In early March, a man named Herbert Manhanga was walking in the vicinity of the valuable Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe. Manhanga lived nearby, and a few other local residents were with him. According to Manhanga’s sister, the group encountered some security guards for Marange Resources, a diamond mining company. Manhanga dropped his hat and tried to pick it up, at which point one of the guards opened fire, killing him instantly. An analysis determined that the cause of death was two bullet wounds to his head.

A police officer told Manhanga’s sister that the police would not conduct an investigation because Manhanga had been trespassing in a “protected area.” And when the Center for Research and Development (CRD) – a human rights group that has received Brilliant Earth funding – called Marange Resources to inquire about the death, the company’s CEO was overheard telling his assistant to redirect the call to the company switchboard.

This avoidance of responsibility must have been frustrating to the CRD, but it didn’t stop the group from publishing its findings. A new CRD report documents what is known about Manhanga’s murder, and it details other acts of violence by security guards against local residents. The report documents 11 incidents occurring just in February and March, most of them involving beatings and dog attacks. We should warn that some of the photos in the report are graphic.

The CRD’s report would be disturbing under any circumstances. However, we find it particularly troubling considering the history of violence in the Marange diamond fields. In 2008, following the discovery that the Marange diamond fields contain one of the world’s richest diamond deposits, the Zimbabwean army invaded. It seized the diamond fields, massacring more than 200 diamond local miners and then enslaving local adults and children. The Kimberley Process, the international diamond certification scheme, banned Marange diamonds for two years, but lifted that ban in 2011 after the Zimbabwean government transferred mining operations to a group of mining companies, which were supposed to act in a professional manner.

Sadly, shifting daily mining operations to mining companies has failed to stop the violence. The fact that the mining companies have web sites and telephone switchboards hasn’t ensured that Zimbabwean diamonds are mined in an ethical way.

Some of the ethical issues go beyond violence. Thousands of local residents have been forcibly relocated from their homes to make way for diamond mining, many without  compensation. Billions of dollars in diamond profits that should be used to assist the Zimbabwean people are being lost to corruption. The Zimbabwean government has also made it clear that there are consequences for questioning its oversight of diamond mining. Concerned about the CRD’s investigations, the government imprisoned the group’s leader, Farai Magawu, on trumped up charges for several weeks in 2010.

The good news, if it can be called that, is that no more massacres have occurred. In 2011, we did hear an alarming report that the Zimbabwean army was running torture camps for diamond miners. But lately, we’d begun to hope that as of 2013 – five years after the massacre – the violence might finally be over. We were wrong.

Manhanga’s death, it seems, is part of a pattern of regular abuses by security personnel – mostly against people who try to dig for diamonds on land where mining companies have been granted concessions. For instance, the CRD reports that at 10:30 p.m. on March 16, a 25-year-old man named Tariro Saungeweme and four other men were digging for diamonds on land controlled by Marange Resources. After security guards found them, Saungeweme suffered “intense and heavy beating” and two of the men were bitten by dogs.

In another incident, security guards acting on behalf of another company, Mbada Diamonds, found Netsai Nechipote, a 27-year-old woman, digging at night along with a group of six diamond miners. The guards beat her and then took her to their guard room for an additional beating. The next morning they dumped her next to a river. She was hurt but alive.

Why is this violence happening and what can be done to stop it?

Probably the biggest factor is money. Every diamond taken by a local villager represents a lost profit. Another factor is the geology of the Marange diamond deposit. Maintaining order is difficult because the diamonds are scattered across a large land area.

However, neither of these factors justifies killings or beatings. Security personnel need to be trained to respect human rights, and mining companies need to take responsibility when violence occurs. Furthermore, one reason why local people are trying to dig “illegally” is that the government has never granted any mining concessions to the local community. Only well-connected companies have received permission to mine. If the violence is to end, the Zimbabwean government needs to give a fairer deal to the local community.

