Conflict Diamonds Challenges - Essay Example

?Conflict Diamonds The most enthralling accounts of crime, competition and diamond trade are what the media presents as that of ‘conflict diamonds’. Although diamond is cultivated in many peaceful regions like Canada, Australia, Russia, etc, these regions never interest the media. The real scoop about diamond trading has come from the poverty- ridden African countries since the end of 1900s, better known as conflict of ‘blood diamonds’, or so to say, ‘conflict diamonds’. Diamond- producing African countries that are stuck in civil wars like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Domestic Republic of Congo, etc sells the domestic diamonds, worth millions in international markets to fund their wars. These wars till date have caused a loss of around 3.7 million lives. Now that the war in Sierra Leone and Angola are over, and DRC is also cooling down, the problem of conflict diamonds still exist (Seigel, 133; Conflict Diamonds: Did someone die for that diamond). In 1992, the UN Security Council took steps to solve the problem, but was a failure. In 1993, embargo was imposed on arms trade and diamond exports by the UN Security Council. In 1997, military takeover in Sierra Leone and collapse of Lome’ peace agreement in 2000 showed the same picture. In 2000, an embargo on diamond export from Sierra Nevada was also proposed, but all these did little to solve the crisis situation in these African countries. Causes and Impacts The direct impact of the ‘conflict diamonds’ situation can be seen as the two main problems that need to be discussed here - one is the refugee problem and the other being the child soldiers. The source of this ongoing refugee problem started from December 1989 with a rebellion between Liberia and Ivory Coast. It was reported that by March 1990, almost 84,000 Liberians had sought refuge in the neighboring country of Guinea, which was where most fleeing people would seek shelter. When talks of negotiation broke off between the governments of both these countries, a fierce rebellion triggered in Liberia in June 1990, and the refugees were now starting to take shelter in Sierra Leone in large numbers. Most people residing in the common area of border like that of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone started crossing the borders in the form of refugees. These refugees, instead of taking the longer routes, came through the shortest of the ways as crow flies to attend to periodic churches and with alibi of businesses. One major problem was that these refugees, instead of living in the refugee camps started cohabiting in local areas with local people. Land provided to them by the local authorities was used to settle down by constructing rough unplanned houses as the neighboring areas started becoming overcrowded. Initially, there was co-operation from the host country, but tensions started arising when their numbers started multiplying. Even in some areas, the number of refugees exceeded the number of local people. Tensions started elevating when the rural Liberian refugees could not quite cope up with the urban styles of dressing and mind-set. The tensions were elevated further when there were reduction of already very little resources, mainly due to sloth reaction of the aid agencies. The hosts were never prepared to share their impoverished resources (Magbaily Fyle, 37-47). The second and graver problem arising from the conflict of blood diamond is the increase in the size of child soldiers. According to United Nations (UN), number of child soldiers increased from 200,000 to 300,000 during the period ranging from 1988 to 2002. The increasing use of child soldiers are a slur in the face of the wide claims of various international laws that claim to exert their influence in shielding children from both forceful and voluntary deployment in civil wars throughout Africa. The Liberian war of 1989-1995 shows not the state’s army, but an incredible proportion of children among the rebels. Some conflicts also show a different trend of deploying more child soldiers by the government itself. In Africa, by the late 1990s, fourteen out of forty rebels were the child soldiers. At the helm of the 21st century, the numbers rose to a staggering 120,000, 40% of the total population of child soldiers operating in various parts of the world. More annoying is the fact that the age of these child soldiers in Africa is on a decline- from 13 years age to a lower 9 years to 10 years age. Most of these recruited children trained to use guns are from the refugee camps where children are more susceptible to political exploitations. Although refugee camps are designed to protect the aids provided by them, they hardly pay any attention to the children. These unprotected children are usually abducted from either on or off the fields, but some of them are also ready to participate voluntarily in the rebel fight against the fighting nations. For governments and rebel forces, child recruitment as warriors is a very interesting prospect. Armed forces often have their own insiders in refugee camps where it is easier to recruit them. Moreover, the refugee camps are subject to attacks by the opposing rebels and the government forces. So, they try and build up their own army to protect themselves. This is another way of recruiting child soldiers (Gates, Reich, 57-59).     Policies and probable solutions: One of the main policies that had been taken in this respect is the Kimberley Process. It is a forum where representatives of diamond mining industries and NGOs can submit their feedback through a mutual consultative method. This forum has been created to manage the trade of rough diamonds to end international trade in conflict diamonds. It was first organized on May 2000 in Kimberley, South Africa. It was aimed to create a cost effective system which of an establishment of international export control procedure, by which sealed and registered forgery-proof certified packets of diamond export parcels to be manufactured by the exporting nation and no dealings with unauthorized black market dealers regarding diamond trades. It was approved on 13th March 2002. The Kimberley Process has been successful to a large extent in curtailing the transactions of conflict diamonds. It has also helped in bringing large number of diamonds in the market by legalizing them and has forwarded the proceeds of the business for the uplift of the poor nations (Levy, 23-25).       Some possible solutions to this widespread problem have been discussed on this front. Firstly, proper governance of exporting countries is very important in reducing the corruption and smuggling of weapons and diamonds among the neighboring countries. Banks and governmental concerns should be ready to provide funds for improving the national authority of the diamond business. Regulatory reform policies should be built up and implied at grass root levels. There is also an impending need to have proper regulations on export and taxation rules. Price transparency should be maintained by the government on the import and export of diamonds with the trading country. Proper allocation and enforcement of Mining Rights is also required so that the labors are not deprived of the basic amenities of life, which can drag them towards government rebellion. Micro finance organizations can come up to provide more assistance to the poor people and help them make a living by providing them finance for buying machineries to set up their own small businesses. Public health awareness should be increased to provide more awareness on diseases like HIV/AIDS as well as provide social and mental support to HIV/AIDS patients (Goreux, 15-18). Spread of education should be increased among children and child rights should be incorporated in the society to protect and prevent them from becoming child soldiers and ensuring a brighter future for them.                    References: 1. Gates, S. & S., Reich “Child soldiers in the age of fractured states” Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009 2. Goreux, Louis. “Conflict Diamonds”. World Bank Paper Series, (2001), 13, 1-34, May 26, 2011 from: http://www.worldbank.org/afr/wps/wp13.pdf 3. “Conflict Diamonds: Did someone die for that diamond?” Amnesty International, USA, n.d., May 26, 2011 from: http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/business-and-human-rights/oil-gas-and-mining-industries/conflict-diamonds 4. Seigel, Dina. “The Mazzel Ritual: Culture, Customs and Crime In the Diamond Trade” New York: Springer, 2009 5. Levy, A.V. “Diamonds and conflict: problems and solutions” New York: Novinka Books, 2003 6. Magbaily Fyle, C. “Conflict and Population Dispersal: The Refugee Crisis in the Mano River Tri-State Area”. African Journal of International Affairs, (1997) 1.1, 34-50, May 26, 2011 from: http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajia/article/viewFile/27244/21541 Read More