Sierra Leone Profile

 Full Name: Republic of

Sierra Leone
 Population: 5.7 million
(2009)
 Capital: Freetown
 Major Languages: English,
Krio, and various African
languages.
 Major Religions: Islam and
Christianity
 Monetary Unit: Leone
 Major Exports: Diamonds,
Rutile, Cocoa, Coffee, and
Fish
 History of Sierra Leone
 Sierra Leone: Name means “Lion
Mountains”
 1462: Portuguese explorers
arrive in Sierra Leone, which
was also already occupied by
several African tribes that had
migrated to the area.
 1500s-1700s: Traders stopped in
Sierra Leone to exchange cloth
and metal goods for ivory,
timber, and slaves.
*Abolitionists later help slaves
return to Africa in what is now
the “Province of Freedom”
or Freetown in Sierra Leone.
They came to be called Krio.
 History of Sierra Leone
 1808: Sierra Leone became a Sengbe Pieh
British crown colony (Joseph
 1839: Slaves aboard the Cinque)
Amistad revolt to secure their
freedom. Their leader is Sengbe
Pieh (Joseph Cinque), a young
Mende from Sierra Leone.
 1951: A constitution is enacted
by the British to begin the
process of decolonization (or
when a colony becomes self-
governing)
 April 27, 1961: Sierra Leone
becomes independent with Sir
Milton Margai as its first prime
minister.
Sir Milton Margai
 History of Sierra Leone
 1971: Sierra Leone was
declared a republic, and
Siaka Stevens became
executive president.
 1978: Sierra Leone became a
one-party state with the All
People’s Congress as the sole
legal party. Siaka
 1985: Stevens retired and Stevens
appointed Major General
Joseph Saidu Momoh the next
president. Momoh’s APC rule
was marked by increased
abuse of power.
 Civil War in Sierra Leone
 March 1991: The Revolutionary United Front
(RUF) began attacking villages in eastern
Sierra Leone.
*Goal: To rid the country of the APC
government
* Rebel leader: Foday Sankoh
 April 1992: The National Provisional Ruling
Council (NPRC) was established, but it
proved to be as ineffective as the APC at
repelling the RUF.
 1995: The RUF held much of the countryside
in their control.
 Civil War in Sierra Leone
 1996-2000: Sierra Leone tries various
campaigns to stop the RUF, including signing
a peace deal in 1996 that unraveled in 1997.
 1999: The United Nations finally became
involved in the effort to disarm the rebels
 2001: A second peace agreement was signed
that allowed disarmament to begin as the
government regained authority in rebel-held
areas.
 January 2002: President Ahmad Tejan
Kabbah (elected in 1996) declared the civil
war officially over.
 Recovery in Sierra Leone
 2002: British troops left Sierra Leone
and President Kabbah is reelected.
 Summer 2002: A Sierra Leone Special
Court begins holding a series of war
crimes trials that lasted until 2006.
 2003: Rebel leader Foday Sankoh died.
 Many child soldiers, like Ishmael Beah,
also had to begin a personal healing
process to restore their sense of
humanity and to forgive themselves.
 The Diamond Trade in
Sierra Leone
 During the civil war in
Sierra Leone, people who
purchased diamonds in the
West unknowingly funded
the mission of Foday
Sankoh and the RUF
 These diamonds came to be
known as “blood diamonds”
or “conflict diamonds”
 These diamonds were
specifically mined in war
zones of Africa to fund the
invading army’s efforts.
 Liberia would trade
weapons and training to
BLOOD DIAMONDS
 Diamonds symbolize
wealth, love, and grace
around the world
In several African nations they have
been a means to
power
a reason to terrorize millions of
innocent civilians, and may have
even helped finance some of the
world's most brutal terrorists
 Where Are Diamonds Found?
 Rough diamonds can either be found below the
earth’s surface through industrial mining, or in
river beds and streams through alluvial mining.

 Most of the diamond deposits currently mined in

places such as Sierra Leone and Angola are
alluvial, requiring only a shovel, a pan, and hard
labor to mine.
 Diamond Mining
• South Africa
• Namibia
• Botswana
• Republic of
Congo
• Sierra Leone
Where are the  Many of the world’s
World’s Blood diamonds are mined in
Diamonds? 3rd World nations.
 The Term “Blood
Diamond” is used to
describe a diamond
mined in a war zone,
and usually used to
finance that war.
 Other terms for Blood
Diamonds are Dirty
Diamonds, Conflict
Diamonds, or War
Diamonds.
 Blood Diamonds
What are blood diamonds?
Also called “Conflict Diamonds,” Blood
diamonds are “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” ~United Nations General Assembly
December 1, 2001
 Blood Diamonds
Why the diamond is such an easily traded commodity?

Large Amount of Form of Currency

Wealth in Small
Size
 Blood Diamonds
Where does the Blood Diamond Trade occur?

