Peace is precious

The release of the film Blood Diamond is a reminder that diamonds must never again be allowed to fuel conflict in Africa.
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This week the Hollywood film Blood Diamond opens in London. In the film, one character says, "People wouldn't want a diamond if they knew it had cost a person their hand". Yet jewellery retailers state that they simply don't get asked about the origins of their diamonds very often.

Over the past 10 years several African countries have been embroiled in devastating and brutal conflicts fuelled, in part, by the scramble for their natural mineral and timber wealth. During the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) bloody civil war an estimated four million people died. In Sierra Leone a bloody insurgency spread terror by hacking the limbs off civilians.

Although most of us in Europe were either blissfully unaware of, or chose to ignore, the destruction being wreaked across the continent, commodities, used throughout our society fuelled these conflicts. Diamonds fuelled the war in DRC and Sierra Leone, as well as earlier conflicts in the 1980's. Oil, timber, coltan and cassiterite have also been controlled and traded by rebel armies for arms.

Today, many of these conflicts have given way to fragile peace agreements - as I saw myself on a mission to DRC last year. But the temptation for rebel groups to trade diamonds for guns remains strong, especially when they see corrupt politicians signing away mining rights to foreign companies for self-enrichment. Today in eastern DRC, groups still fight over control of diamond mines. The artesanal miners that I met in Mbuji-Mayi in DRC, who dig in the rivers for diamonds and earn a dollar a day (a good wage in the DRC) are the losers.

The good news is that consumer and political pressure has sparked widespread changes in the diamond trade. The Kimberley Process is a global certification scheme that requires diamond-producing governments to certify their diamond exports as conflict-free. It includes every major diamond exporting and importing country in the world - over 70 governments. The scheme is named after the town in South Africa where the process was agreed in 2003. There, 100 years earlier, Cecil Rhodes, DeBeers owner, had made his diamond fortune. At the same time, the diamond industry promised to implement a system of warranties which would track diamonds "from the mine to the high street".

Today, "blood diamonds" are a very small part of the diamond trade. While the Kimberley Process has played an important role, this is mainly down to the African peace agreements which have ended the wars that diamonds fuelled. But there's no guarantee that diamonds will not again fuel the type of devastation that Africa saw 10 years ago.

Smuggling is still a problem in the diamond trade. Last year, the UN reported that diamonds worth up to $23 million a year were being smuggled out of the northern rebel-held areas of Cote d'Ivoire. From there, diamonds were smuggled to neighbouring countries, some being certified as conflict-free and sold on the international diamond market. Smuggling has recently been reported from Zimbabwe to South Africa, involving Congolese diamonds from conflict areas. Widespread smuggling has also been reported in Brazil.

Even if "blood diamonds" remain a small proportion of the international diamond market, a handful of diamonds can fund a planeload of guns. That's why it doesn't become the $60bn a year diamond industry to spend $15m telling the world that blood diamonds are no longer a problem. Instead they should spend time and effort on properly implementing and monitoring the system of warranties promised several years ago. Reports by groups like Global Witness and Amnesty International suggest that this issue still has a low-level of awareness in the jewellery retail sector and among consumers.

Governments too need to play their part. Without proper standards and funding, as well as political will to tighten up the loopholes in the Kimberley Process, the system may not survive another bout of violence. It is imperative that it does. It needs a properly funded secretariat and a proper system of regulation and international oversight.

Customers pushed governments and the diamond industry to the table in the first place. They need to keep up the pressure now. Because surely the journalist in Blood Diamond is right when she says: "People wouldn't want a diamond if they knew it had cost a person their hand". Yet jewellery retailers state that they simply don't get asked about the origins of their diamonds very often.

Let's make sure that changes. Anyone buying a diamond should ask some basic questions - "how can I be sure that none of your jewellery contains 'blood diamonds'? Do you know where the diamonds you sell come from? Can you show me a written guarantee from your suppliers stating that your diamonds are conflict-free? What is your company's policy on conflict diamonds?"

Diamonds are forever. Further reform to the diamond trade would make sure that peace in Africa is too.

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