and the valuable resources that poor men dug out with their bare hands under slave-like conditions.

As RUF took over the management of several of the country's mines, conditions for the workers even worsened. During the 90's, the astonishing number of 125 million USD worth of gemstones found their way out of Sierra Leone, with a large part of that figure going towards the funding of rebel activities and the enrichment of RUF kingpins.

A Step In The Right Direction

In the final year before the millennium, the UN decided to put their foot down when it came to the bloody conflicts wreaking havoc on the civilians of Sierra Leonean. They implemented the Kimberley Process Scheme, which requires that any jewel needs to come attached with the proper documentation. If there is not a paper trail that can be linked back every step of the way to the original source, in order to provide an easy overview that everything has been conducted in a legal and just manner, then a member state that has signed up for the Kimberley Process are prohibited to do business with that party.

Now, you cannot take a measurement like this and then just conclude that everything is fine and dandy. The enormous profits that can be gained from this business keeps attracting the criminal sharks that will come up with new and clever ideas to work around the system. What you can say though, is that the problem has been addressed professionally and with effort, and the systematic steps that has been put into place has seriously subdued the traffic of illegally exported and illegally mined resources.

Furthermore, jewelry retailers themselves, has taken the Kimberley Process and added their own strict rules of regulations, in order to reassure their clients that their diamonds does not fund any illegal activities.

by: Kurt Ross

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