Blood Diamond – An Analysis

1. INTRODUCTION:Diamonds are formed from carbon buried under the earth under the massive pressure and due to enormous heat energy underground.  They remain underground till a molten rock is erupted and this process is known as kimberlite which convey them closer to the earth’s plane and get cooled in constricted channels shaped like carrots. Diamond is regarded as a symbol of love and it is a tradition to present a diamond engagement ring as a matter of right to women in Europe, America, China and Japan.Africa is regarded as an abode of Diamond as it is the major source of diamond as more than 60% of world output which worth more than $ 7 billion a year is emanating from Africa. Botswana, Namibia and South Africa generate a considerable amount of income by exporting rough diamonds.

  Sierra Leone is renowned for diamond mines and this was the chief reason for the civil war that is being waged since 1992 which devastated its economy and resulted in widespread starvation and poverty. Due to ongoing civil war that is mainly waged to take control of the diamond mines by the rebels who took control over many of the Sierra Leone diamond mines.2. ANALYSIS:Blood diamonds are commonly referred to diamonds that are mined, extracted and sold from specific regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are still devastated by fierce armed conflicts. It is to be observed that these civil wars and atrocious armed conflicts normally instigated by stubborn warlords, defected militias and rebel groups that relied on the illegitimate sale of blood diamonds in exchange for guns ,weapons , fuel and assorted war materials like land mines. Blood diamonds represent about 4 to 16% of the global annual diamond production amounting to $ 7 billion.

African diamonds from conflict areas cause blood shed and hence it is nicknamed as “Blood Diamonds”.  This has resulted in diamond war and fueled rivalry between various armed groups to take control of the diamond economy mainly to utilize the diamond proceeds for the purchase of weapons and food.  Having realized the seriousness of the problem and to introduce a sea change in the method by which diamonds are sold, the U.N conceived the Kimberly process by aligning civil society, business and governments.

  Thus, the Kimberly process is aimed at to put an end to the chain between diamond trading and conflict by formulating a system to track, identify and certify diamonds along the entire link from extraction to export. The underlying idea is to warranty costumers that the stone they are buying is originating from non-conflict provinces. Thus, Kimberly process is advantageous as it avoids unnecessary bloodshed and assures the buyers about its true origin.The superfluity of armed conflicts, atrocious struggles and civil wars mainly waged to take control over financial incomes and areas of ‘blood diamonds’ have worsened sub –Sahara Africa post-colonial, socio-economic and political problems.

These military combats and cross-border radicals storming have let loose a catastrophic humanitarian disaster for innocent citizens who have never seen a diamond in their life and for the bordering countries like Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The net effect of these armed conflicts – triggered, fueled and financed by mineral mafias have been the propagation of persistent regional insecurity, the escalation of Border States conflict and the acute political instability of many states in western, southern and central African sub-regions. In a nutshell, the post-cold war era has resulted new disputes and intricacies, stimulated more contradictions and augmented both serious regional security quandary and political unsteadiness for several disruptive contemporary African countries.The wealth of diamonds excavated in UNITA –held provinces [ Union for the Total Independence of Angola ]  has facilitated the rebels with the resource of re-arm and organize for renewed conflict during the Lusaka process. UNITA was able to net about $ 1.75 billion through the export of diamonds, the lion’s share of which reinvested in arms procurement, military supplies, medicines and food.

Some of the most vituperative conflicts have been catalyzed and differentiated by the callous struggle for control and domination of critical economic resources such as diamonds, gold, crude oil, cobalt, timber, copper and other extractive materials. As witnessed in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and DRC, the political economy of violence has transformed and defined these avaricious armed struggles into a vicious conflict for control of rare mineral resources and the attendant catastrophic humanitarian tragedies.It is the colluding economic partners in the clandestine economy of illegal diamond sales have manipulated the lapses and gaps in the industry to generate unprecedented gains mainly to procure war supplies , medicine , guns trafficking to sustain predatory forms of economic violence, rule of impunity ,warlords, cross-border insurgencies and protracted regional destabilization.The newly approved Kimberly certificate however assists to lessen the permeable loopholes that had beleaguered the world diamond industry. In the recent past, rebel groups, warlords and combat traders had manipulated and subjugated these industries -specific ambiguity to dodge UN Security Council sanctions on the sale and trafficking of blood diamonds.

Hence, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme that is encouraged by the U.S government and about 70 other diamond exporting and importing countries is aimed to curb the infusion of new blood diamond from African conflict areas into the world market.The Kimberley Process of Diamond Certification is also supported by the UN Security council resolution and main aim of this certification is to warranty that parcels of rough diamonds can be easily identified from their principal source of origin and hence warlords , rogue regimes and rebel-militias will find it arduous to flood the international market with tainted or blood diamonds.The availability of covert transit shipment and trading networks facilities has encouraged the black market for blood diamonds and arms trafficking. Blood diamonds are sometimes ended as a fatal as often rough diamond stones traded secretly   by warlords as they are in utmost need of dollars to buy arsenals ,ammunitions ,guns and weapons to buttress and to prove the mighty.

3. CONCLUSION:Trading on blood diamond prolongs to be cause of instability and tension in Africa raising grave anxiety about the safeguarding of civilians from human rights violations. Millions and millions of people are being annihilated in Africa because or strife aggravated by the illegal trade in blood diamonds. It is the diamond consumer who has to play a chief role in the attempt to stamp out the trade in blood diamonds. If blood diamond trade is encouraged, then there will be complete annihilation of human being in sub-Saharan African countries due to internal strife.

Hence , as per dictum ‘caveat emptor ‘ , buyers have to be judicious and go for Kimberley certified diamond mainly to eradicate the humanitarian crisis that is unleashed by the rebel groups in war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo , Angola , Liberia and Sierra Leone .