Blood diamonds By: Grace Rose Blackwell, Olivia Harrison, Erin Moran, and Weston Riggs

What are "Blood Diamonds?" "Blood" or "Conflict" diamonds, are referred to as diamonds that fuel civil wars. Although many diamond-fueled wars have now ended, conflict diamonds remain a serious problem.

African countries with conflicts from blood diamonds: In just the past two decades, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have endured harsh conflicts from the brutal civil conflicts fueled by diamonds.

Mining conditions Conditions in diamond mining are absolutely horrific. In Africa, close to a million people are artisan diamond diggers. Almost all of them live in extreme poverty, earning an average take home pay of less than a dollar a day. Child labor is common and working conditions are very often dangerous and de- humanizing.

The revolutionary untied front In Sierra Leone, a group known as the Revolutionary United Front, killed, threatened, and even cut off the arms of people living and working in diamond villages until they were able to take control of the mines in the area. Many people fled their homes in fear. All in all, roughly 20,000 innocent people suffered bodily mutilation, 75,000 were killed and 2 million fled Sierra Leone altogether.

The Kimberly process requirements To have your country become a member of the Kimberly Process, certain requirements must be met: They are not supposed to produce conflict diamonds. They must trade diamonds only with each other. They must also attach Kimberley Process certificates to their exports of rough, or uncut, diamonds.

The Kimberly Process is made up of 80 countries in Africa. The Kimberly Process is an international certification system to stop trade of diamonds.

"We have eliminated conflict diamond financing in Sierra Leone and are committed to bring the proceeds from the diamond trade to benefit the people of Sierra Leone, Angola and Liberia as well as all other diamond producing countries such as Botswana to help themselves support economic development of their countries." - Ambassador J.D. Bindenagel, former u.s. Special Negotiator for Conflict Diamonds

Questions "Who suffers from conflict diamonds?" Apart from the innocent people caught up in the conflicts that the trade fuels, thousands of men, women and children in countries such as Sierra Leone are used as slaves to extract diamonds. They are often forced to use primitive, back-breaking methods such as digging into mud or gravel along river banks with their bare hands. The collected material is then separated using hand-held slaves.

Questions "Is the 'conflict trade' limited to diamonds?" No. According to Global Witness, rebel fighters and army units have hijacked the trade in mineral ores, used in the production of mobile phones and computers, from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), while subjecting the local population to massacres, rape, extortion, and forced labor.

Sources http://www.brilliantearth.com/blood-diamond/ http://www.brilliantearth.com/kimberley-process/ http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/26/world/africa/blood-diamonds/ http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/business-and-human-rights/oil-gas-and-mining-industries/conflict-diamonds http://money.howstuffworks.com/african-diamond-trade2.htm