A conflict diamond (also called a blood diamond) is a diamond mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgent or invading army's war efforts.

The United Nations has decried the sale of conflict diamonds, arguing that their trade finances armies in fighting against legitimate governments and perpetrating human rights abuses, and prolongs devastating wars. It points to the UNITA rebels in Angola and to the Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone (who it states are financed by the government of Liberia, also through diamond sales) as purveyors of conflict diamonds.

The UN is attempting to implement certification procedures to decrease the number of illicit diamonds on the world market. The World Diamond Council adopted at Antwerp on July 19, 2000, a resolution to strengthen the diamond industry's ability to block sales of conflict diamonds.

In 2002 the UN approved the Kimberley Process scheme aimed at preventing conflict diamonds entering the market.

Countries such as Canada have used concerns about conflict diamonds to present domestically-produced diamonds as an ethical alternative which avoids the risk of unknowingly purchasing a blood diamond.

Other substances are sometimes sold the same way as conflict diamonds, such as coltan.

A large part of the plot of the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day revolved around the smuggling of conflict diamonds. For many people, this was their first mainstream exposure to the term and the concept. The topic of conflict diamond was also the subject of an episode of Law & Order, "Soldier of Fortune."

External links

• UN on conflict diamonds