Blood Diamonds in Africa
Focus on Sierra Leone
HL 322 Summer 2012
Team "Diamonds in the Rough" Ben Fladung, Courtney Johnson, Chelsea McGrath
Blood diamonds, also known as “conflict diamonds,” are diamonds that hail from countries involved in conflict and civil war. Among Africa’s most notable blood diamond suppliers are the nations of Sierra Leone, Angola, The Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. These nations, as with many other African nations fuel their civil wars with the profits of diamond mining and sales. In order to purchase weapons and conceal financing, warlords pay in stone. This rock currency is successfully upheld by the men, women and children who mine with only shovels, picks, and pans.
There are approximately one million miners in Africa who earn less than a dollar a day. This insufficient wage is hindering basic necessities such as running water and sanitation. Hunger, infant mortality, and illiteracy also run ramped through mining camps. Going hand in hand with wages, work conditions are often poor and dangerous. Most mining operations are operated by men without formal training or expertise. Public health of these nations is also affected by the diamond mines.
In March 1991, hundreds of men crossed the Liberian border and attacked towns in eastern and southern Sierra Leone, starting the war over conflict diamonds. In early 1992, an inhumane, savaged group of men, who called themselves the Revolutionary United Front (R.U.F.), took control over the diamond capital of Sierra Leone, Kono. The National Provisional Ruling Council (N.P.R.C.) stood up in arms in efforts of stabilizing the region and restoring democratic civilian rule. In hopes of disarming the R.U.F., the N.P.R.C. initiated “Operation Genesis.”
This operation proved to be unsuccessful and lead to vicious attacks by the R.U.F. on Sierra Leone during the elections of 1996. The R.U.F. used a plethora of techniques to discourage local voters and maintain power and control of the mines. They often hacked off the hands and feet of adults, teens, children, and even babies. Although the R.U.F. was responsible for these atrocious acts, they were still invited to participate in the elections. Newly elected president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah offered a peace agreement to the R.U.F. in November 1996.
After signing a peace agreement in Abidjan, president Kabbah gave the R.U.F. an opportunity to become a legitimate political party. Not only did the R.U.F. turn down this opportunity, they conspired with insurgents of the Sierra Leonean army and formed the Armed Forces Ruling Council (A.F.R.C.), who in turn ousted Kabbah. During the merger of the R.U.F. and Leonean insurgents, no international interventions were put in place on behalf of the Sierra Leoneans. It wasn’t until February 1998, when Nigerian-led forces removed A.F.R.C. rebels from Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone and reinstated Kabbah. Nigerian forces eventually crumbled and a recharged R.U.F. emerged back onto the scene and killed an estimated 6,000 civilians in January 1999.
Global Overview
Violent crime and sex trading are often intertwined with diamond mining towns. This sex trade leads to the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Environmental issues have also plagued the nations with further diseases. After a mining pit is abandoned, it fills with rain water, becomes stagnant and eventually leads to a breeding ground for mosquitos carrying malaria. Although the local governments are earning substantial revenue from the diamond industry, they fail to reinvest it in the local communities in hopes of improving health care, education and the economy.
By the means of taxation and profit-sharing arrangements, government officials in the nation of Angola earn about 150 million per year in diamond revenues. Even with this abundance of funds, Angola’s unable to properly facilitate public schooling, fresh water supply systems, and any form of healthcare. Productive investment of funds by government officials is hindered by a weak political system, incompetence, and corruption. President Bozize of the Central African Republic and President Mugabe of Zimbabwe both use diamond revenues to fund their military operations and uphold their rule. The dream of effectively managing a nation’s natural resources such as diamonds is possible. In the country of Botswana, government officials have successfully instituted primary education and built health care facilities and roads with the aid of diamond revenues.
Due to the efforts of the diamond industry along with government and non-government groups, the steady influx of conflict diamonds onto the global market has slowed to crawl. By instituting current stop-gap measures, the diamond industry has decreased the flow of blood diamonds out of Africa. This institution of the stop-gap measure is known as the Kimberly Process.
In May of 2000, a multi-national agreement was discussed in the city of Kimberly, giving rise to the Kimberly Process. In November of 2002, an agreement was reached between the world’s diamond producing nations and the diamond industry. The Kimberly Process outlined a number of different criteria that must be followed in order to participate in diamond trading. The agreement stated that the country providing the stone must provide a certificate of origin for the stone and must affirm that profits made from the sale of diamonds will not go to warlords. The Kimberly Process is currently responsible for processing approximately 98% of the world’s diamonds.
Sierra-Leone Overview
Former Liberian president and warlord Charles Taylor stood behind the R.U.F. rebels and acted as the backbone to the organization. Not only did Charles Taylor supply weapons to the R.U.F., but he also trained, mentored, and participated in the illicit trade of diamonds. In order to purchase weapons and reinforce military strength, Charles Taylor used the R.U.F. to amalgamate a large amount of illicit diamonds into the global trade. Violence in Sierra Leone continued to escalate and by July of 1999, the Sierra Leonean government was forced to sign another peace agreement, this time in Lome, Togo. This agreement opened up cabinet positions to the R.U.F. with the opportunity to become legitimized. With no intentions of rebuilding Sierra Leone, the R.U.F. disregarded the agreement and focused its energy on regaining control over the diamond mines in the Kono District and Tongo Field. Due to the lack of any large scale international interventions, thousands of Sierra Leoneans were killed and mutilated.
It was until 10 years after the war began that the United Nations intervened. The U.N. put sanctions on Liberia that included a ban on Liberian diamond sales, a travel ban on Liberian officials, and tougher weapon sanctions. One year following these sanctions, the U.N. got seriously involved in the war in Sierra Leone. The U.N. assembled a 17,000-man peacekeeping force to “uphold the provisions of the Lome agreement.” The U.N. has also convicted Charles Taylor of committing war crimes.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison form aiding and abetting war crimes. Following World War II, Taylor is the only former head of state to be convicted in international court for war crimes.
We chose Sierra Leone because it's in the top three diamond producing countries in South Africa. It had also been in the media lately Charles Taylor was recently convicted for war crimes that occurred during the civil war in Sierra Leone over conflict diamonds.