Unfortunately, putting an end to this violence won’t be easy. The Kimberley Process has already given up what little leverage it had in Zimbabwe, having lifted the diamond export ban in 2011. Nonetheless, at Brilliant Earth we will continue to raise awareness among diamond consumers that Zimbabwean diamonds are blood diamonds. More consumer awareness, over the long term, will create more pressure on the diamond industry to eliminate violence. We will also continue supporting  groups like the CRD, which, by telling the stories of people such as Herbert Manhanga, keep human rights abuses from being hidden and make accountability possible.

The post Are You Calling About that Murder? Um, Here’s Our Switchboard appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

One of the great lessons of the environmental movement is that we live in a connected world. Harming one part of an ecosystem can disrupt the entire balance, and it can have an impact on people living near and far. “In nature nothing exists alone,” wrote Rachel Carson in Silent Spring.

The celebration of Earth Week this past week has gotten us thinking about this powerful idea of connectedness and how it applies in the jewelry industry. When most people think about ethical issues related to jewelry, they think of conflict diamonds – about bloody civil wars in some distant African country. But irresponsible mining affects people everywhere. That observation is particularly true for gold mining, the effects of which are surprisingly global.

How global? Well, there is a link between gold mining in faraway places and the fish that you eat.

Modern industrial gold mining relies on a technique called open pit mining, in which companies use heavy machinery to dig giant pits in the earth. Open pit gold mining generates more than 20 tons of rock and rubble for every gold ring that is produced. The practice leaves permanent scars on the landscape and creates holes so deep that some are visible from space. Mining companies also usually construct tailings dams to hold cyanide-laden toxic waste. When the dams break or overflow, the environmental damage can be catastrophic.

Defenders of open pit gold mining argue that these environmental effects can be managed and restricted. That may be true in some cases, especially when a gold mine is placed in a remote location, like a desert. The problem is that gold is often found in vital ecosystems – and in these cases, the effects can suddenly go from local to global.

We recently wrote about a plan to open a new gold mine in the Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska, home to the world’s largest remaining sockeye salmon fishery. If the mine opens, environmentalists fear it could poison or destroy the fishery. Native Alaskans would be most affected because they rely on salmon for food and jobs. But the effects could be far-reaching too. If the worst comes to pass, people around the world would no longer be able to enjoy wild Alaskan salmon.

But another type of gold mining known as artisanal gold mining is responsible for the biggest link between gold mining and fish. Artisanal gold mining is the kind of gold mining in which individuals use simple methods like panning in streams or digging make-shift mine shafts. Most artisanal gold miners are people in developing countries who live in conditions of extreme poverty. They generally rely on mercury, a toxic substance, to separate gold from unwanted rock and ore.

Mercury, although naturally occurring, is extremely dangerous to humans. When ingested by pregnant women, it can cause brain damage and other birth defects in newborn babies. Regular exposure to mercury can cause serious health consequences like tremors, weight loss, and personality shifts.

The people most affected by mercury exposure are artisanal gold miners themselves. But mercury pollution is also a very global problem. Mercury is usually released by gold miners as a vapor. It then enters the atmosphere, where it can be carried across great distances and returned to the earth through precipitation. Rivers and streams carry it further, emptying it into lakes and oceans. Fish with elevated mercury levels are then caught and then sold around the world – thereby affecting your sushi.

One recent study found that 84 percent of all fish have unsafe mercury levels. Another study of Manhattan sushi restaurants in 2008 found that the tuna at most restaurants contained so much mercury that eating just six pieces a week could be harmful.

The contribution of the jewelry industry to mercury levels in fish is probably more than negligible. Most gold is used to make jewelry. And artisanal gold mining is actually the leading cause of man-made mercury pollution, dumping more mercury into the environment than even coal-fired power plants. An estimated 15 million people around the world now work as artisanal gold miners, many of them lured into gold mining  by high gold prices in recent years.

We should also mention another serious global impact of artisanal gold mining. Because a lot of artisanal gold mining takes place in the Amazon rainforest, gold miners there are speeding up deforestation rates and thus contributing to global warming.

To be sure, many of the problems besetting gold and diamond mining – ranging from violence to the use of child labor – may not add toxins to the fish on your plate or change the climate where you live. Why should jewelry consumers care about these problems too?

