Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is another place in Africa that has experienced extreme tragedy. From 1991 to 1999, more than half of the people who lived there were forced from their homes and their villages ransacked.The rebel leaders who were in need of money (to buy weapons) decided to force civilians into slavery. The RUF (the main rebel forces) intimated the people by cutting off their arms, carving "RUF" onto their bodies, raping, and/or killing them. They would jokingly ask ,"would you prefer short sleeves or long sleeves?" and then cut the persons arms off. They did not discriminate. Young or old, nobody was safe.



In 2004, the Congo faced United Nations sanctions because, despite the lack of a diamond industry, the country was exporting large volumes of diamonds for which they could not account for the origins. The United Nations feared the diamonds were being used to finance rebel violence. Conflict diamonds or blood diamonds, as they are known, are diamonds which are traded in a war zone in order to fund rebel groups and finance civil wars. They are often bought by large companies such as De Beers and then resold to the public. Customers in war-free zones unwittingly then indirectly subsidize cruel and inhumane conditions inflicted by rebels who control by terror. De Beers, after much public scrutiny in the 1990's, began a public campaign to assure it's customers that as of 1999, their diamonds were not conflict diamonds.