Blood Diamonds Have Caused Millions of Deaths & Amputations: Is Human Misery the Cost of Bling?

Filed under: News

Most people in the United States love diamonds, but do not understand anything about where they come from. It’s not that the information is unavailable, it’s that people simply don’t care. Rappers talk about their “bling” and women lust for the brightest engagement ring they can find. Some people even wear diamonds in their teeth to show how much money they’ve got. Black people in America are dying to have the hottest diamonds around our necks, while other black people are literally dying to supply the diamonds that we buy.

In Africa, “blood diamonds” are intimately related to brutal conflicts throughout the continent, as groups use the diamond trade to finance civil and other wars that have resulted in the slaughter and disfigurement of millions. The U.S. is the biggest market in the world for such diamonds, given that we purchase 65 percent of the diamonds available on the open market.

Rebel armies in Angola and Sierra Leone, for example, take over diamond mines once owned by the government and use diamond sales to finance their horrific goals. Groups such as Unita in Angola and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone are among the most prominent organizations to sell blood diamonds on the open market, according to Essence.com.

Over half a million civilians have been killed by landmines placed by groups such as these, and another 90,000 people have been maimed. Four million displaced as the result of African conflicts paid for by blood diamond purchases. Rebels supported by blood diamonds often chop off the limbs of innocent civilians, including young children. The United Nations placed an embargo on diamonds from Angola in 1998 to try to stop the violence. This has not stopped the flow of blood diamonds into the market however, since they can be difficult to distinguish from “clean” diamonds.

The diamond industry has finally started to act to stop this bloodshed, thanks to the threat of a major world-wide boycott. The industry has agreed to create a coding system which allows the owner of a diamond to trace it back to the country of origin. Another company, Gemprint, has created a process that can store a unique image of a diamond on an international database, thus allowing it to be traceable. In America, U.S. Representative Tony Hall has sponsored the CARAT Act, which is designed to control the diamond trade more carefully. Right now, you can ensure that you’re not buying blood diamonds by asking for the diamond’s certificate of origin whenever you buy a diamond that was mined as part of Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

By paying attention to where our diamonds are coming from, we can save thousands of lives and potentially prevent much misery. By eliminating our lust for diamonds completely, we can do even more to help ourselves and others by better spending our money. Africa needs our help. Funding wars that harm civilians with diamond purchases unfortunately equates helping to keep the continent down.

Lawrence Watkins is the Founder of Great Black Speakers. He is also the owner of speakers’ bureaus dedicated to Hispanic speakers and Christian motivational speakers. His book, “Frame Your Future: 8 Principles to Effectively Focus on the Future and Not Dwell in the Past”, will be released in August 2010. If you would like Lawrence’s articles delivered directly to your email, please click here.

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