One reason, of course, is basic human empathy. But we believe jewelry consumers should care for another fundamental reason: the jewelry industry is itself global. The truth is that there is really no such thing as purely local consequences to irresponsible mining. When diamond miners live in extreme poverty or when gold or diamonds fuel civil wars, these issues touch us, literally, because we as jewelry consumers wear the diamonds and gold being mined. And when an engagement ring is produced in a responsible way, using recycled gold and beyond conflict free diamonds, that makes it much so more beautiful and meaningful, and so much more adequate as a symbol of love and commitment.

The post How Dirty Gold Mining Affects the Fish You Eat appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

Earth Day is important to Brilliant Earth because part of our goal is to end environmentally harmful mining practices and restore land that has already been affected. We use only recycled gold in our jewelry to avoid the negative environmental impacts of dirty gold mining. We also partner with the environmental nonprofit One Sky and the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL) to support redevelopment efforts in Kono, the diamond mining region in Sierra Leone.

We want to thank you for supporting the ethical jewelry movement! Through April 22^nd, you will receive a beautiful Green on the Inside Pendant with your diamond engagement ring, sapphire engagement ring, or unique colored gemstone engagement ring purchase. This recycled sterling silver pendant features a vibrant and ethically sourced green sapphire charm.

Many companies are helping promote Earth Day by offering special celebratory deals. We think that taking advantage of them is a great way to be a savvy shopper and help make a difference. Here are six more Earth Day promotions for you to enjoy!

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn is honoring Earth Day by offering free shipping on all organic bed and bath items through April 22^nd!

Target

On April 21^st (the day before Earth Day) Target will be giving away one free reusable bag per customer. Grab one and load up on eco-friendly products such as Green Works cleaning, Scotch-Brite natural scrub sponge, and Seventh Generation recycled paper towels!

Wegmans

On April 22^nd each Wegmans store will be handing out a coupon for a free reusable bag in exchange for a handful of regular plastic bags!

The Disney Store

The Disney Store is celebrating Earth Day in a big way. If you join their Earth Month Webinars, you will be entered for a chance to win an iPad mini! They will also be giving away a Disney reusable bag if you bring in 5 plastic bags!

National Parks

From April 22-26, entrance to all national parks is free! Go experience the beauty of our nation in person.

The Body Shop

The Body Shop is giving away a free Earth Lovers Shower Gel if you take the 3 minute shower challenge. The shower gel is 100% biodegradable, and who can resist a challenge? Here is a link to the coupon.

The post Earth Day Promotion Roundup appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

A new documentary film provides a chance for native Alaskans to explain, in their own words, the importance of salmon fishing in their culture – and why the opening of a new gold and copper mine would threaten their way of life.

The film, titled “We Can’t Eat Gold,” deals with the proposed Pebble Mine, which would be located in the Bristol Bay watershed about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage. The mining companies trying to open the Pebble Mine want access to one of the most valuable deposits of gold, copper, and molybdenum in the world. However, Bristol Bay is also home to the world’s largest, most spectacular sockeye salmon fishery.

Residents justifiably fear that the mine will pollute the water and disrupt habitat for salmon and other wildlife. The mine would require the construction of a dam to hold an estimated 10 billion tons of toxic mine waste in perpetuity. If the dam ever failed or spilled, it could devastate the salmon fishery. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft study showing that the mine could be catastrophic for the local environment.

The new documentary, which premiered on April 6 at the Finger Lakes International Film Festival in Ithaca, New York, makes clear that what’s at stake is not just the environment, but the culture and way of life of native Alaskans. For more than a thousand years, native Alaskans have depended on salmon as a food source. Today, salmon continue to provide food and jobs. The commercial salmon fishery generates $500 million per year and employs 14,000 full and part-time workers.

The film trailer (see below) shows fishermen at work, children and adults preparing salmon, and native Alaskans talking about what salmon mean to them. “Taking our salmon away would be like what happened to the lower 48 Indians when they took the buffalo away,” says Tom Tilden, First Chief of the Curyung Tribal Council, in the trailer.

