“No one is a refugee by choice. Refugees are forced to flee their homes out of fear for their lives and liberty.” This quote from the Presbyterian World Service and Development website summarizes how refugees become displaced.
The movie Blood Diamond portrays this plight by providing a graphic representation of the atrocities that occurred in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The explicit violence and exploitation of children are painful to watch, and the coarse language is hard on sensitive ears. However, the very reason Blood Diamond is so disconcerting also makes it worth watching. It provides a glimpse of the ordeal some African refugees have had to endure. Many innocent victims lost their homes, families and even limbs, especially hands. Amputation was a common sign that the Revolutionary United Front had attacked a village. This was part of RUF's strategy to keep civilians from voting and to keep them away from the valuable diamond fields.
Blood Diamond explores the question of what is precious — diamonds, family, love, or life itself. North Americans consider diamonds precious, but are they worth the price of spilling innocent blood?
Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to tell where diamonds have come from since diamonds from war-torn zones are often smuggled to a neighbouring country before being falsely certified and passed off as legal diamonds. They are then mixed with legitimately mined diamonds, making it almost impossible to distinguish them. Conflict diamonds, also called blood diamonds because of the blood shed to get them, are not sold with tags identifying them as such. However, due to the growing awareness of conflict diamonds and the travesties their acquisition has caused, some diamond retailers now provide a guarantee that their diamonds are conflict-free. The reliability of that guarantee, unfortunately, is debatable. It is up to the consumer to insist on conflict-free diamonds.
For more information about curtailing the sale of blood diamonds, visit the Take Action section of www.blooddiamondaction.org.
By bringing the situation in Sierra Leone to our attention, hopefully Blood Diamond will help to ensure that history does not repeat itself in other African countries such as the Ivory Coast or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where conflict diamonds play an active role in supporting rebel activity.
Although RUF was defeated in 2001, in Africa there are still approximately 200,000 child soldiers — brainwashed killing machines. The trade of conflict diamonds perpetuates this situation. Eventually many of these children — those who survive their ordeal — will become refugees requiring compassionate and empathetic help. Civil war in Sierra Leone is over, but the repercussions of the conflict diamond trade remain. More than 20,000 amputees and other war victims lost their homes and were placed in refugee camps.
“PWS&D aids refugees the world over by providing food, shelter and education to those living in refugee camps, helping those who can return home rebuild their lives, or for those who can't, helping them find a new home in Canada.”(www.presbycan.ca/pwsd/refugees.html)
