RAPAPORT… Too much exposure to conflict diamonds specifically from Sierra Leone may hurt the country’s recovery said Partnership Africa Canada’s executive director Bernard Taylor. The Blood Diamond movie from Warner Bros. hits the theaters December 8, 2006, in the United States, there are three independent blood diamond documentaries currently online, music channel VH1 has a documentary in production, and on December 23, 2006, the History Channel will air its documentary titled Blood Diamonds.
“But some of these films create an image of on-going horror, and suggest that nothing has changed,” Taylor said. Partnership Africa Canada has been a leader in the campaign to end conflict diamonds, bringing the plight of Sierra Leone to public attention and affecting change within the diamond industry.
Partnership Africa Canada reported that several documentary films coincide with the release of Blood Diamond, one of which is titled Blood on the Stone, produced by Insight News Television, that tries to show that the Kimberley Process does not work.
“The most bizarre film is a French production called The Empire in Africa, which sides with Sierra Leone’s now-defunct Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel force,” the organization reported.
The RUF waged one of Africa’s most brutal wars, chopping off the hands of children and civilians in order to clear the diamond fields, where they mined gems to pay for weapons.
“Individually and collectively, this rash of films may well distort the public’s understanding of Sierra Leone today, and what has been accomplished there since the war ended in 2002,” Taylor said.
“The Kimberley Process is far from perfect, but the worst of these wars are over, and together, NGOs, the diamond industry and governments have put in place the first-ever global diamond regulatory system,” Taylor said.