A poll in 2009 showed that about 80 percent of local residents oppose the mine. Despite this overwhelming opposition, the mining companies have not backed down. Why not? One reason is that the companies have support from state officials, who think that the mine would provide a net benefit to the Alaskan economy. The mine promises to create 1,000 permanent jobs, which is significant but much lower than the jobs that depend on the salmon fishery.

The best way to stop the mine would be for the EPA to determine that the mine would violate the Clean Water Act. But this decision is really a question about values – about whether we as a society decide that the Bristol Bay watershed and the way of life tied to it are worth preserving. As the EPA and President Obama decide what to do, it’s essential that local community voices be heard and understood. This new film could be very helpful in that regard.

The local community needs others to voice their opposition too. The community is getting some high-profile help from celebrities like Robert Redford. We think that the jewelry industry also has a special obligation to speak out, since much of the gold from the Pebble Mine would be used to make jewelry. At Brilliant Earth, we’re dedicated to stopping dirty gold mining – we use only recycled gold in our jewelry – and so we have been expressing our opposition for several years. If you would like to add your voice to those opposing the mine, a great way to do so is to sign this petition by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The film trailer is below, but to see the full documentary keep an eye on the film’s web site for information about future screenings. (In the meantime, we recommend this excellent ABC Frontline documentary on the Pebble Mine issue). The “We Can’t Eat Gold” filmmakers are also trying to raise $4,000 to help them return to Bristol Bay to show the film. To support this effort, you can donate here. If you give a $50 donation, they promise to send you delicious smoked salmon strips directly from Bristol Bay!

Here’s the film trailer:

The post In New Film, Alaskan Natives Speak Out Against Gold Mine appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

The 2013 Power List featured 20 young men and women who are poised to become the future movers and shakers of the jewelry industry. Eric appeared on the Power List alongside bloggers, social media gurus, and other forward thinking entrepreneurs. Also gracing the list were a few prominent jewelry legacies, including the Kwiat brothers, Paul Tacorian, and Lita Asscher.  This article positions Eric—the cofounder of a company that was built on ethical practices and transparency—as a future industry leader. This recognition is a promising indication that there is a sea change coming in the jewelry business.

Change is an uphill battle, but it is a battle that we are passionate about. We are hopeful that Eric’s recognition on JCK’s Power List is a sign that the future leaders of the jewelry industry will focus on bringing positive change to the industry.

“I am very excited to see a leading publication such as JCK recognize the efforts of Brilliant Earth to bring more responsible practices to the jewelry industry,” says Eric, “All of us at Brilliant Earth remain optimistic that our values will continue to gain broader adoption across the jewelry landscape.”

This change may come about due to a variety of reasons, though consumer education and increasing demand for ethical diamonds will play a large role. Brilliant Earth was established when Eric and cofounder Beth Gerstein recognized the ethical failings of the diamond industry. Years later, Brilliant Earth is poised to lead the industry toward ethical and sustainable practices.

The post Eric Grossberg Named One of JCK Magazine’s Top 20 Under 40 appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

We’ve brought together some of the key facts you should know about unethical diamond mining in the infographic below. To learn more, please see our Conflict Diamond Issues page.

Click on the infographic below to make it larger.

Want to share this message?  To embed the infographic on your site, just paste the following code on your page:

The post Introducing Our Infographic on Blood Diamonds appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

A coup has taken place in one of Africa’s diamond-rich countries, the Central African Republic. A week ago, rebel forces took over the country’s capital, Bangui, and overthrew the ruling dictator, Francois Bozizé, who has fled to Cameroon. The rebel leader, Michel Djotodia, has installed himself as president.

We’ve been following events in the Central African Republic with concern for some time now. In 2011, clashes between rebel groups over diamond mining territory led to the death of 50 people. By late last year, rebel forces had unified and were poised to take over the capital. A last minute peace deal was brokered in January, but rebels accused Bozizé of failing to live up to his side of the bargain and renewed their offensive.

The Central African Republic has been wracked by repeated coups since it gained independence from France in 1960. Bozizé himself took power in a coup in 2003. It’s hard to know whether this latest coup represents the start of a transition to democracy or more of the same. Djotodia has retained the previous government’s prime minister and has pledged to hold new elections. However, his spokesman says that elections will not held be for three more years.

