According to an article in The Independent, UK , horrific civil wars in Angola , the Congo , Liberia , and Sierra Leone have been fuelled and funded by conflict diamonds. Armed militias have controlled mines and even entire diamond-producing regions in order to trade the rough gems directly for guns.

The Kimberley Process is an inter-government, international diamond industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict or blood diamonds. It was set up in the 1990s and is composed of 43 participants in a voluntary system that is meant to impose extensive requirements on participants to certify that shipments are free from conflict diamonds. But it has been flawed from the start. The process is meant to involve the extensive documenting and tracking of all rough diamonds entering a participating country but it cannot establish itself as effective without proper governmental control. Amnesty International says that it is inadequate and open to abuse.%%The participating governments in the Kimberley Process should not, as they do, leave monitoring as a matter of the conscience of their citizens or the companies that make fortunes from the diamond trade. Laws have been put in place but theres no way to independently guarantee that various governments are keeping conflict diamonds out of circulation.%%But a difference could be made in the UK. London is the capital of the worlds diamond industry, with 60 per cent of the worlds rough stones passing through it. The government needs to show some leadership and establish mandatory independent monitoring, rather than leaving it to the whim of those who profit from diamonds. If it actively encouraged the other Kimberley Process partners to do the same it would have a serious impact on this evil trade and help bring security to the ravaged regions.