2008 Online runner-up
Abrar is 15 years-old and lives in Surrey. Abrar wrote about conflict diamonds.
Conflict dimonds still under trade
Despite legislation placed by the UN on the diamond industry ‘companies are still able to import blood diamonds from conflict regions in Africa’, according to the African diamond markets.
The UN has reported that $23 million in conflict diamonds has been snuggled from Central Africa into the Ivory Coast diamond markets. This has motivated rebel gangs to continue mining for diamonds, and in 2001 alone 50,000 refugees were steadily dying from starvation and war spread diseases at the hands of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
The RUF began trading diamonds since 1991. Since then, the rebels have been able to trade their diamonds for a vast amount of weapons which have given them an increase in power and support. However, UN sanctions have been placed on Sierra Leone’s diamond market and there have since been significant improvements. Rough diamonds have to now have an attached paper trail showing their origins which have to be considered before they can be exported.
In April 2001, Jusu Lahia a 15 year-old Lieutenant in Sierra Leone’s revolutionary united front was wounded by an exploding grenade. He was one of many children being allured into gang life by rebels fighting for one of the worlds most precious commodities; a fortune in raw diamonds that make their way from the jungles of Africa, into the $60billon a year retail industry.
The United Nations
The UN defines conflict diamonds as diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces opposed to legitimate and internationally recognised Government, and which are used to fund opposing military action.
Recent claims even suggest that the profits made from diamond mines have funded terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaida and Hezbollah, notorious for committing crimes against human rights.
However, we could argue that while diamonds have been used to fund conflict, the problems is no the diamonds themselves but the rebels who exploit diamonds to achieve their illicit goals. The vast majority of diamonds come from countries at peace. These countries have been able to invest into the development of infrastructure, schools and hospitals for the good of the communities in which diamonds are found. These countries include Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania.
Links
Abrar also included links to relevant websites and a link to a forum for readers to leave feedback on the article.
Quote from the judging panel
Abrar’s entry on blood diamonds would have worked well as a web story with its map and links. He clearly has a future in web journalism, so we’d encourage him to stick with it!