Today Togo should have played Ghana at Africa Cup of Nations 2010 in Angola. Separatists rebels, Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), attacked Togo's team bus Three people were killed and nine injured. Togo has left the tournament.
"Unfortunately, the situation [in Cabinda] is not stable because there is a separatist movement. They are trying to gain independence and they have been carrying out the struggle for several decades. [...] I really don’t understand the logic behind having [matches] there, knowing that the political situation there is not stable, that the separatists will take advantage of having these foreign teams coming into Cabinda and try to make a statement." - Mohamed El-Khawas, professor of history and political science at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) in Washington, DC
"The worst is that every time FLEC attacks, the army responds by attacking civilians and, in some cases, routing entire villages. These are blatant human rights violations which are largely ignored." - Rafael Marques, Angolan human rights activist
"[We're] a bit bitter, we are a little disappointed with the Confederation of African Football [CAF] … which couldn't arrange for a postponement of our first match so we could bury our dead" - Thomas Dossevi, Togo and Nantes defender
Whether the claim to independence is legitimate or not it is also connected to the occurrence of oil and minerals in the region. Cabinda is "ethnically and linguistically distinct" from the rest of the country but offshore oil fields talk. More than half of Angola's export earnings are from Cabindan oil. The government says it has spent more than 1 billion $ on improving local infrastructure and wanted to display Cabinda to the world as a safe place to invest.
Human Rights Watch said Friday that Zimbabwe's armed forces have taken over diamond fields in the east and killed more than 200 people, forcing children to search for the gems and beating villagers who get in the way.
"I first heard the sound and then saw three helicopters above us in the field. I was not worried, I just assumed it was a team of buyers who had come for business in helicopters as they sometimes did. However, soldiers in the helicopters started firing live ammunition and tear gas at us. We all stopped digging and began to run towards the hills to hide."
Quote an anonymous survivor.
Army units are given turns overseeing the mine in an effort to keep troop morale from disintegrating along with the rest of the country.
Blood spilled over diamonds is far from a new thing. In fact, it was the theme of a 2006 Hollywood movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly.
Although, for my taste, it has a bit too much of Leonardo running right ahead of mortar explosions and mad gunfire it is a good movie in itself on top of highlighting an important issue. Good acting by Leonardo, Jennifer and not least by Djimon Hounsou who is playing the fisherman / mine slave. Theatrical, yes, but first of all gruesomely blunt in its violence.
From the final scrolling titles though we are given relief:
In January 2003, forty nations signed "The Kimberley Process" [...] It is up to the consumer to insist that a diamond is conflict-free.
2009: The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme collapsing
It might have worked for some years but now it's under serious pressure. Some in the industry argues Zimbabwean diamonds aren't blood diamonds as they fund a government. And 100% of Venezuela's diamonds are being smuggled, Guinea has reported an impossible 500% increase in diamond production year on year, in Angola thousands of small-scale Congolese miners were beaten and expelled and Lebanon is exporting more rough diamonds than it imports despite having no mines. No action has been taken against any of these countries still operating with Kimberley certification.
If the Kimberley Process collapses entirely?
The diamond trade would go back to its criminal past and rebel armies would have no problem finding buyers for their blood diamonds. The potential for diamonds fuelling conflict would be back.
Quote Ian Smillie, Kimberley Process initiative person - who left in anger
Throughout the history about Africa: whenever a substance a value is found, the locals died in great number, in misery. And this was truth of ivory, rubber, gold, and oils and is now true of diamond. According to a devastating report by Global Witness the stones are being used to process arm and finance civil war. We must act to prohibit the direct or indirect import of all of diamonds from conflict Zones
Every outbreak of violence has its own distinctive origins and characteristics. All, however, are driven by a similar combination of anxiety about the future and lack of confidence in the ability of established institutions to deal with the problems at hand.
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The riots that erupted in the spring of 2008 in response to rising food prices suggested the speed with which economically related violence can spread.
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The cost of food is now closely tied to the price of oil and natural gas because petrochemicals are so widely and heavily used in the cultivation of grains.
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zero economic growth in the developing world and rising food prices -- and you have a perfect recipe for unrelenting civil unrest and violence.
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Statistical modeling shows that economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they persist over a one to two year period
Ali Tarawally should be rich beyond most people's wildest dreams.
The orphan has spent the past three years scouring the jungle of Sierra Leone - one of the most abundant places for diamonds on the planet - digging out precious stones.
But while the diamond fields feed a £35billion-a-year industry, he barely earns enough to eat.
The United Nations (UN) defines conflict diamonds as "...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." These diamonds are sometimes referred to as "blood diamonds."
In relation to diamond trading, blood diamond [...] refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, invading army's war efforts, or a warlord's activity, usually in Africa.
Stop Blood Diamonds is here to promote the use of conflict free diamonds. Diamonds are a beautiful natural resource - together we can assure that no person is harmed in their manufacturing.
