Sierra Leone Profile
 Full Name: Republic of Sierra
Leone
 Population: 5.7 million (2009)
 Capital: Freetown
 Major Languages: English, Krio,
and various African languages.
 Major Religions: Islam and
Christianity
 Monetary Unit: Leone
 Major Exports: Diamonds, Rutile,
Cocoa, Coffee, and Fish
History of Sierra Leone
 Sierra Leone: Name means “Lion
Mountains”
 1462: Portuguese explorers arrive in
Sierra Leone, which was also already
occupied by several African tribes that
had migrated to the area.
 1500s-1700s: Traders stopped in Sierra
Leone to exchange cloth and metal
goods for ivory, timber, and slaves.
*Abolitionists later help slaves
return to Africa in what is now the
“Province of Freedom” or Freetown
in Sierra Leone. They came to be
called Krio.
History of Sierra Leone
 1808: Sierra Leone became a British
crown colony
 1839: Slaves aboard the Amistad revolt
to secure their freedom. Their leader is
Sengbe Pieh (Joseph Cinque), a young
Mende from Sierra Leone.
 1951: A constitution is enacted by the
British to begin the process of
decolonization (or when a colony
becomes self-governing)
 April 27, 1961: Sierra Leone becomes
independent with Sir Milton Margai as
its first prime minister.
Sir Milton Margai
Sengbe Pieh
(Joseph
Cinque)
History of Sierra Leone
 1971: Sierra Leone was declared a
republic, and Siaka Stevens became
executive president.
 1978: Sierra Leone became a oneparty state with the All People’s
Congress as the sole legal party.
 1985: Stevens retired and appointed
Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh
the next president. Momoh’s APC
rule was marked by increased abuse
of power.
Siaka Stevens
Civil War in Sierra Leone
 March 1991: The Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) began attacking
villages in eastern Sierra Leone.
*Goal: To rid the country of the
APC government
* Rebel leader: Foday Sankoh
 April 1992: The National Provisional
Ruling Council (NPRC) was
established, but it proved to be as
ineffective as the APC at repelling
the RUF.
 1995: The RUF held much of the
countryside in their control.
Civil War in Sierra Leone
 1996-2000: Sierra Leone tries various
campaigns to stop the RUF,
including signing a peace deal in
1996 that unraveled in 1997.
 1999: The United Nations finally
became involved in the effort to
disarm the rebels
 2001: A second peace agreement was
signed that allowed disarmament to
begin as the government regained
authority in rebel-held areas.
 January 2002: President Ahmad
Tejan Kabbah (elected in 1996)
declared the civil war officially over.
Recovery in Sierra Leone
 2002: British troops left Sierra Leone
and President Kabbah is reelected.
 Summer 2002: A Sierra Leone Special
Court begins holding a series of war
crimes trials that lasted until 2006.
 2003: Rebel leader Foday Sankoh
died.
 Many child soldiers, like Ishmael
Beah, also had to begin a personal
healing process to restore their sense
of humanity and to forgive
themselves.
The Diamond Trade in Sierra Leone
 During the civil war in Sierra Leone,
people who purchased diamonds in
the West unknowingly funded the
mission of Foday Sankoh and the
RUF
 These diamonds came to be known
as “blood diamonds” or “conflict
diamonds”
 These diamonds were specifically
mined in war zones of Africa to fund
the invading army’s efforts.
 Liberia would trade weapons and
training to Sierra Leone in exchange
of their diamonds.
BLOOD DIAMONDS
Diamonds symbolize
wealth, love, and grace
around the world
In several African nations they have
been a means to
power
a reason to terrorize millions of
innocent civilians, and may have
even helped finance some of the
world's most brutal terrorists
Where Are Diamonds Found?

Rough diamonds can either be found below the
earth’s surface through industrial mining, or in
river beds and streams through alluvial mining.

Most of the diamond deposits currently mined in
places such as Sierra Leone and Angola are
alluvial, requiring only a shovel, a pan, and hard
labor to mine.
Diamond Mining
•
•
•
•
South Africa
Namibia
Botswana
Republic of
Congo
• Sierra Leone
Where are the World’s
Blood Diamonds?



