By Diamond Nexus Guest Blogger
Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, talks about diamond mining in Sierra Leone and gives us some insight into why buying a mined diamond can be a harmful choice.
Photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/Associated Press
If you’ve heard about Blood Diamonds and conflict-free diamond certification, you’ve probably heard of the Kimberley Process. It’s a global certification scheme, established in 2003, that’s supposed to ensure that mined diamonds all over the world can be traced back to their source and proven to have no association with violence at any point along the way. Over 75 countries are members.
Global Witness is an environmental and human rights advocacy group that specializes in fighting conflict and corruption related to natural resources, like mined diamonds. They were among the first to expose the Blood Diamond problem in the late 1990s and were instrumental in the foundation of the Kimberley Process. But last month, the group handed in its letter of resignation to the Chair of the Kimberley Process, quitting its role as an official Observer.
Why? The short story is that the Kimberley Process doesn’t effectively prevent violence and corruption as it was intended to do. Why not? Well, there are a number of reasons, but the biggest is that the entire scheme is self-regulated by participating nations. Diamonds are considered “clean” as long as they have the government’s seal of approval…but in countries where the government has a financial stake in the mined diamond industry, this presents a dangerous conflict of interest. Many Blood Diamonds are labeled “conflict-free” because the violence surrounding them was state-sanctioned rather than acts by rebels and criminals.
Zimbabwe is a prime example. In November of 2008, government police raided diamond fields in the Marange region, massacring between 69 and 200 diamond diggers as well as severely wounding and maiming many more. The argument for this operation was that independent diamond diggers (who work for themselves, not a legally sanctioned mining company) are a known source of conflict diamonds because they don’t sell their findings through regulated channels. (Think about it: if you dug up a diamond somewhere and wanted to sell it, how would you do it? Find somebody who’s interested and swap the rock for cash, right? Well if you do, that rock can’t be traced and certified via the Kimberley Process anymore, and could end up anywhere.) So to support regulations intended to prevent brutal violence, government police took the fields from the diggers…with brutal violence.
Um…hello?!
While Zimbabwe was briefly suspended from the Kimberley Process for this incident, the suspension was later lifted even though the same government remains in place. The Kimberley Process now endorses “unlimited diamond exports from named companies in the Marange region” where the mass killings took place. Global Witness’ founding director Charmian Gooch wrote that this move, along with similar failures and violations in other countries over several years, “has turned an international conflict prevention mechanism into a cynical corporate accreditation scheme. We now have to recognise that this scheme, begun with so many good intentions, has done much that is useful but ultimately has failed to deliver.”
Andersson, H. (2011, August 08). Soldiers tell of Zimbabwe diamond field massacre. BBC: Panorama. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9556000/9556242.stm
Eligon, J. (2011, December 05). Global Witness quits group on ‘blood diamonds’. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/world/africa/global-witness-quits-group-on-blood-diamonds.html
Global Witness leaves Kimberley Process, calls for diamond trade to be held accountable. (2011, December 05). Retrieved from http://www.globalwitness.org/library/global-witness-leaves-kimberley-process-calls- diamond-trade-be-held-accountable
Gooch, C. (2011, December 05). Why we are leaving the Kimberley Process - a message from Global Witness founding director Charmian Gooch. Retrieved from http://www.globalwitness.org/library/why-we-are-leaving-kimberley-process-message-global-witness-founding-director- charmian-gooch
This is a good information about buying diamonds. Diamonds have sort of codes to ensure that they came from a reliable source. The government’s seal of approval is very important when buying diamonds. Buying mined diamond is illegal unless proven to be legit.
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