Putting a Stop to Blood Diamonds By U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Miami Herald December 22, 2006 Most people see diamonds as symbols of beauty and romance, but for millions of innocent people in Africa, diamonds have funded conflicts that destroyed their lives and livelihoods. The new movie “Blood Diamond” will give many Americans a window onto how these diamonds are mined by exploiting innocent people, and sold to finance criminal activity. The more Americans who know about the horrors of blood diamonds, the better able we will be to stop this violent trade, both by educating consumers and toughening up the laws meant to stop these diamonds from entering the country. The term “blood diamond” was coined by human rights organizations in the late 1990s to refer to stones that fuel a conflict by financing criminal activity. Innocent citizens, many of them children, are forced to mine the gems in hazardous conditions while rebel groups reap large profits, which are used to pay for weapons that breed brutal violence. In the past decade, the sale of blood diamonds – also called “conflict diamonds” -- fuelled civil wars resulting in over 4 million deaths and the displacement of millions of people in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and now Ivory Coast. The new movie takes place during the Angolan civil war of the 1990s, but blood diamonds are not a problem of the past. Just two months ago, a United Nations panel of experts published its findings that $23 million in conflict diamonds from the Ivory Coast are being smuggled into diamond markets around the world today, and that diamonds continue to cause instability and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Clearly, existing government controls are not strong enough and are insufficiently enforced. Fortunately, the U.S. -- the largest consumer of diamonds in the world -- is one of seventy governments taking part in the Kimberly Process, which requires governments to establish import and export control systems to certify that diamond shipments through their countries are conflict-free. Unfortunately, a recent review found that while important progress has been made, serious loopholes remain that must be closed to stop diamonds from funding conflict in Africa and elsewhere. The United States should ensure that its domestic certification system is effective and work to strengthen the international Kimberley Process scheme. The Clean Diamond Trade Act, which I worked to pass in 2003, included a provision requiring an in-depth government review of the system established by the Act. The final report, published in September, revealed that blood diamonds may be entering the United States due to poor enforcement and a failure by the U.S. diamond industry to abide by its promise to police itself in support of the Kimberley Process. Both to discourage the mining and sale of blood diamonds and to promote legitimate diamond trade, the United States should have regular, independent, and systematic monitoring of diamond imports and exports. The American diamond industry needs to adopt and enforce a credible system to make sure that companies are verifiably adhering to the scheme and responsibly sourcing diamonds. American consumers also have a big role to play in stopping blood diamonds. Anyone buying a diamond should ask the retailer if the gem is certifiably conflict-free and the retailer should be able to produce evidence of an audit of their system of warranties. Legitimate diamond sales support the livelihoods of many hardworking Africans, but gems extracted by force and sold to buy weapons only destroy innocent lives. Much work remains to put a stop to the illicit diamond trade that continues to fuel violence, finance criminals, and exploit people and their environments. We should close loopholes that allow blood diamonds to enter the U.S., and American consumers can make sure that they don’t mistakenly buy these diamonds at their local jewelry store. If we are committed to ending this vicious cycle, we can support legitimate diamond mining in Africa, and let the innocent people scarred by this violence know that Americans want no part of this bloody trade. Senator Russ Feingold is the incoming Chairman and a 14-year member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on African Affairs. He was an original cosponsor of the Clean Diamonds Act in 2001 and in April 2003 similar legislation became law.