When a person owns a diamond it gives him or her sense of status, feeling of being wealthy as well as symbolizes eternal love. However, you may be surprised to learn that these very diamonds also stand for bloodshed, anarchy and genocide, and there are many conflict diamonds that are synonymous of Africa’s killing fields. Such diamonds are known as conflict diamonds mainly because they originate from the war zones where illegal obtained diamonds are traded and the money obtained from such trade is funneled into funding subversive activities.

Groups Controlling The Diamond Trade

There are groups that control the local diamond trade who may actually be fighting their governments. Such activities have a dastardly effect on the unsuspecting populations of those countries that are a part of the trading in conflict diamonds. Among the countries most affected by the terror inflicted by traders in conflict diamonds are Liberia, Sierra Leone and also Angola. Prominent among the military groups involved in such trade are the UNITA in Angola, Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone and even the government of Liberia that funds rebel activities in Sierra Leone without paying any heed to the international condemnation such activities are eliciting.

The trading in conflict diamonds is complex and the first step in this direction is to cache rough diamonds from the mines, and the money obtained from selling these diamonds is then used to buy arms and ammunitions. These diamonds are sold through contacts in neighboring countries and after the stones are polished, ascertaining their origins becomes next to impossible. One method used in curbing the trade in conflict diamonds is cutting off trade with those countries that are involved in selling such diamonds and thus choking the funding channels in order to put an end to the strife such trade causes.

The benefits to countries that put an end to trading in conflict diamonds is immense and it could mean better economic development and prosperity, which is why they need to invest in having an improved and legitimate diamond trading infrastructure. With the institution of curbs in conflict diamonds such as the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, there has been a dramatic improvement in the picture vis-à-vis its trade and there has also been a noticeable decline in its trade.

Nevertheless, resourceful and unscrupulous groups still manage to elude the legal barriers and still find ways of infiltrating the diamond centers of the world. Thus, though it may not be feasible to totally put an end to trading in conflict diamonds, there is a pressing need for the world to dissociate from the diamonds that emanate from conflict diamonds countries, and thus help put an end to the strife and genocide that ensues from its trading.