planet earth looks blue

Three former commanders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were all found guilty of war crimes for their role in the 10 year civil war in Sierra Leone.  They were charged with being involved in the rape, murder, and mutilation of half a million people, as well as for turning innocent children into child soldiers, AK-47’s in tow.  The RUF was known for cutting off people’s body parts, hands, ears, legs, anything, and then carving RUF into the skin.  The war was over ownership of the diamond mines in Sierra Leone, and is the reason activists had been speaking out against blood diamonds for years, criticizing the wealthy sector of American culture obsessed with diamond gluttony.  And most of us are familiar with the 2006 film, Blood Diamonds, which documented the war, and brought international attention to what went on in Sierra Leone.

Of course all of this is after the fact.  At least these men were tried, a symbolic gesture to their surviving victims and family members and closure for some.  But it was more than a handful of men who were responsible for a decade long atrocity.  And even if all who were wronged could somehow be avenged - what then?  Sierra Leone is still very poor, people are still desperate, and it is still lacking the education and infrastructure that a society needs to progress.  Meaning - the same circumstances that helped create the civil war are still there.

The international community does give money to the country, but the problem is that it is not able to be used effectively because there aren’t systems in place to spend the money properly.  The country is still one of the worst ranked in infant mortality.  Maybe time will heal all wounds, but assistance and commitment over the long term are needed.  There is of course still heavy interest in the country for other than humanitarian reasons.  This year a British Columbia company - Canaf, announced that it has raised enough funds to start mining its properties in Sierra Leone.  According to USAID, some profits from the diamond mines are rolled back into the local communities.  Ultimately it is only the people who can tell us if their lives are improving.  It seems a shame though that a country with so much intrinsic wealth, cannot reap the benefits of its own natural resources.  That the diamonds go to the corrupt and violent, or international investors, and at the same time become a curse on those who live there.  

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