Every diamond has a story to tell. A bloody story!!

When I wanted to watch the film ‘Blood Diamond’ for the first time , it was for the only reason that I liked Leonard Decaprio, the lead star in the film. The film struck me some where…The struggle, the lust , the realities around it !. There I thought of reading something more on the so called diamond industry.

Time immemorial Humans fought for Gold and Wealth. Wars were fought, civilisations were burned.People were generally greedy- Gold,women,diamonds. An explicit thirst for accumulating ..

Consumerist society made things worst. Who can ignore our sexy super models stretching out in huge hoardings across the city land scape. Who can ignore those scintillating advertisements on Jewellery that our channels serve us with.

Now it is diamonds.. After the west, Indians are also very much drawn into it. Our women thirst for it. They want to show it off in the parties, marriages and what not.

Even our magazines run columns on diamonds- what to where and when,of its medicinal and astrological powers.

But what they don’t know is , every diamond has a story to tell. A bloody story!!

The story of Congo and Sierra Leone

Every day blood is being spilled in the diamond fields of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

DRC’s 46 percentage of natural resources consists of diamonds.Till 1960, it was colony of Belgium. After attaining its independence , there was a government in power under the leader ship of Patrice Lumumba who had played a leadership role in attaining the freedom .

But the vested interest of America and Belgium on the land of diamond did not allow the government to continue . Soon it was over thrown. Now Joseph Kapila is in power.

It is land of dead.It is estimated that over 1200 people are killed each day there.Most of them are children, working in the diamond mines. War lords control the mines. Statistics say that over 50 lacs people have been killed in Congo over the past 10 years.

Like wise Sierra Leone is also known as the land of diamond mines. People meet their lively hood working in the mining fields. RUF( Revolutionary United Front ) over took many of the villages and ran a parallel government there.

They cut down people , killed for fun, made them work in the mine fields day and night. Most of them were children who worked there. Whoever resisted were shot down in the fields itself.

Their leaders smuggled diamonds out to other countries through middle men. This funded them to run their activity further. Any way now UN Peace Force intervened and almost eliminated the terror group.

But the Diamonds mined out of this country are the ones that you may get to see in our stores.A trusted report say that large part of this smuggled diamonds made its way to India for polishing and ‘finish cutting’. And of course they must be in our stores too.

Think twice before you buy a diamond piece.

Do We really need those diamonds? Ask your sweet heart, if you are not sure .

Related Links:

Portraits from Congo