Conflict Diamonds the Diamonds of War and Poverty

Most of us who wear diamonds on our hands have no clue that some diamonds are mined to fund terrorism, and to enslave adults and children who labor in deplorable conditions. Almost half of the people working in the diamond mines are 16 years old or younger. The workers are given little or no pay for their work; the average pay is equivalent to about a dollar a day. The workers hope every day that their job will lead to a better life, but in fact hunting for diamonds drives them into poverty. They have no hope for a better life because their slave labor deprives them of having a better life. These people have no chance at getting an education, because almost every waking hour is consumed with work.

Minors of conflict diamonds are not traditional minors. They work from sunup to sundown digging in dirt and they may be waist deep in filthy water. The workers, adults and children are exposed to all manner of diseases from being in filthy conditions. Slave labor has mined up to 300,000 carats of diamonds each year. These illegally mined diamonds are smuggled through the black market and find their way into international markets.

Diamonds are supposed to be a symbol of love, but conflict diamonds are anything but a symbol of love and devotion. Conflict diamonds are illegally mined diamonds that are used to fund wars and conflicts in parts of central and West Africa. They are sometimes called blood diamonds, hot diamonds, converted diamonds, and war diamonds. These are diamonds that are mined in areas that are war torn areas, and they are sold to insurgents, people who are in opposition to the governing authority. The diamonds are traded for weapons, paramilitary, and rebel forces. Freedom fighters on one side of the government are terrorists on the other. Millions of citizens in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) died as a result of civil wars that have been funded by conflict diamonds.

The Republic of Sierra Leone, located in West Africa, is ranked the poorest of all the African countries by the United Nations Human Development Index. The business of conflict diamond mining creates poverty among the people, while they are producing billions of dollars to be used to fund terrorism. The illegal diamond trade is still going on and innocent people are being mutilated, suffering amputations and even killed.

Africa is not the only continent affected by conflict diamonds. In India children are used to cut and polish diamonds. Approximately one in every ten people polishing diamonds to a beautiful luster is a child, despite the laws that prohibit child labor. There are an estimated 20 million children under the age of 18 working in India.

In an effort to track where diamonds come from the Kimberly Process, an international certification scheme was adopted by the UN General Assembly to certify that each country that exports rough diamonds produced them through legal channels. The Kimberly Process tracks the diamonds' movement from the time they were mind to the time they are sold. Retail customers that purchase cut diamonds should ask for a sales receipt and also ask for the documents that tracked that particular diamond. If a merchant is selling diamonds without documentation of going through the Kimberly Process, the diamonds could be suspected to be conflict diamonds

Sources:

http://geology.com/articles/blood-diamonds.shtml

http://diamondfacts.org/conflict/index.html