Diamond Trade Needs More Oversight

World Vision's expert on the illegal diamond trade, lauding Edward Zwick's new movie, "Blood Diamond," contends that, while Sierra Leone's war is over, diamonds continue to fund conflicts in Africa, and that the diamond industry and governments must do more to protect the legitimate diamond trade.

Following a sneak preview of the film Friday, Rory Anderson, World Vision's senior policy advisor for Africa and expert on the illegal diamond trade praised the movie as "gripping, compelling and accurate."

The movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, traces a fictional story of a South African smuggler, an American journalist and a Sierra Leonean fisherman whose lives collide against the backdrop of Sierra Leone's diamond-funded civil war in the late 1990s. The war officially ended in 2002.

"The film's relevance goes beyond the individual situation of Sierra Leone," said Anderson. "It illustrates the incredible devastation the illegal diamond trade has caused - and continues to cause - elsewhere in Africa."

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, approximately 1,000 people die every day, as a result of an eight-year conflict that is fueled, in part, by diamond smuggling and the resulting weapons trafficking.

Buying Diamonds in the U.S.: "More than 60 percent of the diamonds on the global market are purchased in the United States," says Anderson. "As a result, Americans can play a powerful role demanding regulation and certification to ensure that these 'conflict diamonds' don't end up in our jewelry stores."

According to a 2004 survey conducted by Amnesty International and Global Witness, 59 percent of American diamond retailers were unwilling to even discuss their policy on conflict diamonds, and 11 percent admitted they had no policy at all.

But Anderson argues that boycotting diamonds isn't the answer.

"Legitimately traded diamonds, particularly in countries like South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, are being used to fund health care, education and other vital services," says Anderson. "We can't punish countries using diamonds to help their people for the crimes committed by rebel groups and others exploiting resources elsewhere."

Before buying diamonds, Anderson says, consumers should ask retailers for their policies on conflict diamonds and for certification that their diamonds were mined and sold legitimately.

Anderson, based in Washington, D.C., is available for interviews throughout this week leading up to Friday's release of "Blood Diamond." She can speak to the following issues:

1. How diamonds are smuggled and used to purchase weapons that fuel African civil wars;

2. What progress has been made to regulate the diamond trade;

3. How the implementation of U.S and international regulation efforts has fallen short and continues to allow un-certified diamonds to enter the global market;

4. What consumers should ask jewelers and their congressional representatives to do to ensure Americans aren't buying conflict diamonds - without boycotting the industry.

By World Vision