Maybe where your diamonds come from is a reasonable question!!!!!!!
It is beauty mixed with blood, a stolen sparkle from an eye of someone craving a descent life, very valuable yet not as valuable as two hands to whom lost it, or maybe a life to whom doesn’t exist anymore... It is Blood diamonds. Diamonds are the most valuable gift, weather to express love, to start a relationship, or just to admire the beauty of it, but when the beauty causes loss of a life, a civil war, slavery and violence like someone losing his hands.. Where is the beauty?
Blood diamonds also known as Conflict diamonds are diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.
Blood Diamonds are often produced through the forced labor of men, women and children. They are also stolen during shipment or seized by attacking the mining operations of legitimate producers. These attacks can be on the scale of a large military operation. The stones are then smuggled into the international diamond trade and sold as legitimate gems. These diamonds are often the main source of funding for the rebels, however, arms merchants, smugglers and dishonest diamond traders enable their actions. Enormous amounts of money are at stake and bribes, threats, torture, and murder are modes of operation. This is why the term "blood diamonds" is used.
According to the UN conflict diamonds can no longer be identified once polished so that means that blood diamonds might be among our hands and in our homes, yet we have no clue.
The United Nations and other groups are working to block the entry of conflict diamonds into the worldwide diamond trade. Their approach has been to develop a government certification procedure known as the “Kimberly Process”. This procedure requires each nation to certify that all rough diamond exports are produced through legitimate mining and sales activity. All rough diamonds exported from these nations are to be accompanied by certificates. These certificates state that the diamonds were produced, sold and exported through legitimate channels. The certification process accounts for all rough diamonds, through every step of their movement, from mine to retail sale. Retail customers buying a cut diamond are encouraged to insist upon a sales receipt that documents that their diamond originated from a conflict free source.
The legitimate diamond trade provides jobs for over 10 million workers and brings prosperity to areas where this activity occurs. Support of the Kimberly Process by all nations and consumers can convert slavery into jobs and smuggling into respected commerce. The efforts are working. Today, due to these efforts, the majority of all diamonds produced come from conflict free sources. Despite of the Kimberly process and the awareness that didn’t exist before, blood diamonds still exist, yet with a much smaller percentage
The most beautiful things can turn out to be so ugly, and blood diamonds are a very good example. Awareness is the key, people should be aware of blood diamonds, and close monitoring on the countries of origin should be constant to stop this crime against humanity and nature.
note: There's a movie titled "Blood Diamond" explains the whole story and visualize the tragedy, this movie directed me to search and find out whether these stories are true or not.
