Blood Diamonds
Conflict or "blood" diamonds are so termed because of their role in funding the brutal wars in Angola and Sierra Leone. Using slave labor, rebel groups such as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) are able to
mine and smuggle diamonds across the Angolan and Sierra Leone borders, into Liberia. Both rebel groups have built their army with boys from the villages they have raided. The boys, many as young as 8, are brainwashed into thinking that the rebel army is now their family and given drugs and alcohol to induce violent behavior. Up to date, more than 50,000 people have lost their lives and thousands more have lost limbs to the RUF's machete campaign to "punish" those who voted in the 1996 Sierra Leone elections. Short sleeves or long sleeves is the question posed as victims are asked if they want their arms amputated from the wrists or the elbows. Although there are bans for transporting diamonds out of these two regions, once a diamond has been removed from its original setting, there is no way of knowing where it came from. Hence, blood diamonds become intermixed with diamonds on the international market and are sold all over the world. Although sanctions have made it necessary for every diamond that goes into the international market to carry a 'Certificate of Origin,' and there is now relative peace in these regions, documents are not impossible to forge. In this way, that pretty diamond engagement ring on Tiffany’s finger could have and probably has cost one or more lives.