Stones that kill
Many believe one of humanity’s greatest strengths lies in its ability to kill, and historically Mother Nature’s strongest mineral, the diamond, has been used to fuel that strength.
Conflict diamonds – or blood diamonds – can be associated with many of the wars in Africa. Most often traded for guns or cash, they represent a commodity that can be harvested, smuggled and distributed easily.
The gem’s physical strength lies not only in the structure of its atomic parts, but also in its utility as a bargaining chip. The transition from a diamond to a fully loaded AK-47 is not a difficult one.
Dreadful beginnings
Africans work in diamond mines in several of the continent’s countries. With no other source of income, they brave unstable mines and harsh living conditions to scrape out rough diamonds from the earth with sieves and pans.
Warlords or corrupt businessmen buy stones from poor miners for a fraction of their value and trade them to arms dealers. Conflicts in Sierra Leone, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and the Ivory Coast all relied on the cheap production and sale of diamonds for ammunition, conventional firearms and other weapons.
Arms dealer Yuri Orlov, center, played by Nicolas Cage, receives payment for a future arms shipment in the form of a conflict diamond from fictional dictator Andre Baptiste, right, played by Eamonn Walker, in the 2005 film Lord
During the mid- and late-1990s, roughly 4 percent of all diamonds entering the international market could be dubbed “bloody,” or able to be tied to civil wars and slaughter.
The Kimberley Process
The world’s reaction to the spread of gems intended to finance conflict was the creation of The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. This process attempts to prevent diamonds originating in embattled nations from reaching the international market.
According to The Kimberley Process Web site, 45 nations are listed as complying with this certification procedure, and the flow of conflict diamonds into international distribution has been reduced to less than 1 percent of the global diamond trade.