Jewelers nervous about Blood Diamond film

By Eric Onstad

JWANENG MINE, Botswana (Reuters) – The U.S. jewelry
industry is gearing up to counter any negative effects from the
upcoming film “The Blood Diamond” which shows how illicit gem
trade fueled bloody civil wars, a trade group said.

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a South African
mercenary jailed for smuggling in Sierra Leone, ravaged during
a brutal civil war lasting until 2002 that killed 50,000
people.

The picture started filming in February, but Warner
Brothers has not said when it will be released.

“The danger is that people will think the situation in the
film is continuing today,” said Peggy Jo Donahue, public
affairs director of trade group Jewelers of America.

“We’re going to educate our jewelers about the issue.
There’s lots that’s not understood,” she told Reuters this week
during a tour of diamond giant De Beers’ operations in
Botswana.

A new web site on diamonds is being set up to answer
queries from consumers.

Rebel groups in countries including Angola, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, and Liberia have used billions of dollars
from the sale of diamonds to fund wars, but the industry and
human rights groups differ on how much the practice persists.

Amnesty International said in February in launching a
Valentine’s Day campaign against so-called conflict diamonds
that diamonds mined in rebel-held areas of West Africa’s Ivory
Coast were still reaching the international market.

Sierra Leone’s Mineral Resources Minister told Reuters last
year that the country had boosted legitimate exports, but was
still trying to stamp out smuggling.

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The Kimberley Process, an international certification
program set up in 2000, says the vast majority of the world’s
rough diamond trade is now under its strict controls.

The chairman of the Kimberley Process, Kago Mashashane of
Botswana, wrote earlier this year to the producers of “The
Blood Diamond” asking that it include an epilogue explaining
the measures taken to stem the illicit trade.

He said Botswana, the world’s biggest producer of diamonds,
was worried that a consumer boycott could damage its efforts to
boost education and healthcare since the diamond sector
accounted for around half of government revenue.

The diamond trade was working hard to shed the secretive
nature of the business, Donahue said.

“The industry must be much more transparent now, it can’t
be as secretive,” she said.

Currently the Kimberley Process regulates the trade in
rough diamonds, but a new group is seeking to extend scrutiny
all the way to the retail level, she said.

The Council for Responsible Jewelry Practices hopes to set
up a certification program for gold and diamonds within a
couple of years from the mine to the consumer.

In the diamond sector, the U.S. jewelry industry has a
voluntary system of warranties that try to ensure that only
gems from the Kimberley Process are used in products, Donahue
added.

Jewelers of America has 11,000 members, including the
largest U.S. retailer, Zales, and luxury groups Tiffany and Co
and Cartier.

De Beers, 45 percent owned by mining group Anglo American
plc, is the world’s largest diamond producing group.