When you buy gemstone jewelry do you sometimes wonder where the beautiful stone is from? Precious stones have always been a highly prized commodity and gem-trade is a two faced multi-billion dollar business. It has helped some countries develop, but it has also dragged others into despair. The gem trade has been used to finance wars, terrorize civilians and keep despots in power. Over one million men dig by hand in pits, gravel and stream beds searching for diamonds in Africa. They make less than a dollar a day, while the global diamond trade nets an estimated $80 billion a year. In countries like Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone, diamonds were used by armed militias and rebels to fan civil war and inflict misery on the population. These became known as "blood diamonds."
Annie Dunnebacke from VOA says: "Sierra Leone is one of the most notorious cases where hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of the conflict that saw the eastern part of the country, where the diamond fields are, controlled by the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel group backed by then Liberian president Charles Taylor." Thanks to the movie like Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio people started to understand the reality behind illegal diamond trade.
Eventually, international pressure made the diamond industry sit up and listen. In 2003 the Kimberley Process initiative came into force. It requires member governments to certify that exports and imports are free from blood diamonds. Before the Kimberley Process conflict diamonds accounted for 4 to 15 percent of rough diamonds traded worldwide, today this number is around 0.2 percent.
But, it's not just diamonds that are causing trouble. More than 90 percent of the world's rubies come from Burma, a poor country with a military government that controls the sale of gems. The trade helps maintain the government in power. Rights activists are hoping consumers will start to ask more questions of the jewelers to make sure that the gem stone they buy is not sullied by anguish and blood.