What is Blood Diamond?

The movie Blood Diamond depicts the story of conflict diamonds in the Republic of Sierra Leone in Africa. The name conflict diamonds came about because these diamonds are harvested under the bloody conflicts of war. Guerrillas or rebel armies often use conflict diamonds to earn massive profits, which are used to purchase military arms used in their civil war, resulting in serious casualties in African regions.

In 2011, Angolan human rights journalist Rafael Marques de Morais published Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola. The book criticized the government, mining companies, and military’s joint corruption and inhumane treatment of miners.; they were underfed, given little clothing, whipped and tortured at will, and sometimes illegally executed after which their corpses were hidden within bushes. In the past, conflict diamonds resulted in the displacement of 6.5 million refugees from Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo, Liberia, as well as resulted in at least 3.7 million deaths.

In order to decrease the circulation of conflict diamonds, the United Nations set up the Kimberley Process Certification Theme where member countries are required to purchase diamonds from legal sources; violators are expelled and prohibited from global diamond trading. The Kimberley Process refers to sealing rough uncut stones into tamper-proof containers with unique serial numbers; whenever the diamonds are shipped internationally, they include a forgery-resistant conflict-free certificate. Verification procedures are required in every transaction in which the product changes hands to prevent conflict diamonds from being circulated within the supply chain. This ultimately achieves the goal of protecting peace and stability in African regions.