Blood Diamonds Essay Example For Students

Blood Diamonds Essay Imagine you are walking through Sierra Leone, a beautiful, lush landscape surrounded by tall trees in the summer sun. Sierra Leone is a small country located on the northwest side of Africa?s coast that encompasses approximately 45,000 square miles of mountainous terrain, about 7% of which is arable (Affairs 2010). The country has a mixture of verdant rain forests, beautiful beaches, and more than six million people living within its borders. Then imagine yourself walking around a bend, discovering a large center of slaves working on their hands and knees in muddy riverbeds in search for diamonds. In addition to the diverse foliage, Sierra Leone is also home to deposits of diamonds, titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold, and chromite (Affairs 2010). For Sierra Leoneans, these resources, diamond deposits in particular, have been a curse for they have been the basis for much conflict and war. Because of their small size, diamonds can, with little effort be transported or smuggled out o f the country and sold into the black market. There are two types of diamonds in Sierra Leone: alluvial diamonds, which are found in shallow riverbeds and kimberlite diamonds, which are found in concentrated mines. Because diamonds can be smuggled out of the country so easily for such high profit, they have become both a reason to fight and a factor in creating revenue in order to purchase firearms and other provisions. One group who came to power as a result of their control overwas the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Because Sierra Leone has such a weak property rights regime over diamonds, rebels from the RUF seized full control of the diamond deposits away from the government. This seizure boiled over into a decade long war between the RUF to determine who controls the property rights to the diamond deposits. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the overall role of blood diamonds in Sierra Leone. I will first present a brief background on diamonds that will transition into the role of diamonds in initiating, exacerbating, and eventually ending the war in Sierra Leone. Finally, I will end this analysis with a discussion of the post-war challenges Sierra Leone faces in developing as a peaceful, unified country. Despite having some of the most beautiful scenery in West Africa, Sierra Leone has often been described as one of the most economically poor countries in the world. Since the discovery of diamonds in Sierra Leone in 1932, the country has managed to export over 32 million carats of diamonds (Hirsch 2000). Prior to the conflict with the RUF, the diamond industry was comprised of several corporate mining companies. In addition to these diamond companies, Sierra Leone also used what is called the Alluvial Diamond Mining Scheme (ADMS). Through this, small diamond producers were granted licenses that enabled them to mine for diamonds, typically using labor-intensive mining techniques (Hirsch 2000). The most common method for diamond mining in Sierra Leone is the sifting through gravel from river banks, river bets, and small pits (Conflict Free 2009). Unfortunately, the majority of workers in this type of work have no ownership over the diamonds they are unearthing. Because the diamonds mined through the Alluvial Diamond Mining Scheme are ultimately sold through chains of small dealers to one of the corporate mining companies to be exported, the ADMS s eems to have only two main purposes: ?to appease traditional rulers in the Eastern province and to obtain diamonds through labor-intensive, non-capitalist labor that could not be obtained profitably by the larger corporations (Zack-Williams, 206).? The corporate structure behind the Alluvial Diamond Mining Scheme is dominated by a company named DeBeers. Through Lauren Thompson?s report Sierra Leone: 1935-2000, she explains how ?in 1935, DeBeers gained full rights to the diamond industry in Sierra Leone until the year 2034 (Thompson 2000).? Later in her report, Thompson discusses the role of Lebanese traders in Sierra Leone and their attitudes towards diamond smuggling. ?These traders quickly discovered smuggling diamonds brought easy profits, and illicit mining and trading grew throughout the country (Thompson 2000).? As soon as word spread concerning diamond smuggling, thousands of people flocked to Sierra Leone creating an overwhelming diamond rush in 1950. Because of the new infl ux of people, the government was no longer able to police the diamond districts (Abdullah 1998). Ultimately, with the government completely removed from the diamond industry as well as the diamonds being dispersed over such a large territory, diamonds were now seen as a good that could be socially looted, becoming the object of conflict in Sierra Leone. The diamond conflict in Sierra Leone is often credited to Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia. Taylor is known to have directly sponsored diamond bandits in Sierra Leone. Following the illegal attainment of diamonds, these same bandits were then responsible for smuggling the diamonds across the border into Liberia. In an article concerning regional peacekeeping in Sierra Leone, Steven Burgess states that ?The failure of the United