Blood Diamonds And Sierra Leone

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“No pressure no diamonds.” These were the words from Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish Philosopher, who had the simplest and most accurate quote relating to my topic of blood diamonds. This quote was referring to the scientific way to produce diamonds and the fact that pressure produces the best work out of people. Diamonds are made under pressure, and people need pressure to produce their best results. However, in the case of Sierra Leone, there is a great amount of pressure from the time a diamond is found in a small river, to the time it is put on someone’s finger. A blood diamond, or a conflict diamond is a diamond that is mined in a place of conflict. These precious stones are used to finance a rebellion, and have several other detrimental causes to their country. In many African countries, blood diamonds are a major problem; Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivorie, and Angola have all had civil wars in which control of the diamond trade was the main cause. This research paper is based on the problems that blood diamonds bring to Sierra Leone; the uprising of the RUF and civil war that tarnished the government and economy and allowed human rights to be violated.

Blood diamonds, the civil war and the RUF were the reasons for the collapse of the Sierra Leone government. Before the Sierra Leone Civil War, the government on Sierra Leone was slightly corrupt. Joseph Saidu Momoh was the president from 1985-1992. Although the government was not completely corrupt in the early stages of his presidency, things changed quickly. Momoh was the first president elected in a one-party election, leading people who’s party was not represented, (the SLPP Sierra Leone People’s Party) to question the new president. Also, early on in Momoh’s tenur...

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...could not shoot at its own youth. 11,000 child soldiers have been used in the Sierra Leone conflict, and to this day there are still 2,000 child soldiers in Sierra Leone. The young girls who were not killed in the raids of cities were forced to serve as prostitutes for the RUF. The RUF accounted for over 20,000 people with limbs cut off, over 55,000 deaths, and about 2 million people who had to evacuate their homes. Overall, the RUF violated numerous types of human rights, causing the civil war of Sierra Leone to be one of the messiest the world has ever seen.

Blood diamonds led to the civil war which was the RUF rebels fighting against the Sierra Leone government and military. This caused the government to crash, the economy to drastically decline, and led to thousands of people being killed, raped, having limbs chopped off, and becoming child soldiers.

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