Sierra+Leone

** Sierra Leone **
The fight over blood diamonds began late in the year 1935 when De Beers took control of Sierra Leone for the next few decades. Sierra Leone discovered quickly after the presence of the Lebanese that diamonds are a sufficient way to make profits. In 1961, independence was gained from Great Britain. Due to the lack of government input, vast amounts of rebels soon invaded Sierra Leone. The “government” had made attempts to make it illegal for rebels to force labor among residence in Sierra Leone. In 1968 a populist by the name Siaka Stevens was appointed prime minister. He was the first to connect diamonds to power and profit. He then appointed Lebanese man Jamil Mohammed to run the diamond mines. In 1969 Jamil handed down control to rebels and in return those rebels made their own private profit.

Having virtually no government, a nine year civil war ravaged the country. A majority of the fighting was in and surrounding diamond mines. The two opposing forces were those who supported the mining of the diamonds and those who did not support the mining of the diamonds. Naturally, there were more on the side of the diamonds. These people who were favoring the diamonds were led by the “Sobels” rebels by day, soldiers by night.

Once the civil war began, the Revolutionary United Front, a group of 100 fighters from Sierra Leone and Liberia, invaded east Sierra Leone**.** Although there was a short time of peace between the “RUF” and the “Sobels” it was short lasting and now the country is still fighting over their precious diamonds.

Back to Homepage John Hardin Works Cited CHETTLE, JUDITH. "Deadly Jewels : Tracing the deadly trail of 'conflict diamonds,' a veteran journalist shows the havoc and corruption they have wreaked on Africa.(Book Review)." //World and I.// 18. 3 (March 2003): 223. //Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center//. Gale. WCPS/Green Hope High School. 24 Nov. 2009 .

Johnson, Eric. Blood Diamonds: The Conflict in Sierra Leone. Stanford. December 6, 2002/ []. November 24, 2009