Central African Republic

A dangerous mix of diamonds, religious tensions, and poverty has sparked a civil
war in the Central African Republic. In 2013, a mostly Muslim rebel group launched
an attack on the capital, Bangui, from the north. Rebels overthrew the countrys
dictator and seized valuable diamond fields. Christian militias counter-attacked,
killing thousands of Muslims who had nothing to do with the rebels.
The Central African Republic is now being torn apart by militias who are fighting over
diamonds and other resources. The death toll is rising and more than a million
people have fled their homes. About 100,000 people live in a refugee camp at the
Bangui airport. Although the Kimberley Process has banned diamond exports from
the Central African Republic, the countrys diamonds are easily smuggled across its
borders and sold to international consumers.

ZIMBABWE
Even after killings, torture, and outrageous human rights abuses in Zimbabwes
diamond industry, Zimbabwe has been welcomed into the community of diamond
producing nations.
In 2008, the Zimbabwean army seized the valuable Marange diamond deposit in
eastern Zimbabwe, massacring more than 200 diamond miners who stood in

the way. Soldiers then enslaved local adults and children in the diamond fields,
beating and torturing those who disobeyed. An estimated $2 billion in diamond
wealth disappeared, mostly into the hands of military leaders and allies of President
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwes dictator.
The army now has put private companies in charge of mining. But community
members are still being beaten and killed, relocated families live in poverty,
corruption continues, and nobody has been held accountable for past
crimes. Meanwhile, the Kimberley Process has decided that these circumstances are
acceptable. Although it banned Zimbabwean diamonds in 2009, it lifted the ban in
2011 despite revelations that the army was running torture camps for
diamond miners.
ANGOLA

More than ten years after the end of a brutal diamond-funded civil war, Angola is now
a member of the Kimberley Process and the worlds fourth largest diamond exporter.
But a flourishing diamond trade has not made Angola a more responsible diamond
producer. Angolas diamond fields are once again the scene of horrific violence.
In recent years, diamond miners from the neighboring Democratic Republic of the
Congo have been streaming into northeast Angola to mine for diamonds. Most
miners cross the border illegally and do not have legal permission to mine. Angolan
soldiers, along with security guards for mining companies, have been brutally
cracking down on these foreign migrants as well as on local Angolan
miners. Soldiers routinely demand bribes, beating and killing miners who do not
cooperate. They also have been rounding up tens of thousands of migrants
each year and expelling them across the border, raping many of the women first.
Angolas dictatorship has refused to acknowledge these problems. Instead, it
has filed criminal defamation charges against a journalist who documented more
than 100 murders and the torture of more than 500 people in two diamond mining
towns. The Kimberley Process has ignored the issue too. Rather than expel Angola,
the Kimberley Process has picked Angola to serve as its leader in 2015.