The industry has been embarrassed by revelations about how some brutal rebel forces in Africa use gems to sustain their fighting. The United Nations has slapped diamond embargoes on rebel-held areas of Angola and Sierra Leone in the hopes of taming those civil wars.
Diamonds are suddenly the issue of the moment.
The fact that public concern over serious human rights abuse can provoke upheaval in a multibillion-dollar industry is heartening indeed. But diamonds don't kill people, guns do. In the current enthusiasm for diamond embargoes, the long-standing arms embargoes on Angola and Sierra Leone largely are being ignored. If the world really wanted to stop the carnage in those countries, it would start by enforcing these arms embargoes. Diamonds are easy to smuggle, and when mixed with stones of varying origins, they're almost impossible to identify under the standards required by a court of law.