African Blood Diamonds
By: Rachel Richardson
"Blood Diamonds" are valued stones mined at gunpoint by slaves and prisoners for the later wealth of the ones holding the weapons.
Government-run mine in Sierra Leone
money.howstuffworks.com
Mining the day before Christmas
www.foreignpolicy.com
Measuring a Diamonds true price
www.nytimes.com
Reason behind 'Conflict Diamonds'
Blood diamonds, or also called blood diamonds are the illegal trading and mining of diamonds to help finance civil war, african conflict, and human rights abuses. Money from the trade goes toward the buying of bear arms. The countires involved with this illegal mining are Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone a group known as the "Revolutionary United Front" threated, killed, and brutally assulted people working in some mines, until they were able to gain full control of the mines. 20,000 people have had their bodies mutated, 75,00 have been killed, and 2,000 million have left Sierra Leone overall. In 2002 the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme(KPCS) was developed to deal with diamond trading, and help keep Blood Diamonds from entering the legal diamons markets. 70 countries participate in KPCS. - http://money.howstuffworks.com/african-diamond-trade2.htm
Diamond Miners in Sierra Leone
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31vPLbOQjw&edufilter=wodFxl4T3JkH7O6r4Qxifg
I believe if the KPCS keeps doing the hard amounts of work to make sure the blood diamonds dont make it to the legitimate markets, then the problems will be resolved soon, hopefully, atleast by 2015. I believe it will take many years to get rid of all the illegal mines, but through all the hard work i should be possible.