The definition of a Blood Diamond is any diamond mined in or around a war or armed conflict zones in war torn Africa. Blood diamonds are gems that have been used by rebel groups to fund armed conflict and civil war. Blood diamonds are caused chaos in Africa, and all for a shiny rock that many happy couples use to define their love to one another, when the may be, unknowingly, they may be buying something filled with hate. In countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, billions of dollars of profits from the sale of diamonds have been used to fuel brutal wars, with devastating impact on local communities and the resources they depend upon. Many people, men, women and children in those war torn countries have basically been put into slavery and forced to harvest diamonds where miners often earn less than a dollar a day and peace and security remain elusive.

There are three primary reasons diamonds are considered or classified as Blood Diamonds:

1. They are mined in war torn African countries by rebels who use the proceeds to fund their militia operations. These rebels grossly abuse human rights, imposing forced labor to mine the diamonds often enslaving and murdering the local populations.
2. They are used to fund terrorist and other illegal activities such as drug smuggling, money laundering and civil war.
3. They have been seized by force from bona-fide diamond miners by militia or other illegal factions.

This matter has become so critical that the (UN) United Nations Organization stepped up to the plate and joined the fight against this illegal activity. Here is how the UN defines Blood Diamonds: “…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.”

To recap, Blood diamonds are diamonds that have been illegally seized or mined through forced labor for the purposes of funding terrorist activities, civil wars, drug smuggling and money laundering operations by militia, anti-government and other criminally minded elements.

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