| |
Debate
Fernando Menete, Grupo 20, Mozambique: "Civil Society must increase its knowledge"
Diamonds: everlasting, and blood-stained
Why Africa considers China an opportunity
12/2006
|
|
Everlasting, and blood-stained
The movie “Blood Diamond” will be released in the USA in December and in Europe soon after. It depicts how the diamond trade fuelled civil war in Sierra Leone. The diamond industry is outraged, saying that the issue has long since become history. War victims, however, tell a different story.
[ By Anne Jung ]
Just in time for the pre-Christmas period, a film will be released, focusing on the world’s most sought-after stones: diamonds. For months, the diamond industry has already been working on controlling the damage. After all, “Blood Diamond”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is not about the perfect world of the rich and beautiful. It deals with civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, when the rebel movement RUF sold diamonds to international companies, and used the proceeds to pay for weapons.
According to Partnership Africa Canada, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), it is an open secret that De Beers, the South Africa-based company, traded in diamonds from Sierra Leone through offices in Guinea and Liberia. Such trade also contributed to funding wars in other countries, for instance Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The film “is absolutely a concern for us”, a De Beers spokesperson told CNN Money. The industry had hoped that the public had forgotten the vexed issue of “blood diamonds”. Indeed, it did make a commitment some years ago together with governments from rich and poor countries in the Kimberley Process to end the trade in gems from conflict countries. The industry has since been emphasising that “blood diamonds” are a thing of the past, and that the film of that name is about something that has become history.
However, that is not so for war victims in Sierra Leone. There is still a long way from the end of hostilities to real peace. “Desolation and devastation reign in the diamond-rich regions of our country,” says Abu Brima of Sierra Leone’s Network Movement for Justice and Development. Working conditions in the mines border on slave labour. The workers, hundreds of whom are children, are usually not even paid 30 cents a day. Victims of the war, including thousands of amputees, have still not received any compensation.
Just a few weeks ago, moreover, the United Nations exposed serious gaps in the control of the diamond trade. Diamonds worth several million dollars were exported to Ghana from Côte d’Ivoire, a crisis country, and thus formally legalised. In the past, NGOs have repeatedly pointed out the weaknesses of the Kimberley Process, which has no effective monitoring mechanism.
The diamond industry invests millions in advertising every year. If it wants to brush up its reputation it should not dispute a film about an ongoing problem. Rather, it should strengthen the Kimberley Process and support victims of wars that were financed through the diamond trade.
“Blood Diamond” is important in the sense of reminding mass audiences of a global problem. Experience shows that movies are effective in raising public awareness, and that they can help force businesses to change harmful practices. For instance, earlier this year the Oscar award-winning movie “The Constant Gardener” highlighted irresponsible human trials carried out by multinational pharma companies in Africa.
However, “Blood Diamond” also demonstrates the ambivalence of mass media tackling global conflicts. While films can help mass audiences get an idea of the horrors of war and the suffering of the people concerned, there is also a constant risk of trivialising complex issues and exploit victims of violence for the sake of box office returns. To counter such criticism, the “Blood Diamond” team set up an aid fund, which will finance development projects in Mozambique and South Africa, where the film was shot.
The intentions are fine, but the practical effects are questionable, as the fund will not support the war victims in Sierra Leone, the very people its audiences are taught to sympathise with. The Blood Diamond Fund, therefore, is reminiscent of popular projects by prominent people such as rock star Bono, which are often better understood as PR campaigns than as serious development efforts.
Anne Jung
works in the press and PR department of the Frankfurt-based relief agency medico international.
jung@medico.de
|
