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PAC: Conflict-diamond films distort reality

November 30, 2006

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Ottawa, Canada—The Dec. 8 release of Blood Diamond and several upcoming documentaries on conflict diamonds could hurt Sierra Leone's recovery efforts, said non-governmental organization Partnership Africa Canada (PAC).

With its January 2000 report, "The Heart of the Matter: Sierra Leone, Diamonds and Human Security," PAC has been among the leaders in the campaign to eradicate conflict diamonds. In fact, the organization was involved in the creation of the Kimberley Process, which monitors the global trade in rough diamonds.

"The Kimberley Process has helped drive the level of conflict diamonds down from 15 percent of world trade to possibly less than a quarter of one percent today," PAC Executive Director Bernard Taylor said in a statement. "But some of these films create an image of on-going horror and suggest that nothing has changed."

In addition to the much-publicized Blood Diamond film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, which is set during Sierra Leone's horrific Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel war, several documentaries are in the pipeline. Among these are Blood on the Stone, produced by Insight News Television, which tries to show that the Kimberley Process does not work; Bling, which grew out of hip-hop artist Kanye West's recording, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," and recounts the story of the war and conflict diamonds, and follows three hip-hop artists to Sierra Leone where they meet diamond miners; and a two-hour documentary on the country from the History Channel.

Another film, a French production called The Empire in Africa, has a viewpoint that sides with Sierra Leone's now-defunct RUF rebel force, responsible for much of the country's past horrors as it chopped off the hands of children and civilians to clear diamond fields where the stones were mined to pay for weapons.

"Individually and collectively, this rash of films may well distort the public's understanding of Sierra Leone today and what has been accomplished there since the war ended in 2002," Taylor said. "The Kimberley Process is far from perfect, but the worst of these wars are over, and together, NGOs, the diamond industry and governments have put in place the first-ever, global diamond-regulatory system."

With these films headed to theaters, PAC also recently launched an informational Web site to address the issue, Blooddiamond.pacweb.org.

For more information on PAC, visit Pacweb.org.

Editor's note: To share thoughts about the movie Blood Diamond with fellow retailers, visit the National Jeweler Network Forum.
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Documentary Films | Entertainment | Hip-Hop and Rap | Movies | Music

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