Is there any reason to believe that things could change?

The Central African Republic is rich with diamonds and other natural resources like gold, oil, and uranium. The pessimistic view is that disputes over these natural resources, combined with the ethnic tensions and grinding poverty, will condemn the Central African Republic to more years of political instability – that the country’s destiny can’t be changed.

But that point of view, we think, also ignores plenty of evidence that natural resources like diamonds and gold are not necessarily incompatible with peace and democracy in Africa. They can even help build it.

For instance, Botswana and Namibia are two African countries that are rich in diamonds (we source many of our diamonds from them), that have used diamond wealth to raise standards of living, and that are also democracies. A recent report ranked Botswana as the 30th most democratic country in the world, only two spots behind France and two ahead of Italy. Namibia came in 72nd. The Central African Republic, sadly, was ranked 157th out of 167.

It could be argued that Botswana and Namibia simply have stronger democratic traditions and that their success says little about what is possible in the Central African Republic. So we should also probably consider another diamond-rich country, one that has historically been troubled but where democracy is now becoming stronger: Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone is by no means a country where diamond mining is conducted using the most ethical practices. Child labor is common, and irresponsible diamond mining has left many areas littered with abandoned mining pits. Furthermore, just as in the Central African Republic, artisanal diamond miners do not earn enough money to escape extreme poverty.

But Sierra Leone is also a diamond-rich African country that has emerged from a period of violence and political instability. In the 1990s, a diamond-funded civil war in Sierra Leone took 50,000 lives and left many others injured, maimed, and displaced. The scars of that civil war are still present. But democratic progress has also been real. In November, Sierra Leone elected a new president in the third peaceful democratic election since the war ended in 2002. Last Thursday, President Obama hosted Sierra Leone’s new president, Ernest Bai Koroma, at the White House and praised Sierra Leone for its democratic gains.

Because democracy is beginning to take root in Sierra Leone, there is now a chance to help consolidate it by making diamond mining more fair and responsible. Our non-profit fund is therefore funding a pilot project that will help Sierra Leone’s diamond miners join together to defend their rights and earn a greater share of mining profits.

So what will happen in Central African Republic? We cannot predict. But we also cannot succumb to the pessimism of believing that diamonds and other natural resources will inevitably and forever drag the country down. A new path is possible for the Central African Republic. Natural resources like diamonds, if managed properly, can even help.

The post After Coup, Considering the Future in Central African Republic appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

A warlord in the Democratic Republic of Congo known as “the Terminator” – and who used gold and other conflict minerals to finance a violent insurgency – has turned himself in to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On Monday, General Bosco Ntaganda unexpectedly walked into the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and asked to be handed over to the court. The United States will likely do exactly that.

The civil war in Congo has been going on since the late 1990s and has caused the death of more than 5 million people, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in history. The war is now mostly confined to parts of eastern Congo, where gold and other minerals such as tin, tantalum, and tungsten have been helping rebels to buy weapons and continue the fight. Ntaganda has been deeply involved in exploiting Congo’s natural resources to support his rebel troops. According to one recent estimate, he earned about $15,000 a week in conflict mineral sales.

An ethnic Tutsi born in Rwanda, Ntaganda fought in the ethnic conflict that tore Rwanda apart in the early 1990s and that led to the Rwandan Genocide. After that, he moved on to Congo and has stayed more or less on a permanent warpath.

The ICC indicted him in 2006 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The activities he is accused of are heinous and include murder, rape, sexual slavery, and the recruitment of child soldiers. In this video, Human Rights Watch describes some of the atrocities Ntaganda is allegedly responsible for. One of them is an incident in 2002 in which he allegedly ordered the killing of 800 people in a gold mining village called Mongbwalu.

Although he had been indicted by the ICC, Ntaganda and his soldiers were integrated into the Congolese army as part of a peace agreement in 2009. But in April 2012, Ntaganda withdrew from the army to form M23, a new rebel group. M23 has now splintered into two factions, the other one led by Ntaganda’s rival, Sultana Makenga. It appears that Makenga got the upper hand, recently pursuing Ntaganda and his men into Rwanda. Observers do not know why Ntaganda decided to turn himself in; his surrender was a complete surprise. But one theory is that he surrendered in the belief that his best chance of survival was to go prison.

