A Glimpse Into What A Blood Diamond Is

The Leonardo DiCaprio movie "Blood Diamond" really brought to the world's attention just how dangerous the diamond industry can be. Also known as a conflict diamond, the definition of this type of diamond is one that originates from a place manipulated by militia or other type of forces that are not legitimate ruling entities or follow recognized governmental rule. Typically, the sale of these diamonds is used to fund military coups and other actions.

A Controversial History

The sale of blood diamonds has been going for quite some time, although it wasn't until the dawn of the 21st century that the United Nations and other entities really started paying closer attention to the practice. You see, most mining of these conflict diamonds is done in secret and therefore is the reason why the practice had gone undetected for so long.

Africa has long been the diamond capital of the world, with mines in a number of countries across the continent. It is in some of these countries like Liberia, the Congo area, Angola and even Sierra Leone where civil unrest is common. War is expensive and the blood diamond trade is what funds the purchase of weaponry as well as training and additional manpower.

The average person buying a diamond, whether in a pair of earrings, a bracelet or even an engagement ring has no idea whether they have bought a blood diamond or not. It is a fact of the diamond trade that millions of people walk around wearing diamond jewelry that have no idea how much blood was shed in the mining of them because if they did, the sale of this jewelry would drop.

Eliminating Bloodshed

There is a global effort in place to try and eradicate the sale of the blood diamond and it is called The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. This effort began in South Africa and consists of tracking the rough diamonds from their mining origins all the way to the sale of them. It is the hope of this global effort that the blood diamond trade from the most probable conflicted places would be denied any sales.

If these factions trying to ply the blood diamond trade cannot sell their diamonds, then they would have to give up this avenue of funding their military coups. Each country with diamond business in Africa as well as others around the world has begun putting parameters in place to ensure that these conflicted diamonds to not make it to their own jewelry stores.