Significant diamond production began after an

Sierra Leone’s Civil war began for multiple reasons. There was dissatisfaction among the people concerning the government, the economy was ruined and there had been constant abuse of the country’s resources. However once war began between the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC), which was a military government, it became obvious that the center of this clash centered around diamonds, and who controlled the diamond mines. The RUF received fuel, weapons, money, training and other supplies from the Liberian government in return for diamonds mined. De Beers maintained a diamond trading company in Liberia, even though the country itself produced relatively few diamonds. De Beers acknowledged that Liberia was seen as a transit country for smuggled diamonds. The leader of the RUF was a man named Foday Sankoh, an ex-army sergeant and professional photographer. Sankoh had direct ties to Liberian President Charles Taylor, and used Liberia as a staging ground for almost every campaign fought.

However Sierra Leone has compared relatively well to Angola in regards to the damage sustained through extended civil war. Angola has been a country at war for nearly 40 years first against Portugal up until 1975, then afterwards with each other. The two sides in this civil war are The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which declared itself as the official government after Portugal’s departure, and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITAS). The battles between these two factions have cost close to one million lives. UNITAS, like the RUF has used diamonds to fund its struggle against the government. In 1995 UNITAS diamond mining profits for Sierra Leone totaled $430 million along with exports of over 3.5 million carats.

Monrovia in 1954, kept order as much of the trade under its control as possible. From this point on corruption would be constantly intertwined with the Sierra Leonean diamond industry. In 1968, Siaka Stevens became prime minister after 7 years of independence. He was the first to officially connect the diamond mines to political power and profit, which encouraged illicit mining to gain political power. He nationalized the diamond mines and De Beers' SLST by creating the National Diamond Mining Co. Through NDMC, Stevens gave himself and his key advisor, Lebanese businessman Jamil Mohammed, control of the diamond mines. Under Stevens' authority, legitimate diamond trading dropped from more than two million carats in 1970 to 595,000 carats in 1980 and 48,000 carats in 1988. However, even though De Beers lost some visual control over the diamond mines, it still retained offshore rights to mine diamonds, and it also retained an office in Freetown until the 1980s. During Stevens’ tenure, diamond mining would reach its height. Through the 1970s legitimate diamond exports reached over two million carats a year. Most of this money however went into the hands of Lebanese businessmen, as well as the leaders of the regime. In 1985 Stevens retired, handing power to Joseph Momoh, who continued to follow in Stevens footsteps by dealing with Lebanese businessmen. Momoh remained in power, through a failed coup attempt in 1987, up until the star

Some topics in this essay:
De Beers, Sierra Leone, Rescue Committee, , Republic Congo, Kimberley Process, Beers African, South African, African Miner, Antwerp Israeli-based, de beers, sierra leone, civil war, republic congo, diamond mines, diamond production, conflict diamonds, diamond mining, diamonds mined, legitimate diamond, diamonds de beers, total world production, directly selling diamonds, sierra leone angola, agreement de beers,