States to respond to pleas from its traditional Liberian ally during the disintegration of the dictatorship of Samuel Doe in 1990 permitted a rebel incursion to escalate into a protracted conflict; subsequently, it spilled over into Sierra Leone, a similarly weak state? (Burgess 1998, 41). The decade-long war in Sierra Leone is heavily linked to Taylor?s actions in financing diamond bandits and introducing the ability to finance war through diamond smuggling. Raging Waters EssayPost-Conflict development and the social implications brought on by the war in Sierra Leone are still a pressing issue for all members that society. The social implications of the war alone are enough to severely cripple the country. Following the civil war, Sierra Leone experienced a large influx of orphans, many of who served with the RUF as combatants. With the RUF expelled, these children must now live side by side with the very people they once terrorized, raped and murdered (Azar et al 1999). The fact that previous combatants and victims are living side by side in such an unstable economy allows for a high risk for future conflict. Although most child soldiers were not punished for their actions due to the recruitment methods by the RUF, there is still a high need for restorative justice that provides a sense of community and calm for both victims and combatants (Peters and Richards 1998). In addition to social growth that needs to take place, economic development is also necessary to prevent future conflict. According to the World Bank, in order to create a sustainable economy that will prevent future war in a post-war country is the diversification of GDP away from one specific commodity or good (World Bank). For Sierra Leone, this commodity is without a doubt diamonds. However, if Sierra Leone decided to reduce its dependence on income from the sale of diamonds, the government would not receive nearly as much revenue because so much of Sierra Leone?s resources are diamonds. Also, steps would have to be taken to police the diamond fields if they were not going to be mined as heavily in order to prevent the looting and exploitation of diamond deposits by yet another rebel incursion. Overall, the increased opportunity cost of not depending so much on revenue generated from the selling of rough diamonds is a testament to how difficult the conditions are currently being faced by the government of Sierra Leone. Works CitedAbdullah, I. (1998). Bush Path to Destruction: The Origin and Character of the Revolutionary United Front/Sierra Leone. The Journal of Modern African Studies , 203-235. Affairs, B. o. (2010, August 17). Background Notes on Countries of the World: Sierra Leone. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from U.S. Department of State: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5475.htmAriovich, G. (1985). The Economics of Diamond Price Movements. Managerial and Decision Economics , 234-240. Azar, F., Mullet, E., Vinsonneau, G. (1999). The Propensity to Forgive: Findings from Lebanon. Journal of Peace Research , 1-2. Bank, W. (2010). Postcrisis Growth and Development. Washington, DC: EXTOP. Burgess, S. F. (1998). African Security in the Twenty-First Century: The Challenges of Indigenization and Multilateralism. African Studies Review , 37-61. Conflict Free Blood Diamonds: Sierra Leone. (2009). Retrieved November 14, 2010, from All About Gemstones: http://www.allaboutgemstones.com/conflict-diamonds_sierra-leone.htmlEpstein, E. J. (1982, February). Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? Retrieved November 11, 2010, from The Atlantic Monthly: www.theatlantic.com/issues/82feb/8202diamond1.htmFogelberg, K., Thalmann, A. (2004). Amputation as a Strategy of Terror in Sierra Leone. High Plains Applied Anthropologist , 158-173. Hirsch, J. L. (2000). Sierra Leone: Diamonds and the Struggle for Democracy. Boulder: Lynne Rienner. Kandeh, J. D. (2005). The Criminalization of the RUF Insurgency in Sierra Leone. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. Murphy, W. P. (2003). Military Patrimonialism and Child Soldier Clientalism in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean Civil Wars. African Studies Review , 61-87. Peters, K., Richards, P. (1998). Why We Fight: Voices of Youth Combatants in Sierra Leone. Journal of the International African Institute , 183-210. Prosecuting Foday Sankoh. (2000, May 5). New York Times , p. 26. Pugh, M., Cooper, N., Goodhand, J. (2004). War Economies in a Regional Context: Challenges of Transformation. Boulder: Lynne Rienner. Schaeffer, C. (2007). Doomed for Failure: The Lom? Peace Accord and the United Nations. New England Political Science Association , 1. Stanton, L. (2002, February 14). Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even if They Really Want to Give You One. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from Field Guide to the U.S. Economy: http://www.fguide.org/?p=53Thompson, L. (2000, July 1). Sierra Leone: 1935-2000. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from Professional Jewlers Magazine: http://www.professionaljeweler.com/archives/hottopics/sierraleone1.htmlZack-Williams, A. (1995). Tributors, Supporters and Merchant Capital: Mining and Underdevelopment in Sierra Leone (Making of Modern Africa). Brookfield: Ashgate.