Blood Diamond, blood Coltan and blood gold

The Hollywood release locally of Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio highlights some important issues. The film has received widespread media attention because it highlights how the illegal diamond trade has helped to fuel and finance armed conflict in parts of Africa.

I've not seen the film yet but at last this issue is getting wider coverage - but it is not just the diamonds. Over 5 years ago I had a letter in The Ecologist - dead chuffed at the time as it was my first in a national magazine/paper - anyhow in that letter I highlighted the issue of coltan and it's role in conflict in Africa. Mobile phones contain coltan and this mineral is more profitable than gold. It is the massive increase in mobile phones that has led to warring rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) exploiting coltan to help finance war. Sadly coltan still plays a big role there.

Gold mining, too, bears the scars of conflict, destruction, and human rights abuse. DRC is again an example of where armed groups are fighting for control of gold mines and trading routes - civilians have been tortured and killed and gold sales are used to buy weapons. This is another issue Greens and others have been trying to highlight - see Glos Green party news release from 18 months ago.

Rather than bringing prosperity to the nation, gold has been a cause of enormous human suffering in the DRC. It is one of the dirtiest industries in the world. The production of a single gold wedding ring generates 20 tons of mine waste. As with "blood diamonds" and coltan, gold mining bears the scars of conflict, destruction, and human rights abuse - fuelling war in the Democratic Republic of Congo that led to more civilian deaths than any war since World War II. Indeed in places as diverse as Guatemala, Ghana, Peru, and Indonesia, local communities and indigenous peoples have encountered intimidation, abuse, and even violent suppression when voicing opposition to mining projects.

The majority of gold is used to make jewelry. Jewelers should ensure that they are not selling their customers gold that has been produced at the expense of communities and the environment.

In the US Jewelers are being encouraged to take an important step by endorsing the No Dirty Gold campaign's "Golden Rules" and supporting an independent certification system to weed out "dirty gold." In Britain we can do that too. Indeed as a result of this film there is already a greater awareness - let's hope it grows and all of us can ask if the jewels we buy are 'conflict free'.

Interestingly the World Diamond Council (WDC) - see the WDC's diamondfacts.org has in the past suggested that conflict diamonds are a historical anomaly. Lately they are found to be saying that less than 1 per cent of all diamonds now sold, are of the conflict variety. Clearly that is still too many - but the whole process still has no independent verification or enforcement systems. A recent UN report claimed that thousands of diamonds were still illegally entering the international market, smuggled through the legitimate markets of Ghana and Mali.

The WDC also makes much of the fact that '10m people globally are supported by the diamond industry', but when the typical daily wage of an African diamond miner amounts to 50p and a cup of rice you have to ask how equitable such support is, especially compared with the profits of the De Beers cartel.

Martin Rapaport (diamonds.net) in New York has just established the first fair-trade diamond mine in Sierra Leone. He says: 'Every member of the diamond and jewellery industry should see Blood Diamond'. He's right. This industry is urgently in need of a fair trade make-over - indeed as Greens have been arguing isn't it time all trade was fair and took account of issues like the environment??