Many of the world’s diamonds
are mined in 3rd World nations.
The Term “Blood Diamond”
is used to describe a diamond
mined in a war zone, and
usually used to finance that
war.
Other terms for Blood
Diamonds are Dirty
Diamonds, Conflict Diamonds,
or War Diamonds.
Blood Diamonds
What are blood diamonds?
Also called “Conflict Diamonds,” Blood 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”
~United Nations General Assembly
December 1, 2001
Blood Diamonds
Why the diamond is such an easily traded commodity?
Large Amount of
Wealth in Small
Size
Form of Currency
Blood Diamonds
Where does the Blood Diamond Trade occur?
Botswana
Sierra Leone
Angola
Nigeria
South Africa
Namibia
Blood Diamonds
How countries like Nigeria and Sierra Leone are
affected:
Rebel Forces Use Diamonds to Finance Arms Purchases
• Many of today's
diamonds are produced
in 3rd World countries in
Africa an South America.
• The conditions under
which these diamonds
are mined are terrible
with miners working
under slave like
conditions.
• In addition in 1998 about
20% of the world’s
diamonds were being
used to finance wars of
insurgency in countries
like Angola, Sierra
Leone and the
Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC)
Todays Cycle
The Gun Cycle Continues
• Like the Historical Slave/Gun
Cycle. Guns are the product
these rebel African groups
most want. They often
enslave men, women and
children to work in the
diamond mines or may pay
them pennies a day to work.
• Once again the diamonds
end up in developed Western
Nations, while the rebel
groups trade the money they
make for the diamonds for
more weapons and the cycle
continues.
Blood Diamonds
The History
The War
The Start
The start of the these
killings and the illicit
diamonds trade is when
the Revolutionary United
Front (R.U.F.) crossed
the Liberian border to
Sierra Leone
•
Brown, Pervinia P. "Blood Diamonds."
WorldPress. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.
<http://www.worldpress.org/africa/219
3.cfm>.
http://wwwpub.naz.edu:9000/~srourke6/images/gallery2_8.gif
In 1991
a few hundred men
crossed the Liberian
border
and
attacked towns in
eastern and southern
Sierra Leone
Once the war began
money became scarce
and
people took things into their own hands
by
searching for other means of finding
money to fund the war
Africa is known for there diamonds, it is
the most valued item
The Rise
The Government of
Sierra Leone
started Operation
Genesis to stop
R.U.F., but they
could not stop them
During the 1996
election the R.U.F
attacked civilians
•
Brown, Pervinia P. "Blood Diamonds."
WorldPress. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.
<http://www.worldpress.org/africa/2193.
cfm>.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/westafrica040
5/westafrica0405_files/image001.jpg
Easily Exploitable Resource
•
•
In areas such as Sierra
Leone where alluvial, or river,
mining allows easy access to
quality rough diamonds, this
artificially high price has
encouraged rebels to take
control of diamond mining
areas in hopes of making a
quick and substantial profit.
Rebel groups such as the
RUF (the Revolutionary
United Front), force civilians
to mine for diamonds.
http://whataboutafrica.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/blooddiamonds.jpg
Blood Diamonds
In the late
1990’s the
R.U.F started
distributing illicit
diamonds from
Sierra Leone to
the rest of the
world
•
Campino, Anna F. "CONFLICT
DIAMONDS." Sanctions and War.
United Nations Department of Public
Information, 21 Mar. 2001. Web. 9
Nov. 2009.
<http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Dia
mond.html>.
http://www.amnesty.org.hk/UserFiles/Image/abc/conflict_diamond/8990_web.jpg
The Growth of Illicit
Diamonds
•
•
•
The Illicit Diamond trading grew R.U.F into a huge
business millions of dollars worth of diamonds was
flowing all around the world
Even though this was happening in the time no one
really cared about what was happening
Campino, Anna F. "CONFLICT DIAMONDS." Sanctions and War.
United Nations Department of Public Information, 21 Mar. 2001. Web. 9
Nov. 2009. <http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diamond.html>.
Diamonds Fund Conflicts
•
•
•
Rebel groups use the profits from the sale of diamonds,
upwards of $300 million a year, to buy more small arms and
supplies so that they can sustain their military endeavors.
In the past decade, over 6 million people from Sierra Leone,
Angola, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
have become refugees after being forced from their homes by
diamond fueled conflict.
Millions more have died in diamond related conflicts over the
past decade.
Liberia is the main area of conflict:
key meeting place for
rebels, terrorists and other criminal
groups
to exchange blood diamonds for weapons
Criminals are able to trade these diamonds with
ease and are
rarely caught, they use the money to purchase
illegal weapons
“Illicit diamonds make fabulous profits for
terrorists and corporarations alike. The
trade illustrates with the hard clarity of the
gem itself that no matter where human
rights violations occur, the world ignores
them at its peril.”
Thousands of Sierra Leoneans
have been killed and
mutilated
mainly because there was
no large scale, international
intervention in the early stages of
the war
The ongoing
Blood Diamonds
War has yet to
cease
“Blood Diamonds”


Africans who
oppose the rebel
groups are often
slaughtered.
Those who most
need protection
are often those
who are most
often abused
under this
immoral trade.
Effect
The people of Sierra
Leone were being hurt
and tortured for the
beauty of the diamonds
“The international
diamond industry's
trading centers in
Europe funded this
horror by buying up
to $125 million worth
of diamonds a year
from the RUF”
Cambell, Greg. "Blood Diamonds." Amnesty International
USA. 2007. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.
<http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/diamonds.html>.
http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/images/Blood%20Diamonds.j
pg
Conflict Diamonds Increase Human
Rights Abuses

Rebel cruelty in many conflict areas is
well documented, and includes the
abduction and training of child
soldiers, amputation, abduction of
males as diamond mine workers, and
the use of rape as a tool of war.

