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Conflict
Diamond |
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| A conflict
diamond (also called a blood diamond) is a diamond mined
in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order
to finance an insurgent or invading army's war efforts. |
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| The United
Nations has decried the sale of conflict diamonds, arguing
that their trade finances armies in fighting against legitimate
governments and perpetrating human rights abuses, and
prolongs devastating wars. It points to the UNITA rebels
in Angola and to the Revolutionary United Front rebels
in Sierra Leone (who it states are financed by the government
of Liberia, also through diamond sales) as purveyors of
conflict diamonds. |
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| The UN
is attempting to implement certification procedures
to decrease the number of illicit diamonds on the
world market. The World Diamond Council adopted
at Antwerp on July 19, 2000, a resolution to strengthen
the diamond industry's ability to block sales of
conflict diamonds. |
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| In 2002
the UN approved the Kimberley Process scheme aimed at
preventing conflict diamonds entering the market.
Countries such as Canada have used concerns
about conflict diamonds to present domestically-produced
diamonds as an ethical alternative which avoids the
risk of unknowingly purchasing a blood diamond. |
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| Other
substances are sometimes sold the same way as conflict
diamonds, such as coltan. A large
part of the plot of the 2002 James Bond film Die Another
Day revolved around the smuggling of conflict diamonds.
For many people, this was their first mainstream exposure
to the term and the concept. The topic of conflict diamond
was also the subject of an episode of Law & Order,
"Soldier of Fortune." |
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