by Sunshine Simmons

Created on: September 12, 2008   Last Updated: March 26, 2009

Blood Diamonds, or Conflict Diamonds are diamonds mined out of conflict, forced labor of men, women, and children, death, terrorism, and destruction. Diamonds are often associated with beauty, wealth, power, ownership, and love. To the Africans who mined them, they are a sign of death, fear, war, and sadness, and it all began with a discovery made by a fifteen-year-old boy.

In the late 1800's, a young boy named Stephanus Erasmus Jacobs found something on the ground on the DeKalk farm in Southern Africa. They boy thought it was beautiful, and gave it to a neighbor named Schalk van Niekerk. Niekerk collected stones, and gave it to a traveling salesman named John O'Reilly who showed it to the magistrate Lourenzo Boyes. It was an exciting time, because it was proclaimed to be a diamond, and named the "Eureka" diamond. Niekerk got the stone back after it was displayed at the World's Fair.

In 1869, near the same spot, the "Star of Africa" was found on the Zandfontein Farm owned by Afrikaner farmers Diedrek De Beers and Joahannes De Beers. Niekerk traded everything for this stone. Mining became big money in Southern Africa.

All the while, bloody wars were taking place among the people of Southern Africa. The Dutch and English were trying to establish control, African tribes were at war, and bloodshed was South Africa's normalcy. As diamonds became worth more, mining them became more and more dangerous. Terrorists enslaved the African people to mine diamonds to fund their terrorist acts of war. When diamonds should have brought prosperity to Southern Africa, they instead brought on the deaths of over 20,000 men.

Rebel armies such as the RUF, or Revolutionary United Front mined diamonds to purchase weapons to take over the Dutch, who had control of Southern Africa. The Dutch also mined diamonds to fund their Apartheid government. Conflict was a constant, and miners were kept in line by child soldiers wielding AK-47's purchased with blood diamond money. Mass murders claimed thousands of lives in an attempt for the rebels to reign with fear. Amputations were a means of showing power, and were an every day occurrence. This is why the diamonds mined in these areas are referred to as "Blood Diamonds" or "Conflict Diamonds".

Unfinished diamonds were easy to move, untraceable, and extremely valuable. It was easy for Rebel forces to make huge amounts of money to buy stores of weapons. Rebels kidnapped and murdered local farmers, forcing them into labor and under control. Hundreds

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