Whether you are in a place where you are looking to purchase that diamond engagement ring, or you are simply shopping for a piece of diamond jewelry that will suit you, it is extremely important for you to stop and consider the source of those gorgeous gems. Diamonds have been considered amazing gemstones for hundreds of years, but it is only now that the public is getting good information on where they are coming from and what was done to get them. Ensuring that the diamonds that you have purchased were not involved in any sort of human atrocity is more difficult than you may think.
Blood diamonds are also known as conflict diamonds; essentially, they are stones that have been sold in order to fund wars, either through purchasing guns or paying soldiers. In many cases, they are funding illegal and unlawful operations run by rebel and terrorist groups, and they have played a significant role in the way that wars are run in some African countries. There are several countries that have been strongly impacted by the trade of blood diamonds and this has resulted in civilian casualties across the board, where people have suffered terror, mutilation and murder at the hands of groups who were funded in large part by the diamond trade.
One of the countries that has suffered severely “thanks” to the trade in blood diamonds is Angola, which became independent from Portugal in the mid 1970′s. At that time, a number of different groups were fighting to gain control of the country and one of them was the National Union for the Total Control of Angola (UNITA). In order to fund themselves and finance the war, UNITA sold diamonds internationally. But Angola is not the only affected country. A route that enables diamonds to be taken out of Liberia as well as the war torn country of Sierra Leone, cuts its way through Cote d’Ivoire. Even countries that have no diamond mining industry, such as The Republic of Congo, are affected. Congo exports many diamonds and yet they provide no information as to where the gems are from.
The the free world is trying to find ways to curb the availability of the diamond market for those who are involved in the sale of conflict diamonds. An excellent way was approved by the United Nations and is called the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. Any uncut diamonds that come from apparently conflict free zones have to undergo a process that will result in the certification of their origin. The Kimberley Process has two main objectives: the first is to end the influx of conflict diamonds into the diamond market, and the second is to see human rights abuses, because of the blood diamond trade, come to an end.
The Kimberley Process Certification System is presently represented by seventy-four countries around the world. Of those there are forty-eight who are actively participating in the Kimberley Process. This group is made up of major countries who are either involved with the production of diamonds, or are involved with the importing and exporting of them. Unfortunately, despite the effectiveness of the process and its UN approval, there is still a long way to go. The reason for this lies in the fact that the issue of how to determine a diamond’s origin and the way of doing so, are both very debatable issues.
If you are in a place where you are considering the purchase of a diamond, what are your choices going to be? Making it a priority to purchase only conflict-free diamonds is one thing, but how do you follow through? More than one conscientious consumer has run into a brick wall when searching out conflict free diamonds. They may be told that there is no way of telling where the diamonds are from, or they may be pushed off in other ways.
When you want to make sure that the diamonds that you are purchasing are, in fact, conflict free, there are definitely things that can help. Ask the merchants if they know where the diamonds they sell come from, and ask for proof that the diamonds are indeed conflict free. Unfortunately, this is not something that is proved by a verbal affirmative! Ask to see a copy of their company’s policy on conflict diamonds and ask to see written statements from suppliers. If they cannot provide them, this definitely tells you something.
For your conscience sake, choose to join the fight to put an end to the blood diamonds trade. Your persistent and determined effort will go a long way toward saving hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
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