Alexandra And Kelsey Project

Conflict Diamonds

"I don't even believe in conflict diamonds.  That's just a movie.  Think about it.  Ain't nobody thought about nothing about no conflict diamonds until the movie came out." -Akon- hip-hop artist, bling fan, and diamond mine owner

Akon may be astray (and a tad culturally ignorant), but in conducting interviews with Ms. Erin Kenney and Mr. Woody Justice, I learned that the uproar over conflict diamonds that followed the movie Blood Diamond was a little out of place. 

The conflict diamond issue actually started years before, in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and along the ivory coast.

For the sake of time and space, I will focus on Liberia.  Liberia was founded as a colony in the mid-1800s by freed American slaves.  These freemen created a country with a government, practices, and even a flag resembling that of the United States.  This caused a social tension between them and the native people, who were not used to American customs.

Things were relatively uneventful until 1980, when a military coup overthrew Liberia's democracy and replaced it with Samuel Doe, an authoritarian dictator.  A later coup was attempted but failed, ending only with Doe killing over 2000 people.

In 1989, a civil war began.  Troops were led by Charles Taylor, whose people were able to capture and kill Doe (but not until he had been thoroughly tortured.)  At this point (we're now in 1990), Taylor was upgraded to warlord status.  As such, he had control of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, or NPFL, and some control over the Sierra-Leonian Revolutionary United Front (RUF.)  With enough fear tactics in place, Taylor was further promoted to president (1997) and wasted no time in leaving a trail of blood behind him.

I'm not sure that the First Liberian Civil War ever really ended but, thanks to Charles Taylor's governing techniques, the Second Liberian Civil War began in 1999.  The US got involved in 2003, at which point Taylor took up an offer of asylum from Nigeria and left.  A UN peacekeeping force came in to prevent further uprisings, but it was too late for the nearly quarter-million who died in the civil wars.

While Taylor was still in power he was the "kingpin" of a massive smuggling operation that involved guns, dirty money, drugs, and diamonds.  When people crossed him (and sometimes when they didn't do anything at all) he would have them killed, mutilated, abducted, or tortured.  He also forced many children into military service. 

The diamond trade alone brought in hundreds of millions of dollars annually, which went to the top of Taylor's corrupt system.  With an economy in shambles from war and so much corruption in the country's leadership, ordinary citizens lived in extreme poverty.

Besides the problems brought on by Taylor, diamond mining had other negative effects on Africa's people.  Mining conditions are dangerous and a health hazard.  Also, in many cases, men would leave their families to work in the mines for money, leaving the families alone to fend for themselves. Businessmen found it profitable to make brothels, alcohol, and gambling available to these miserable, lonely men, so money had a tendency to not make it back to the families.  Though none of these things are new, people living far from large cities are not accustomed to seeing them and may be brought in easier.  In addition, mining speeds up erosion, pollutes, and is seriously harmful to the environment.

The issues surrounding conflict diamonds are a global problem because we are consumers of said diamonds and because the weak economies connected to corruption and diamond trade in Africa are not beneficial to a global economy.  However, legislation such as the Kimberley Act has improved diamond certification processes and nearly all diamonds are mined in better ways than they were 15 years ago.

To be continued...

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_(Liberia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_diamonds

http://diamonds.gemisimo.com/en/Diamond-Project/Green-Diamonds/Natives.html

Interview: Erin Kenny

Interview: Woody Justice