Peace talks to end the war are now underway in Kampala, Uganda. Ntaganda’s arrest, we hope, will increase the chances that the civil war in Congo will finally reach a negotiated end.

How to Stop a Civil War 

Ntaganda’s arrest brings us back to an important question. In trying to stop civil wars and violence fueled by natural resources, what is the best approach?

At Brilliant Earth, we are dedicated to breaking the link between jewelry and violence. We therefore have been most vocal about a different strategy for ending the war: stopping the flow of gold and other conflict minerals from war-torn parts of Congo. But how does that strategy relate to what the ICC is doing: namely, arresting a violent leader like Ntaganda and bringing him to justice?

Actually, we think that both kinds of strategies – legal ones and economic ones – are worth pursuing. So are political strategies like negotiations.

That is why we have been extremely supportive of efforts to bring to justice other individuals who have used violence to exploit Africa’s natural resources. Last year, Charles Taylor, the blood diamond dictator from Liberia, was convicted for his crimes. In Angola, a journalist named Rafael Marques is trying to hold Angolan army generals accountable for crimes in Angola’s diamond fields. We also hope that someday, in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and his generals will be held legally responsible for massacring more than 200 diamond miners and enslaving others in the Marange diamond fields.

It is also possible that legal, economic, and political strategies can be complementary, reinforcing one another. Efforts to stop the flow of conflict minerals from Congo, such as the transparency measures in the Dodd Frank financial reform bill of 2010, are only beginning to be implemented. The arrest of Ntaganda, in the best-case scenario, could help bring about a political resolution to the conflict – which in turn, could be consolidated by stopping remaining rebels from earning profits on conflict minerals.

How events will play out in Congo is difficult to guess. Ntaganda’s decision to turn himself in was itself a surprise. But as events unfold, we will continue to advocate for steps that we think could help reduce the violence – and to hope that the bloodshed comes to an end.

The post Conflict Gold Warlord Unexpectedly Surrenders appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

We’d like to discuss two recent diamond heists – both of them outrageous, both similar in some coincidental details, but each causing a very different world reaction.

The first one happened a few weeks ago in Belgium. Eight thieves wearing police uniforms burst through a fence at the Brussels airport, just as a Swiss passenger plane was being loaded with a cargo of diamonds. Driving two black vehicles that flashed blue police lights, the thieves raced up the runway. When they got to the plane, they waved submachine guns at ground workers and the pilot. Within 15 minutes they had stolen 120 packages of rough diamonds worth $50 million.

The second diamond heist, which is more of an ongoing theft, has been taking place in Zimbabwe. Corrupt government officials and businessmen have been stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in rough diamonds from Zimbabwe’s valuable Marange diamond fields. Every month, according to a new report by the group 100Reporters.org, a luxurious private Airbus plane takes off from the airport in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. The plane transports many of the leading figures in Zimbabwe’s diamond trade – and also, it is believed, millions of dollars in stolen diamonds.

The plane is the perfect getaway vehicle. It travels quickly around the world – stops have included Hong Kong, Singapore, Angola, and Tanzania – and it is rarely, if ever, subject to customs inspections.

Comparing the Crimes

These two crimes share some superficial similarities. Both involve the theft of rough diamonds at airports. Both also could be called “inside jobs.” At the Brussels airport, the thieves had to know exactly when the diamonds would be loaded onto the plane in order to show up precisely at the right moment. At the Harare airport, the people stealing diamonds are the ultimate insiders. They are the same corrupt businessmen and government officials who control diamond mining in Zimbabwe.

We should also point out that both crimes are symptoms of an underlying problem: the international diamond trade continues to be poorly regulated. One of the  main reasons why thieves still steal diamonds is that it remains easy to re-sell them for a good price. Until the international diamond trade becomes much more transparent and regulated, diamond thieves will do quite well for themselves.