Botswana

Sierra Leone

Angola

Nigeria

Namibia
South Africa
 Blood Diamonds
How countries like Nigeria and Sierra Leone are
affected:

Rebel Forces Use Diamonds to Finance Arms Purchases

• Many of today's diamonds
are produced in 3rd World
countries in Africa an South
America.
• The conditions under which
Todays Cycle
these diamonds are mined
are terrible with miners
working under slave like
conditions.
• In addition in 1998 about
20% of the world’s diamonds
were being used to finance
wars of insurgency in
countries like Angola, Sierra
Leone and the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC)
The Gun Cycle Continues
• Like the Historical Slave/Gun
Cycle. Guns are the product
these rebel African groups
most want. They often
enslave men, women and
children to work in the
diamond mines or may pay
them pennies a day to work.
• Once again the diamonds
end up in developed Western
Nations, while the rebel
groups trade the money they
make for the diamonds for
more weapons and the cycle
continues.
Blood Diamonds
The History
The War
 The Start
The start of the these
killings and the illicit
diamonds trade is
when the
Revolutionary United
Front (R.U.F.) crossed
the Liberian border to
Sierra Leone
•
Brown, Pervinia P. "Blood
Diamonds." WorldPress. Web. 9 http://www-pub.naz.edu:9000/~srourke6/ima
Nov. 2009. < ges/gallery2_8.gif
http://www.worldpress.org/africa/
2193.cfm
>.
 In 1991
a few hundred men
crossed the Liberian
border
and
attacked towns in eastern
and southern Sierra
Leone
 Once the war began
money became scarce
and
people took things into their own hands
by
searching for other means of finding
money to fund the war
Africa is known for there diamonds, it is
the most valued item
 The Rise
The Government
of Sierra Leone
started Operation
Genesis to stop
R.U.F., but they
could not stop
them
During the 1996
election the R.U.F
attacked civilians
•
Brown, Pervinia P. "Blood
Diamonds." WorldPress. Web. 9 http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/westafri
Nov. 2009. < ca0405/westafrica0405_files/image001.j
http://www.worldpress.org/africa/2 pg
 Easily Exploitable
Resource
•
In areas such as Sierra Leone where
alluvial, or river, mining allows easy
access to quality rough diamonds, this
artificially high price has encouraged
rebels to take control of diamond
mining areas in hopes of making a
quick and substantial profit.

•
Rebel groups such as the RUF (the
Revolutionary United Front), force
civilians to mine for diamonds.
http://whataboutafrica.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/blood-
diamonds.jpg
 Blood Diamonds
In the late
1990’s the
R.U.F started
distributing
illicit
diamonds
from Sierra
Leone to the
rest of the
•
world
Campino, Anna F. "CONFLICT
DIAMONDS." Sanctions and War.
United Nations Department of Public
http://www.amnesty.org.hk/UserFiles/Image/abc/conflict_diamond/8990_web.jpg
Information, 21 Mar. 2001. Web. 9
Nov. 2009. <
http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diam
ond.html
The Growth of Illicit
Diamonds
•
The Illicit Diamond trading grew R.U.F into a
huge business millions of dollars worth of
diamonds was flowing all around the world
•
Even though this was happening in the time no
one really cared about what was happening

•
Campino, Anna F. "CONFLICT DIAMONDS." Sanctions and War.
United Nations Department of Public Information, 21 Mar. 2001. Web. 9
Nov. 2009. <http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diamond.html>.
 Diamonds Fund
Conflicts
•
Rebel groups use the profits from the sale of diamonds,
upwards of $300 million a year, to buy more small arms and
supplies so that they can sustain their military endeavors.

•
In the past decade, over 6 million people from Sierra Leone,
Angola, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
have become refugees after being forced from their homes
by diamond fueled conflict.

• Millions more have died in diamond related conflicts over

the past decade.
 Liberia is the main area of conflict:
key meeting place for
rebels, terrorists and other criminal groups
to exchange blood diamonds for weapons
Criminals are able to trade these diamonds with
ease and are
rarely caught, they use the money to purchase
illegal weapons
“Illicit diamonds make fabulous profits
for terrorists and corporarations alike.
The trade illustrates with the hard
clarity of the gem itself that no matter
where human rights violations occur,
the world ignores them at its peril.”
 Thousands of Sierra Leoneans
have been killed and mutilated
mainly because there was
no large scale, international
intervention in the early stages of
the war
The ongoing Blood
Diamonds
War has yet to
cease
 “Blood Diamonds”
 Africans who
oppose the rebel
groups are often
slaughtered.
 Those who most
need protection
are often those
who are most
often abused
under this
immoral trade.
 Effect
The people of Sierra
Leone were being
hurt and tortured for
the beauty of the
diamonds
“The international
diamond industry's
trading centers in
Europe funded this
horror by buying
up to $125 million
worth of diamonds
a year from the
RUF” http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/images/Blood
%20Diamonds.jpg
Cambell, Greg. "Blood Diamonds." Amnesty
International USA. 2007. Web. 9 Nov. 2009. <
http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/diamonds.h
tml
>.
Conflict Diamonds Increase Human
Rights Abuses
 Rebel cruelty in many conflict areas is
well documented, and includes the
abduction and training of child
soldiers, amputation, abduction of
males as diamond mine workers, and
the use of rape as a tool of war.

 Diamond profits allow for prolonged

conflict and increased human rights
abuses in conflict areas,

 And despite UN arms embargoes and

diamond certification schemes such
as the Kimberley Process, the illegal
sale of diamonds remains a profitable
business.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/diamonds.html