Despite the actions of the Kimberley Process, introduced by the United Nations to certify that rough diamonds entering the market are conflict-free diamonds, African countries and their governments have found ways around the language that the UN drafted to continue human rights abuses without technically violating the terms of the agreement.  As of now, the document states that diamonds cannot be traded if they are found to be “directly linked to the fueling of armed conflict, the activities of rebel movements aimed at undermining or overthrowing legitimate governments, and the illicit traffic in, and proliferation of, armaments, especially small arms and light weapons.”  That is to say that, as long as the country is not at war, and is not using its diamonds to fund armed conflict, the country and businesses mining diamonds therein are compliant with the Kimberley Process.

This is to say nothing of, for example, the current situation in Zimbabwe.  President Mugabe, although his country is not at war, is using forced labor to send diamonds overseas where they are polished, and the money coming back for them is clean.  After a diamond discovery in 2006, a rush of miners came to the area, but the government saw to it that their own police were there to oversee the operation.  Many of the policemen, as well as those sent by Kimberley Process observers, chose to get into the diamond mining business, which paid far more than police work did.  Beyond that, the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining and Development Company was to be the only business allowed to sell the diamonds. 

In 2008, Air Marshall Perence Shiri put his troops on the ground and in helicopters, seeing to it that all non-government miners were either killed or chased away.  Now, in mining communities like Chiadzwa, poor Zimbabwe nationals are mining the diamonds under threat from the military and paid slave wages.  They live in unsanitary conditions and no benefits are given to the worker or his family.  Rough gems are then sent out of the country to cutting centers such as Mumbai.  Seldom does any official paperwork accompany the diamonds.  Once a diamond is cut and polished, it becomes impossible to tell where it came from, although, according to the specific terms of the Kimberley Process, President Mugabe is doing nothing illegal. 

The preamble to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme also states, “the devastating impact of conflicts fueled by the trade in conflict diamonds on the peace, safety and security of the people in affected countries, and the systematic and gross human rights violations that have been perpetrated in such conflicts.”  But again, diamond sellers around the world can easily say that their diamonds are not “blood diamonds” because the trading of them is not funding a war.  This is to say nothing of the outrageous human right violations that occur, with President Mugabe in Zimbabwe simply being the most conspicuous example.  This is to say nothing of other countries that are compliant with the soft language of the Kimberley Process, which is not legally binding in participating countries.  The KPCS was drafted with words like “agree”, “support” and “recommend”, so there is no legal consequence for countries exporting diamonds that were gathered by slave labor in horrible conditions. 

With its current language, the KPCS can do no more than hope that diamond sellers are more vigilant than the United Nations.  Once diamonds collected by slave labor have been sold on the open market, any monies collected for those sales can go to whatever the seller wants.  In the case of the Zimbabwe Mining and Development Company, diamonds going out turn into money coming in clean.  That money is not considered to be profit from conflict diamonds, and can be spent on whatever the company or government wants.  Until the KPCS, or the UN itself, uses stronger language and demands legal repercussions for human rights violations as well, then blood diamonds will continue to flow out of countries like Zimbabwe like the filthy water the workers drink.
 

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