But back to comparing our diamond heists – what is interesting, we think, is that is that the international reaction has been so different. When the thieves stole the diamonds in Belgium, the story briefly became a top international news item. The New York Times, Bloomberg, ABC News, the Associated Press, and many other news sources in the United States and other countries all filed stories. Additionally, the Kimberley Process, the international diamond certification scheme, sprung into action. On February 22, it issued an alert that warns the world to “remain vigilant” and keep an eye out for the stolen diamonds.

In contrast, although the theft of diamonds in Zimbabwe has received some press coverage, the issue has never made much of a media splash. Nor has the Kimberley Process issued a formal alert to warn the world that Zimbabwean diamonds are being stolen on a massive scale. Indeed, the Kimberley Process, after briefly banning Zimbabwean diamonds between 2009 and 2011 due to violence in the Marange diamond fields, has basically decided to ignore the fact that Zimbabwe’s diamonds are being stolen.

Explaining the Different Reactions

What is going on here? Why does one diamond theft receive a swift international reaction while another gets mostly ignored?

Maybe the best explanation is that the diamond theft in Brussels was a lot more dramatic. It was quick, creative, well-executed, and totally unexpected.  “This diamond heist is being called spectacular, daring, and clinical – something straight out of Ocean’s 13,” began the story that ran on ABC’s evening news broadcast, going on to briefly show clips from the movie.

The theft in Harare, on the other hand, almost seems to have almost lulled the international community to sleep. Perhaps the theft is so obvious and so regular and has been going on for so long, that every time a plane takes off from Zimbabwe loaded with stolen diamonds, nobody really thinks of it as news. As early as 2010, evidence began to surface that Zimbabwean government officials were smuggling diamonds by plane.

Another possibility, sadly, is that the world has different expectations for different parts of the world. When $50 million in diamonds is stolen in Belgium, the press and the diamond industry all react. However, when an African dictator steals hundreds of millions of dollars – or even $2 billion in diamonds by one estimate – the theft is thought of as normal and routine.

A Fairer Response

The Brussels diamond heist absolutely should be investigated and punished. But the paradox here is that the Brussels heist is getting all the attention, even though the Harare heist is actually far more serious. Not only is the amount of the theft much larger, but it is an ongoing problem – the theft has yet to be stopped. Furthermore, the money being lost comes directly out of the pockets of the Zimbabwean people, who are among the world’s poorest and badly need their government to make investments in health, education, and infrastructure.

In addition, it is believed that the much of the profit from the stolen diamonds is helping to fund Robert Mugabe’s oppressive secret police. Some observers fear that the secret police will prevent Zimbabweans from voting freely when they go to the polls in the next presidential election, scheduled for later this year.

The Kimberley Process’s reaction to the Brussels theft – but silence on the Harare theft – reveals just how misplaced its priorities are. We urge the Kimberley Process to treat the theft in Zimbabwe at least as seriously as it is treating the theft in Belgium. In the very least, the governments that participate in the Kimberley Process should not be allowing the private Airbus plane to land in cities around the world without inspecting its passengers and cargo.

We also believe that the diamond industry needs to move much more quickly to devise a system in which every diamond is fully traceable and ethically-sourced – much like the diamonds we offer. When it no longer is acceptable to sell a diamond without transparent and ethical origins, diamond heists will become a lot less common – whether they occur at an airport in Zimbabwe or one in Belgium.

The post A Tale of Two Diamond Heists appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.

More than a decade after the end of a tragic, diamond-funded civil war in Angola, diamond mining in the country continues to be beset by violence. Private security firms hired by diamond mining companies have been using brutal tactics – torture, beatings, and killings – to keep unlicensed miners away from diamond-rich territory. Angolan army generals, some of them shareholders in the mining and security companies, also have been leading a military crackdown against the miners.

Levels of violence are alarmingly high. Focusing his research on just two diamond mining towns in northeast Angola during a two-year time span, an Angolan journalist named Rafael Marques documented at least 100 killings and the torture of more than 500 individuals. And there is surely much more violence beyond this.

