Do You Know Where Your Diamond Has Been?

Stolen diamonds fund wars. In Sierra Leone, soldiers used terror to steal diamond fields. Women and children were mutilated in the rampage.

Do you know where your diamond has been?

	Support restriction of diamond imports from any country that cannot establish the mine of origin.
	Ask you jeweler for proof of the source of their diamonds.
	Contribute to Sierra Leone War Recovery. Call 1-800-554-8583 to make a tax-deductible donation to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). One hundred percent your gift will be used to provide medical care and encourage community development in Sierra Leone.

Put Your Faith Into Action

On August 2, 2001, the Clean Diamond Trade Act (H.R. 2722), a revision to the Clean Diamonds Act (H.R. 918), was introduced into the House of Representatives by Congressmen Houghton, Rangel, Hall and Wolf. This bill is fully supported by the Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds, including Amnesty International, the World Diamond Council and Jewelers of America. The goal of these bills is to eliminate conflict diamonds from being sold in the US. Please ask your senators to support the Clean Diamonds Act and your representative, if she or he has not already done so.

Links to outside web sites open in a new window.

• Diamond Industry Must End Complicity in African Conflicts, Put Your Faith into Action, General Board of Church and Society, UMC, July 17, 2000
• Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds Put Your Faith into Action, General Board of Church and Society, UMC, February 7, 2001

   Conflict diamonds are diamonds under the control of rebel groups in Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo that allow them to purchase arms. The sale of conflict diamonds funds the ongoing wars in these countries. Many parents and children in Sierra Leone have had their limbs cut off by rebels who terrorize the local populations in order to maintain control of the diamond fields.

A storefront for a diamond dealer who buys diamonds off the street in Bo, Sierra Leone. Credit: Paul Dirdak, UMCOR, 2001.

Onsite News

2001

• Diamonds Fund Cycle of Violence in Africa, UMCOR Advance Story of the Month, August 2001
• UMCOR Hotline, May 18, 2001 (Clean Diamonds Act)
• Prayers of Peace for Sierra Leone by Christie House, New World Outlook, January-February 2001

  2000

• Sierra Leone Clerics Ask U.N. to Help End 'Root Cause' of War, UMNS, November 15, 2000
• Sierra Leone: Cutting the link between diamonds and guns, Amnesty International, May 31, 2000
• Illegal diamond trade funds war in Sierra Leone UMNS, April 19, 2000
• The United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone by Alma Graham, GBGM, March 10, 2000
• Sierra Leoneans Describe Horrors of War, UMNS, March 7, 2000

Ongoing News

• Global Connections: Sierra Leone, GBGM news and archives 1997--Present.
• Sierra Leone Emergency (UMCOR)
• Sierra Leone News Links

Offsite News and Background

Links to outside web sites open in a new window.

• Bush Targets Illicit Diamonds, BBC, April 26, 2003.
• Aid agencies help to rid child soldiers of war's scars, The Christian Science Monitor, October 30, 2001.
• 'Conflict' diamonds aren't forever, Christian Science Monitor, October 25, 2001. The global campaign to curb the sale of "conflict" diamonds, and thus prevent war in Africa, is near collapse. Only a concerted effort by Washington can rescue the 32-nation negotiations that once seemed so promising and effective.
• Statement of Rabbi David Saperstein at Interfaith Dialogue On Conflict Diamonds, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, May 14, 2001.
• Sierra Leone: Ten Years of Terror, BBC, March 23, 2001.
• Diamonds: A Rebel's Best Friend, BBC, May 15, 2000.
• Cleaning up the Diamond Badlands, BBC, May 5, 2000.
• Faith's Unbreakable Force (Interreligious Council), Christian Science Monitor, December 23, 1999.
• More Sierra Leone News.

Background

• Conflict Diamonds: Possibilities for the Identification, Certification and Control of Diamonds, A Briefing Document by Global Witness, June 2000.
  Get the complete text of the report in the following formats: pdf, Word doc, rich text format (rtf), or text (txt).
• Did Someone Die for that Diamond?, Amnesty International.
  Background on Conflict Diamonds and the Clean Diamonds Act.
• "Is There Blood on That Diamond", flash movie presentation, Amnesty International.
• Partnership Africa Canada (in English and French)
  This web site includes the complete Report of the United Nations Sierra Leone Sanctions Committee Expert Panel and the document "The Heart of the Matter – Sierra Leone, Diamonds and Human Security" by Ian Smillie, Lansana Gberie and Ralph Hazleton.
• General Assembly Adopts Resolution on "Conflict Diamonds & Crucial Issue in Fuelling Wars, The United Nations, March 21, 2001
  On December 1, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, unanimously, a resolution on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict.... Conflict diamonds are a crucial factor in prolonging brutal wars in parts of Africa....