Behind 'The Blood Diamond': Learn More and Get Involved
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Leonardo DiCaprio said this week that filming "The Blood Diamond" was one of the toughest things he's ever done, and the experience will stay with him the rest of his life. The movie, which opens in the United States Friday, is sure to shed new light on the serious issues of diamond mining, conflict, and child soldiering in Africa.
Sierra Leone, where the movie takes place, has turned the corner from war to peace. But for Sierra Leone's people, the process of recovery has only begun, and diamond mining remains linked to human exploitation and conflict in far too many places. OneWorld has been covering the efforts of non-profit organizations working to improve the lives of those impacted by diamond mining operations and conflict worldwide. We've brought together some key links and information to help you get more informed before you watch the movie, and more involved long after. Sierra Leone
The RUF incorporated child soldiers into their ranks, typically through abduction and forced recruitment. The conflict was prolonged by income from the sale of diamonds by rebels, and by support from then-Liberian-president Charles Taylor, who is currently in custody in The Hague, awaiting trial by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for crimes against humanity and his role in fueling the civil war in Sierra Leone. Following a Nigerian intervention into the country in 2000, a ceasefire was declared and the civil war ended. United Nations peacekeeping forces withdrew in 2005, and the country is beginning to heal the physical and psychological scars of the conflict. To learn more about child soldiers and blood diamonds in Sierra Leone, and to read about the country’s recovery and development, visit the International Rescue Committee’s News Index. GlobalGiving offers individuals the opportunity to support high-impact, grassroots projects around the world. This holiday season, consider supporting a project to bring music into the lives of Sierra Leone's youth. Plus, RSS or bookmark OneWorld's full coverage on Sierra Leone to stay up-to-date with new developments and features from the country. Blood Diamonds
Blood diamonds featured in the Sierra Leone civil war and in Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, and the continued instability in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), among other places. Just this month, as Survival International reports, the Bushmen of Botswana’s Kalahari have appealed to DiCaprio to assist them in protecting their land from diamond mining, which they say threatens their livelihood and their survival as a people. Other celebrities, including supermodels Iman, Erin O'Connor, and Lily Cole, have lent their voices to the campaign to boycott De Beers, the company that runs the country's diamond mines alongside the Botswanan government. Given diamonds’ controversial role in financing civil war and fueling conflict, international activist pressure led in 2003 to the launch of the Kimberly Process--a system of international certification requirements to verify that a diamond doesn't come from a conflict zone. But many question the effectiveness of these protocols. According to Amnesty International, "government controls in the United States and in other countries are not strong enough or enforced
Visit the Blood Diamond Action Web site to find out more about the ongoing problem of blood diamonds and what you can do about it. If you're in the market for a diamond or you know someone who is, be sure to check out this buyer's guide (.pdf format) from Amnesty International. And if you're headed to the film, why not bring along a few flyers (.pdf format) to educate fellow movie goers about how they can take action against conflict diamonds? And diamonds aren’t the only bit of fancy jewelry financing civil war and oppression. As Oxfam’s No Dirty Gold campaign explains, gold mining also bears the scars of conflict, destruction, and human rights abuse. In places such as the DRC, control of gold mines has been at the heart of some of the fighting. And in many Latin American countries, local communities protesting mining operations in their area have been intimidated, brutalized, and violently suppressed. Child Soldiers
Many children are used as messengers, porters, and cooks, and are often forced into providing sexual services during times of conflict. But the proliferation of lightweight automatic weapons has greatly enhanced the usefulness of children as soldiers too. In the DRC "child combatants are often considered ideal recruits by armed groups because they are relatively easy to manipulate, unlikely to question the group's motives, and arouse little suspicion," according to the advocacy group Refugees International. Children are not only the people most readily exploited into war; by the very nature of their immaturity they can often be induced to committing some of war's greatest atrocities. A child’s role in conflict has, of course, not only significant educational and physical implications for his or her development, but long-term psychological consequences. In addition to working to stop the recruitment of children into armed conflicts, many organizations are helping to reintegrate youths back into their communities after their soldiering days.
A 2005 Refugees International mission to Rwanda and the DRC showed--in pictures--the immense difficulties faced by many former child soldiers as they attempt to re-enter civilian life. The group is now calling for demobilization programs in the DRC to give special attention to girl combatants. And as Sri Lanka has experienced a renewed surge of violence in recent months, Refugees International has expressed new worries about increasing child soldier recruitment in that South Asian country as well. For more background on child soldiering visit:
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Comment List
"Edward Zwick's Film "Blood Diamond""Author:
Eugene Harkins
Time: 01/24/2007 21:05
Comment: Review of the film "Blood Diamond" as appeared in the New York Times on Dec. 22, 2007
Long on Violence Short on Understanding, December 22, 2006 Reviewer: multiling. Blood Diamond shocks the viewer with scenes of senseless carnage but offers no insight into the sad and tragic civil war in Sierra Leone.The poor West African country has endured centuries of enslavement and exploitation by European whites (the Portuguese, the Spanish,the British) and corrupt African officials. When insurrection broke out in 1991, the RUF had a valid and just cause. The country was mired in abject poverty and misery while outsiders (including the local Lebanese)pillaged its rich natural resources. While the RUF were soon corrupted by their ceaseless quest to control the diamond trade and their brutal tactics to achieve political power, the film's simplistic portrayal of them as violent drug-crazed thugs and robot-like child soldiers completely excludes the legitimacy of their original cause. Of equal importance and a central contradiction within the film itself is its duplicitous presentation of the so-called Kimberly Process, which seeks to trace raw diamonds from discovery down through the marketing process, in order to ban so-called "blood diamonds" used to finance African insurrections. How convenient for the diamond cartel that seeks to maintain high world prices by restricting supply! The Kimberly Process offers little to the poor and dispossessed majority of Sierra Leoneans and does nothing to respond to their developmental needs. Eugene Harkins, author Where Witch Birds Fly A novel on the civil war in Sierra Leone |
"Center for Global Development MeetUp on Blood Diamonds"Author:
Sarah Jane Hise
Time: 12/11/2006 23:04
Comment: The Center for Global Development will be hosting its first Global Development MeetUp on the blockbuster movie "Blood Diamond" on Wednesday, December 13 at 7:30 p.m. at RFD in Chinatown (810 7th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.). We will be discussing the movie and the implications of conflict diamonds on developing nations. CGD’s Todd Moss and Kaysie Brown just released a note on the issue of conflict diamonds in Africa, Freetown to Hollywood: The Kimberley Process Takes on Africa's 'Blood Diamonds', considering the strengths and limitations of industry efforts to break the deadly link between diamonds and conflict and offer consumers tips on how to buy conflict-free diamonds.
Our Global Development MeetUps are intended to be informal group discussions and community building events for anyone interested in international development issues and topics. We look forward to getting to know you better this Wednesday at RFD’s. Please feel free to come whether you have seen the movie or not and if we don’t get to see you this time, we look forward to seeing you at our next MeetUp. |
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