Blood Diamond: Sierra Leone Case

Blood diamonds are diamonds originated in areas controlled by forces opposed to the current governments. They are used for insurgent groups to fund war, which means that with the money they obtain, they buy weapons and gun and do other illegal activities. It is stated that these precious stones (also known as war diamonds) are a crucial factor that makes brutal wars in Africa last longer. In Sierra Leone, conflict diamonds continue supporting rebel groups, such as Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which acts totally against the will of restoring peace in the continent.

People in Sierra Leone deserve a good life, but these groups are making it impossible. These groups invade the villages and maltreat people; they kill children and men, they injure them, they rape girls and women, and many people have been taken from away their families by rebel groups to work in the mine, and if they try to rebel or even tire, the soldiers hurt(like the boy in the photo, he lost his hands to the rebel's machetes) or kill them. More than 4 million people have died mining blood diamonds. This is a huge social issue in Sierra Leone because of the people suffering during mining these precious stones.

The horrific atrocities in Sierra Leone have caught world’s attention and people have realized that it is needed to stop the trade of these precious stones in order to cut off the sources of the rebels so wars can be shortened.

Demining

Landmines are a worldwide issue that still affect us today. We don't have to be in times of war to be affected by landmines all over the world. According to the UN landmines kill from 15, 000 to 20, 000 people each year, most of them children and women. They are an issue that is all over the world in many countries. Landmines are very small and difficult to detect and when not warned people will most likely be killed when entering a minefield. They are scattered in big areas of land that are frequently used as roads or any place that is strategically planned to kill many people. All of this can be summarized in a few words: Landmines kill indiscriminately the innocent and the guilty and many innocent people die when it's not even war time.

Landmines are very hard to detect and very rarely noticed. That is why demining is a very difficult job that has to be performed by professionals with very specific tools that are used to detect and remove these landmines. Professionals from the UN have been working in many of the countries affected by this evil weapons to remove these killer traps completely. Unfortunately as I said before it is a very difficult job and cannot be performed in a year's time. We will need many years to finally remove all the mines that have been set by wars and that are ready to blow at the cost of many human lives.

I think that in order for this problem to be resolved we have to stop altogether the use of landmines as weapon of war. If we stop now the use of landmines we can save thousands of lives each year. Not only that, landmines also affect many others that end up hurt by these explotions and many landscapes and geographical areas where people live. Even though wars cannot be avoided the use of guns that cannot be controlled and hurt innocent people should be avoided at all costs.