Blood diamond
Blood diamonds are diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, invasion, terrorism, or warlordism. The term is used to highlight the negative consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas, or to label an individual diamond as having come from such an area. Diamonds mined during the 20th- and 21st-century civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau have been labeled as such. The terms conflict resource or conflict minerals refer to analogous situations involving other natural resources. Blood diamonds can also be smuggled by organized crime syndicates so that they can be sold on the black market. According to the Kimberley Process, global trade in rough diamonds in 2023 totalled approximately 112 million carats.
Financing conflict
describes the conflict resources argument resting on the suggestion that the most valuable resources, if available to the weaker force in a conflict, can motivate and serve to sustain it. Commodity prices on global markets, however, are not an adequate proxy for the economic value of a natural resource to participants in armed conflict. Critical factors include location, mode of production, and subsequent route to market. Gemstones are exceptionally light and small in relation to their value as observed by Richard Auty, who presents the stark contrast – tens of thousands of times the price per kilogram – of diamonds compared to other resources and consequently how valuable they are.Deep mining for gold, kimberlite diamonds, or other minerals requires the operation and maintenance of a capital-intensive facility; alluvial deposits, by contrast, can be exploited cheaply using artisan tools for however long the relevant land is secured. Alluvial diamonds are therefore more easily manipulated by rebels. These differences between primary and secondary diamonds in resource diffusion and cost of extraction are the basis for Lujana et al.'s rejection of non-resource-based claims for Botswana and Sierra Leone's different experiences of stability and conflict, since both countries have extensive diamond resources but in different formations.
Despite efforts to frustrate the sale of resources emerging from conflicts, a notable workaround is the agreement of what Michael Ross terms 'booty futures', citing examples mostly from the 1990s concerning diamonds and oil from conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, the Congo Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In these agreements, worth tens of millions of dollars, both rebels and government parties to the conflict negotiate deals to realize value now from the prospect of resource exploitation in the future. This enables the presence of valuable natural resources to finance fighting for either side without being in production or even in the possession and control of said fighters. Natural resources still funding fighters who do not possess them, he argues, is particularly 'dangerous' because this finance is available to those otherwise losing, or even yet to initiate armed conflict, so can make new conflicts possible or have the effect of lengthening those where defeat may have come sooner.
The different mode of production of kimberlite and alluvial diamonds explains why the presence of the latter in fought-over areas fuels conflict in ways the former does not. The need to realize financial value from the resource means that the availability of 'futures' contracts and suitability for looting are key to its influence. Gemstones and rare minerals are better suited to this activity than heavier or otherwise less portable resources, however valuable those may be in times of peace.
These findings have moved campaigners, policymakers, and diplomats to devise regulatory interventions intended to prevent natural resources from funding continued fighting in the hope that this might quicken an end to those conflicts. In the twelve years that followed the end of the Cold War, resolutions imposing sanctions on resource exporters in ten different conflicts were passed by the United Nations Security Council.
History
Angola
Reports estimated that as much as 21% of the total diamond production in the 1980s was being sold for illegal and unethical purposes, and 19% was specifically conflict in nature. By 1999, the illegal diamond trade was estimated by the World Diamond Council to have been reduced to 4% of the world's diamond production. The World Diamond Council reported that by 2004 this percentage had fallen to approximately 1% and up to today, the World Diamond Council refers to this illegal trade to be virtually eliminated, meaning that more than 99% of diamonds being sold have a legal background.Despite the UN Resolution, UNITA was able to continue to sell or trade some diamonds to finance its war effort. The UN set out to find how this remaining illicit trade was being conducted and appointed Canadian ambassador Robert Fowler to investigate. In 2000, he produced the Fowler Report, which named those countries, organizations, and individuals involved in the trade. The report is credited with establishing the link between diamonds and third world conflicts, and led directly to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1295, as well as the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. Still, after the report was published in 2013, smugglers from these African countries were selling blood diamonds through less sophisticated channels, such as social media posts. Rhinestones from Angola, produced by UNITA, were being traded to Cameroon for the acquisition of a Cameroonian certificate of naturalization to then be sold as legitimate.
Ivory Coast
began to develop a fledgling diamond mining industry in the early 1990s. A coup overthrew the government in 1999, starting a civil war. The country became a route for exporting diamonds from Liberia and war-torn Sierra Leone. Foreign investment began to withdraw from Ivory Coast. To curtail the illegal trade, the nation stopped all diamond mining, and the UN Security Council banned all exports of diamonds from the Ivory Coast in December 2005. This ban lasted about ten years, but it was lifted in April 2014 when members of the UN council voted to suspend the sanctions. The Kimberley process officials also notified in November 2013 that the Ivory Coast was right producing artisanal diamonds.Despite UN sanctions, the illicit diamond trade still exists in the Ivory Coast. Rough diamonds are exported from the country to neighboring states and international trading centers through the northern Forces Nouvelles-controlled section of the country, a group which is reported to be using these funds to re-arm.
Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has suffered numerous looting wars in the 1990s, but has been a member of the Kimberley Process since 2003 and now exports about 8% of the world's diamonds., there is a warning concerning diamonds proceeding from this area since there have been multiple cases of fake Kimberley certificates accompanying the gems. One of De Beers' most celebrated diamonds, the D-colour Millennium Star, was discovered in the DRC and sold to De Beers, in open competition with other diamond buyers, between 1991 and 1992.Liberia
From 1989 to 2003, Liberia was engaged in a civil war. In 2000, the UN accused Liberian president Charles G. Taylor of supporting the Revolutionary United Front insurgency in neighboring Sierra Leone with weapons and training in exchange for diamonds. In 2001, the United Nations applied sanctions on the Liberian diamond trade. In August 2003, Taylor stepped down as president and, after being exiled to Nigeria, faced trial in The Hague. On July 21, 2006, he pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity and war crimes, of which he was found guilty in April 2012. On May 30, 2012, he began a 50-year sentence in a high-security prison in the United Kingdom.Around the time of the 1998 United States embassy bombings, al-Qaeda allegedly bought gems from Liberia as some of its other financial assets were frozen.
Having regained peace, Liberia is attempting to construct a legitimate diamond mining industry. The UN has lifted sanctions, and Liberia is now a member of the KPCS.
In December 2014, however, Liberian diamonds were reported to be partly produced using child labor according to the US Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.
Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Civil War lasted from 1991 to 2002, costing an estimated 50,000 lives and causing local people to suffer killings, mutilation, rape, torture, and abduction, mainly due to the brutal warfare waged by the rebel group the Revolutionary United Front. The RUF claimed that they supported the causes of justice and democracy in the beginning, but later, they started to control the villages and prevent local people from voting for the new government by chopping off their limbs. Victims included children and infants. It created numerous examples of physical and psychological harm across Sierra Leone.Moreover, they occupied the diamond mines to get access to funding and continued support for their actions. For example, during that time, RUF was mining up to $125 million of diamonds yearly. Since diamonds are used as a funding source, they also create opportunities for tax evasion and financial support of crime. Therefore, the United Nations Security Council imposed diamond sanctions in 2000, which were lifted in 2003. According to National Geographic News, all these civil wars and conflicts created by rebel groups resulted in over four million deaths in the African population and injuries to over two million civilians. Another conflict diamond statistic from Statistic Brain revealed that Sierra Leone has been listed as the second highest in the production of conflict diamonds, which is shown as 1% of the world's production, after Angola, which produced 2.1% in 2016. 15% of Sierra Leone's diamond production is conflict diamonds. It shows that the production of conflict diamonds still exists in Sierra Leone.
According to the US's 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices of Africa, serious human rights issues still exist in Sierra Leone, even though the 11-year civil conflict had officially ended by 2002. Sierra Leone remains in an unstable political situation, although the country has elected a new government. The immense consequences of blood diamonds remain a mainstream issue in Sierra Leone. One of the biggest issues is that people are still being abused by the security forces, including rape and the use of excessive force on detainees, including teenagers. Child abuse and child labor are other serious issues that took place in Sierra Leone after the civil conflicts. As they needed a large number of workers, the security forces started kidnapping and forcing young adults to be their slaves; children were forced to join their army as soldiers, and women were raped. They even burned entire villages. Thousands of men, women, and children are used as slaves to collect diamonds, and they are forced to use their bare hands instead of tools to dig in mud along river banks.
A report from Global Witness, "The Truth About Diamonds: Conflict and Development", mentioned that Sierra Leone is listed as second from the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index. It also showed that Sierra Leone was still making slow progress, in 2016, in such different aspects as education, health, and human rights, since 1990, which is also the year that conflicts took place in Sierra Leone. It shows that it is a huge consequence of the blood diamonds that they brought into the country, even though the war had ended in 2002, and the government tried to improve and adjust the cooperation of the diamond industry. Sierra Leone resulted in an increase of over US$140 million in 2005 and attempted a percentage return of export tax to diamond mining communities. However, it does not improve anythingthe money is not reaching the public, and it has not benefitted anyone in the communities. For instance, the Kono District in Sierra Leone has been mined for 70 years, but there are still no basic facilities, like electricity and well-maintained roads. Houses are destroyed because of civil wars. It also examines the ethical issues of how rebel groups treat the locals. They used brainwashing of inexperienced young children and forced them to be child soldiers as they lost their personal freedom and rights under a command that included violence and intimidation.