BLOOD DIAMONDS

CHILD SOLDIERS
Blood diamonds
 Gems
 Mined in horrific human rights abuses, child
labour and environmental destruction
 Illegally traded by unscrupulous arms dealers
to fund conflicts
 “In America, it’s bling,
bling. But out here its
bling bang”
“The people back home wouldn’t buy a
ring if they knew it cost someone else
their hand”
 The US purchases about $9bn worth of
diamonds every year – more than two thirds
of the world’s sales
DEMOCRATIC REPULIC OF
CONGO(DRC)
 Population 57,549,000
 Resources – including 26% of the world’s known
diamond deposits
 GNI per capita: US$120
 Armed civil conflict since 1996 has claimed the lives
of 4 million
 Corruption rating: 156 of 163 countries
 16 million Congolese have critical food needs
 80% pop. Have no access to safe drinking water
 Life expectancy – 43 years
 Diamonds are traded illegally to perpetuate conflict
 According to the UN the
diamonds industry’s
trading centres bought
up to 125 million worth
of diamonds a year
from Sierra Leone’s
rebels during the 1991-
2002 conflict.
Blood diamonds
 South Africa
 Janine Roberts 2006 – report
 Diamonds mined – sitting in asbestos – give a
lingering death to many
 TB(“consumption”)
 Silicosis – years of night sweats and chills,
violent bloody coughing and spread of
infection. Autopsies have revealed virtual
sand beds in mineworkers lungs.
Sandy Murray / DeBeers
(Koffiefontein)
 Sandy worked at DeBeers during the period
1996- 2005
 At age 28 - part of her lung was removed
 “I can no longer pick up and bathe the
children, I can’t even change the duvet on our
bed”
 Sandy had received annual chest x-rays and
lung capacity tests
 (DeBeers did not apparently employ qualifed
radiographers)
 DeBeers claims that TB among its workers
are solely due to AIDS – opportunistic
diseases.
 2004 – 1/3 of all South African mineworkers
had active TB at the time of their death.
 According to one worker – “Perhaps DeBeers
deliberately allows the dust to be thick to stop
us from seeing the diamonds and being
tempted to steal them.”
 In Sierra Leone 50,000
people died and 20,000
men, women, and
children lost limbs to the
machetes of the
Revolutionary United
Front (RUF) rebels. In
some instances the
rebels resorted to
amputating lips, noses,
ears and feet.
CHILD SOLDIERS
CHILD SOLDIERS
 Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of children under
18 have been affected by armed conflict.
 an estimated 300,000 child soldiers, some as young
as 7 are actively fighting in 41 countries
 120,000 of them in Africa
 Some children are forcibly abducted into government
or rebel armies
 Others join for ideological reasons- “Volunteers” –
join under various economic, social and political
pressures. (“survival strategy”)
Used as:
 Spies
 Messengers
 Porters
 Servants
 Lay or clear landmines
 Girls are at particular risk of rape and other
sexual abuse.
 Ref: “Bush wives”/ Sierra Leone
Child soldiers are often:
 Abducted
 Beaten
 Drugged
 Brainwashed
 Forced to commit terrible atrocities
 A life of violence and fear
 Robbed of their childhood and innocence
 Exposed to terrible dangers
 Experience psychological and physical suffering
 Take part in the torture killing of captured rebels.
 “he wandered the countryside for months trying to
find a safe place, eventually ending up at a small
town protected by an army camp. To stay there , he
and other refugee children had to work in the camps
for the soldiers.”
 “you had to collaborate with the military in order to
breathe in that town”
 The children were confronted by the army – “you can
either join us or you can leave” and leaving meant
almost certain death at rebel hands.(DJIBRIL age 13)
THE RESCUE
 “traditional demobilization programmes” –
combatants were disarmed and demobilized following
cease-fires and peace agreements.
 Once freed the children are taken to transit centres.
 The next step is to create a rupture with military life –
ensure the camps have no military staff
 Churches , NGOS and local civil associations run
many centres
 Provide essential health and psychological care
 Basic education and skills training
 Counselling is vital
Problems from stigmatization:
 People fear the former child soldiers
 People resent the special support given to the
child soldiers
Ultimate Goal:
 Help the children become full members of society
again
 Help them reintegrate with their communities and be
reunified with their families
 Provide the child with education and an opportunity
for an income.
 Programmes to assist former child soldiers should
last at least three years
 Unless children demobilized from armies are given
alternatives to soldiering, they are likely to be
recruited again into armed groups.
MALY POWSTANIE(little insurgent)
statue in Warsaw, Poland
 Reputed to be a fighter
who went by the name
of ANTEK, who was
killed 8th august. 1944,
age 13.
ORGANISATIONS :
 Unicef
 Amnesty International
 International Rescue Committee
 Human Rights Watch
What have you learned from the movie
“Blood Diamonds”?
The Kimberly Process 2002
 Aims to decrease the number of blood
diamonds entering the legitimate diamond
supply chain.

 The diamond industry has adopted a

voluntary system of warranties. But with no
independent monitoring body to track the
diamonds, the warranties are rarely kept.
Consumers are the key to change.