Terrorism's Jewels: Bloody Diamonds

President Barack Obama proclaimed: "In an interconnected world, the defeat of international terrorism - and most importantly, the prevention of these terrorist organizations from obtaining weapons of mass destruction -- will require the cooperation of many nations" (November 20, 2006). Popular perception identifies fighting terrorism with suave diplomacy, long lines at airports, removing shoves and rousing political speeches. In truth, "in an interconnected world," defeating terrorism happens off the camera rather than on. Terrorism is an expensive enterprise. Not all funds come from religious fanatics, colluding governments or private donors; some funds come from little hard stones that sell for thousands of dollars at global markets. Conflict diamonds are used to finance illicit terrorist activities worldwide.

The mining of conflict diamonds, widespread in Africa during the 1990s, particularly in Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cote d'Ivoire, brought conflict diamonds into the terrorism trade. Greg Campbell writes, "Beginning as early as 1998, the same year Al Qaeda operatives reportedly blew up U.S. embassies in Kenya and Sudan, Osama bin Laden's terrorist network began buying diamonds from the RUF of Sierra Leone." Conflict diamonds was lucrative. UNITA, an Angolan terrorist organization, smuggled over $1.5 billion worth of diamonds out of the country during the late 1990s (Campbell). Conniving terrorists were eager to get their hands into the dirty, lucrative diamond trade. Although the struggles in central and western Africa lessened - but did not leave - radical terrorists still kept their eyes on conflict diamonds.

Modern terrorist groups, particularly concentrated in the Middle East, use conflict diamonds from Africa and South America to finance their atrocious war crimes. Terrorist organizations manage unlicensed diamond mines, many times worked by slave labor, and then sell the diamonds under-the-table to firms in Antwerp, Mumbai, Belgium and other financial centers. "Radical Islamic groups funnel millions of dollars made from Congolese diamond sales to their organizations back home .... members of Hezbollah and other terrorist groups buy diamonds from Congolese miners and middlemen at low cost and smuggle them out of the country" ("Congo Diamond Trade"). The use of a third party makes tracking diamonds particularly difficult. Campbell writes that diamonds "can be easily and quickly sold and are virtually untraceable."

Terrorists also finance local rebellious militia and take a share of the profits. When writing about Sierra Leone and Angola, Campbell says that "arms merchants, feeding on the diamond trade, bankrolled local armies and made fortunes for transnational corporations. The profits also filled the coffers of Al Qaeda, and possibly Hezbollah-terrorist organizations notorious for committing human rights violations, including crimes against humanity." The organization Citizenship and Immigration Canada sums the issue by stating, "Diamonds have been, and continue to be, a main source of currency for both terrorist organizations and organized crime" (Mayeda).

Combating terrorism occurs in more places than desert plains or congressional legislatures. In this interconnected world, fighting terrorism must happen in the small places - in faraway and lonely places, where enslaved laborers rake around in the muck for a precious bit of glint. Conflict diamonds remain a problem in today's society, and with the current threat of terrorism towards the U.S., we must eliminate the opportunities of terrorists to gain funds from the sales of illegal stones. We must eliminate conflict diamonds.

Sources:

Campbell, Greg. "Blood Diamonds." Amnesty Magazine. 2002. Web. 18 Aug. 2008.

"Congo Diamond Trade Tied to Terrorism." RapNews.com. Rappaport. 2002. Web. 29 September 2008.

"Diamond Facts." www.realdiamondfacts.org. Diamonds for Africa. 2007. Web. 6 August 2008.

Mayeda, Andrew. "Diamond mines attract crime." Canwest News Service. 6 September 2008. Web. 7 August 2008.