Unfortunately, attempts to get the Angolan government or the international community to do anything have so far been met with opposition or an indifferent shrug of the shoulders. Why is this violence being tolerated?

One factor is that the Kimberley Process, the international diamond certification scheme, is a very flawed response to the problem of blood diamonds. The Kimberley Process makes decisions by consensus, and getting its 80 member governments to agree on anything is almost impossible. In addition, the Kimberley Process lately has been wracked by a controversy over violence in Zimbabwe’s mining fields. After almost being torn apart over the Zimbabwe issue, the Kimberley Process now has little appetite for handling problems in Angola.

But another factor is that powerful people in Angola’s political and military establishment have a vested interest in keeping the diamonds flowing – even if that means overlooking violence and human rights abuses. And nobody knows this better than Marques, who has been at the forefront of efforts to stop the torture and killings.

Rafael Marques’s Fight for Justice

In 2011, Marques published a book titled Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola. The book exposes the web of corruption and violence that plagues Angolan diamond mining, and it provides specific evidence of killings and torture. Shortly after publishing the book, Marques also filed a lawsuit in Angola against nine Angolan army generals, accusing them of crimes against humanity.

In response, the very corporations that are allegedly guilty of human rights violations, corporations that are partly-owned by the army generals, struck back against him. They filed their own lawsuit, a libel claim, against Marques. The libel claim was filed in Portugal, Angola’s former colonial ruler and the place where the book was published.

The libel suit was intended to frustrate Marques and perhaps bankrupt him. It could have persuaded Marques to give up his lawsuit or his human rights advocacy – but he never did. And because of that, we can now report some good news: earlier this month, the libel claim was dismissed. The Portuguese courts declared that Marques had a constitutional right – the right to freedom of speech – to publish his book.

What does the book say that the corporations and army generals didn’t want made public? Some of the abuses described in the book are truly shocking. For instance, the book tells of how 22 miners were killed, execution-style, by Angolan soldiers; how soldiers caved-in a mine where 45 miners had been working below, killing all of them (an incident discussed in this Wall Street Journal report); and how 15 miners were forced to jump from a speeding truck at intervals, so that their dead bodies would be scattered and more difficult to find. It also describes how miners and villagers are routinely beaten – for instance, stripped naked and beaten with the flat side of a machete.

We should also note that that the abuses Marques documents probably only represent a fraction of the total amount of diamond-related violence in Angola.

Last year, for example, Human Rights Watch published an alarming report describing violence against migrants from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo who have been crossing into northeast Angola, mostly in search of better diamond mining opportunities. The Angolan army has been rounding up these migrant diamond miners, confining them to camps, and expelling them across the border. More than 100,000 migrants were expelled in 2011. Many of them, according to reports, were physically and sexually abused while in the custody of Angolan soldiers.

The Fight Continues

So now that the libel suit is dismissed, can Marques be successful in his efforts to pursue justice inside the Angolan legal system? We are doubtful, at least in the short term.

In November, Angola’s Attorney General, who is responsible for investigating Marques’s criminal complaint, announced that he would not pursue a criminal case against the army generals. On February 15, Marques sent a letter to Angola’s president, José Eduardo dos Santos, urging him to ask the Attorney General to reopen the case. However, dos Santos has been Angola’s authoritarian leader for 33 years. He is basically a dictator who is unlikely to betray his own generals.

As for the Kimberley Process, for the reasons stated above we doubt it will get involved any time soon. At least in the near future, the Kimberley Process will probably continue to certify all Angolan diamonds as “conflict free” and allow them to be sold in jewelry stores wordwide.

But that does not mean that diamond-related abuses in Angola are not worth discussing. At Brilliant Earth, we believe that consumers deserve to know the truth about ongoing violence in diamond mining. Just as important, if enough consumers care, over the long term we think that the link between diamonds and violence can finally be broken.

If blood-stained diamonds become truly unacceptable, if it no longer makes financial sense to use violence in connection with diamond mining, then the diamond industry – as well as national governments – will need to respond to the demands of human rights leaders like Rafael Marques.

The post In Angola, a Journalist Fights Blood Diamonds appeared first on Brilliant Earth Blog.