Conflict Diamonds Research Paper

Conflict diamonds & Child soldiers: A Love story
By That guy

Africa: a land of shadows and light. A continent where the Four Horse Men thrive. Most notably in particular, war. War has plagued Africa for ages upon ages; no corner of the mighty content can escape its influence. Hostages taken off the coast of Somalia, to blood diamond mine in South Africa. Is there a solution for these conflicts? Should foreign aid be provided? Or should military action be taken imminently? To truly understand the solution one must understand the problems. East Africa would be a focus zone on this subject; Containing Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. All these countries have a common attribute: They are locked in a state of conflict and have been so for almost a decade straight. Somali, Uganda, and Kenya: all coming into the American public’s view more recently. A virtual hot spot for how war often starts in Africa, but also rarely ends.
Somalia is currently in a civil war (between the Somali Salvation Democratic Front, United Somali Congress , Somali National Movement, and Somali Patriotic Movement) that has lasted over two decades now.
Most speculate the war began in1986 when President of Somalia Mohamed Siad Barre suffered injuries in a motor incident causing the country to speculate, with his injuries and old age, who would succeed him as their leader. In a brief summary of how the officially war began: “In June 1991, General Mohamed Farah Aidid was elected chairman of the United Somali Congress by a two-thirds vote, but USC commander Ali Mahdi Mohamed refused to step down as President. By October 1991, Ali Mahdi had formed a government of eight ministers, and the Italian government promised massive financial support. Civil war erupted as various clan-based military factions competed for control after the collapse of Barre's
regime.”[1] As the Cold war ended with the USSR’s collapse, the United States took it upon themselves to lead the UN on a humanitarian and peacekeeping mission. For those who read or saw the motion picture “Black Hawk Down”, they will know this story ends abruptly and bloody like a dog on the wrong side of the highway. From March 1993-95 the UN peacekeepers (made up mostly of US, UK, German, and North Africans) attempted end the war and heal the countries wounds. Unfortunately the mission went sour, costing significant causalities to the task force, and the UN pulled out of the area for the most part. The situation only deteriorating from there with the creation of regional governments like Somaliland and Puntland. Somaliland, being the more stable region of the two, is currently at in a regional dispute with a few of the surrounding micro region. While Puntland on the other hand, has become home to the Somali pirates plaguing the area today. But keep in mind there’s a just a large mass of Pirates in Somaliland, they’re not just limited to that region. It was around the early 21st century that bands of Somali pirates began to for off the Horn coast. “In Somalia, pirates are well-funded, well-organized and have easy access to heavy weapons in a country that has been in tatters for nearly two decades. Pirates travel in open skiffs with outboard engines, working with larger ships that tow them far out to sea. They use satellite navigational and communications equipment and have an intimate knowledge of local waters, clambering aboard commercial vessels with ladders and grappling hooks.”[2] Of course with their barely functioning government, the pirates are the only real Somalis to have contact with foreigners. While that “contact may come in the form of a ransom note 9 times out of ten, it still counts as contact. While in recent memory, Navy SEAL’s have become the pirate’s latest pin-pal. But it takes more than a few SEALs using .308 caliber letters, so German, French, Japanese, Canadian, and even the Russians and Chinese maritime programs have come into the area to help deal with the pirates.
Uganda however, a place where genocide and crimes against human rights has been noticed for decades, has received little aid in terms of foreign support. Murder, abduction, public mutilation, and sexual slavery, is the equivalent to an Americans agenda of get coffee, got to work, come home, make dinner, and go to bed. In January of 1986 President Tito Okello, an ethnic Acholi, was overthrown by the National Resistance Army (NRA) of south-west Uganda born Yoweri Museveni marked a period of intense turmoil. The Acholi feared the loss of their traditional dominance of the national military and also deeply concerned that the NRA want revenge for the brutal counterinsurgency, particularly the actions of the army in the Luwero triangle. By August of that year, a full-blown popular insurgency had developed in northern regions that were occupied by the new government forces. This was the beginning of the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency and when Joseph Kony’s first real appearance.
“For 26 years, Kony has been kidnapping children into his rebel group the LRA. Turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into child soldiers. He makes them mutilate other’s faces and kill their own parents… He is not fighting any cause, but only to keep his power. He is not supported by anyone and has repeatedly used peace talks to rearm and murder again and again.” As most know, those are a few quotes from the recently famous Kony 2012 viral video. Now there are about to sides to this coin, the one who throw money at it hoping to help and sending in their support via social network, searching for Mr. Kony’s page so they may give him a semicolon sad face on his profile. The other side is the gung-ho military supports, wondering why we haven’t sent Team 6 over to Uganda to give Kony Bin laden style make over. Both sides have they’re misinformed zealots, and even those who understand the problems and questions of dealing with Kony. But a little fact is while the US has sent its support last year, not in the form of an expeditionary marine force, but 100 special forces operatives whose goal isn’t to directly fight kony but instead teach the locals how to combat him. This is how ever a very controversial action. Take a moment to remember how the Vietnam War began for America. A scary though considering American Special Forces were also the first ones in the Asian jungles back then as well.
For those a bit more globally aware, they may know Uganda wasn’t always in the spotlight because of Kony’s crimes but some much worse in Rwanda: Genocide. With a blood trail leading back to the Belgian explores landing and transformation of the tootsie people into an eliet and privileged people, but when the Belgians left, a radical Hutu party won elections and several massacres took place along the years. In 1994, from April 6 to mid-July almost 800,000 (mostly tootsies) people were slaughtered by a government (Hutus) formed militia, with French military intervention being the only thing to stop the slaughter. 20% of the population gone in only a few months, that means if this happened in America, 310000000, 62000000 people would be killed. Genocide hasn’t just hit Rwanda, Somalia, the Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia.
Few people recognize what conflict diamonds really, most shrug them off as just diamonds from a third world country at war. “Conflict diamonds are diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.”[3] This is the official definition according to the UN. These diamonds have fuel countless conflict in Angola and Sierra Leone all ending as abruptly as they began. Over the course 15 years, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) insurgency in neighboring Sierra Leone with weapons and training in exchange for diamonds during the Leone civil war. In 2000, the UN accused President Charles G. Taylor of supporting the RUF. In August 2003, Taylor stepped down as president and, after being exiled to Nigeria, rather facing trial. In 2001, the UN applied sanctions on the Liberian diamond trade as part of the ban on conflict diamonds. That unfortunately didn’t work in Sierra Leone or most of any other country under the sanction, only slowing trade if anything else. Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and many other sanctioned countries hold home to smugglers making billions a year selling the diamonds off the continent. And who are the friends fueling these men? Feeding millions into their wars? Take a look in a mirror because it’s most any country in Europe and the US. “A 2004 Amnesty International survey found that 83 percent of U.S. jewelers say their customers "rarely or never" inquire about the source of diamonds. A similar study in 2007 found that 56 percent of jewelers do not even have an auditing procedure in place to prevent the retail of conflict diamonds. Those who do, rely on the KP certification.” [4] It’s an unfortunate series of statistics, but that’s exactly what it will stay until something real is done about it: A statistic. And so this is where we are left with: A continent left in flames, fueled by it on aggression, but also that of outside source that criticizes it for its conflicts. Why do we do this? Why do we either fuel the fire or waste time completing on putting it out when we’re standing next to a garden hose? Because this is a 1/2 acre sized brush fire. Yes, we could probably put it out, But at the cost of long grueling day in the sun followed by an enormous water bill. Simply said, our presence in Africa perhaps should exist, but that of light existence. After all we’ve done enough damage as it is, no need to throw marines into the mix and create a manage de twa.