Diamond profits allow for prolonged
conflict and increased human rights
abuses in conflict areas,

And despite UN arms embargoes and
diamond certification schemes such
as the Kimberley Process, the illegal
sale of diamonds remains a profitable
business.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/diamonds.html
Effects
(Continued)
“Throughout the
1990s, children like
Jusu Lahia armed
themselves with
diamond-purchased
AK-47s and, under
the nose of the
United Nations,
helped the rebels sell
the gems to
terrorists.”
http://www.operationbrokensilence.org/wpcontent/uploads/2009/09/5811_600x399_600x399_0x0.jpg
Cambell, Greg. "Blood Diamonds." Amnesty International USA.
2007. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.
<http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/diamonds.html>.
The Victims
Guiltless children are turned into soldiers and forced to
mine for small bits of carbon that have no intrinsic
value in themselves, and no value whatsoever to the
average Sierra Leonean
• 50,000 have been killed
• Half the population displaced
• More than two-thirds of its already severely limited
infrastructure destroyed
• 130,000 people have been killed
• Tens of thousands raped, abused, and mutilated
• Children make around twenty cents a day
• Global diamond trade makes around $80 billion a
year
Differences Between Legal and
Illicit Diamonds Mines
Legal
Illicit
http://diamondsusa.com/blog/images/ekati_diamond_mine.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Si
erra_Leone_diamond_mining1.jpg
The Price
for Beauty
The price for these
beautiful gems is
20,000 people getting
there hands, ears,
legs, and lips cut off .
The deaths was
speculated to be
around 75,000
Cambell, Greg. "Blood Diamonds."
Amnesty International USA. 2007. Web. 9
Nov. 2009.
<http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/d
iamonds.html>.
http://undercovered.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/diamondsprice.jp
g
The Government
Conflict Free Diamonds?

Because diamonds are small and easy to transport, it is
difficult to track all diamonds leaving a given country.

Diamonds from conflict regions are often mixed with
legitimate diamonds and certified as conflict free.

Though many diamond experts claim that one can examine a
diamond and identify its origin down to the very mine or river
from which it came, others in the industry claim that
smuggling and mixing diamonds from different origins makes
it almost impossible to know if the diamond indeed came
from a conflict area.
Antwerp: The Diamond Capital

Once diamonds are smuggled out
of a conflict region, they inevitably
end up in Antwerp, Belgium, the
diamond capital of the world.

Annually, half the world’s rough
diamonds, an average of $29
billion dollars worth, pass through
Antwerp. Other trading centers
include New York, Tel Aviv, and
Bombay.

Sorting experts then categorize
and assign value to the diamonds
before sending them to cutting
and polishing centers to be
prepared for resale.


In May of 2000 the United Nations
met in Kimberly South Africa to
discuss ways to stop the trade of
Blood Diamonds. The results of the
agreement signed there have led to a
reduction in the number of blood
diamonds being exported. The trade
in this industry has dropped now to
less than 4%, however that still
means that $1 Billion worth of
diamonds are funding wars.
In addition most diamonds are still
mined in African nations under
terrible working conditions. Mines
are dangerous places which often
collapse, killing the miners inside.
Because children are small and cheap
to pay, many of the workers are small
children.
The
Kimberley
Process
International Initiative: The
Kimberley Process

In 2003, the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme, a joint initiative
developed by governments, the
international diamond industry, and civil
society, was introduced to help stem the
flow of conflict diamonds.

The Kimberley Process is a voluntary
initiative that requires participants to certify
that shipments of rough diamonds are
conflict free.

The diamond industry also voluntarily
agreed to implement a System of
Warranties, designed to help trace rough
diamonds from mining to point of sale.
The Kimberley Process is an international
government initiative to stop criminals
who profit from the illicit trade in rough
diamonds
A diamond certification evaluation sheet
must be completed, that displays the
diamonds origin
Otherwise the shipment of that diamond
must be confiscated
The Perfect Solution?

While the Kimberley Process has not solved the problem of
conflict diamonds, it has reduced the amount of conflict
diamonds sold into the open market.

Currently, violence funded by conflict diamonds is escalating
in Cote D’Ivoire, proving there are serious loopholes in the
Kimberley Process.

Recommendations to strengthen the Kimberley Process
include increasing government oversight of the diamond
industry and strengthening government enforcement policies.
NOW
With all of the conflict
diamonds roaming
around the Earth,
people started to put
several different
embargos on diamonds
in Africa. Also they now
have a system to
identify the origin of the
diamond that you
purchase so you know
its conflict free
http://applesofgold.com/jewelryblog/images/2009/01/diamond.jpg
Campino, Anna F. "CONFLICT DIAMONDS." Sanctions and War.
United Nations Department of Public Information, 21 Mar. 2001.
Web. 9 Nov. 2009.
<http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diamond.html>.
Kimberley Certificate
The major difficulty is deciphering
between a “genuine” diamond
and a “conflict” diamond
Once any diamond is sent off and
polished, discovering its origin
is impossible!
Blood diamonds still contribute to
30% of global trade
Something MUST be done!