“Diamonds are forever/ they won’t leave in the night/ have no fear that they might.”

This line from the 1971 song performed by Shirley Bassey and later used in Kanye West’s “Diamond’s from Sierra Leone,” illustrates how the diamond has become an enduring symbol of romance.

But what happens when the diamond that is supposed to symbolize everlasting love is actually a diamond mined in Sierra Leone, where hundreds of thousands of people perished because of the diamond trade?

To answer this question, Amnesty International sponsored a talk given by Greg Campbell, author of the book Blood Diamonds, last Wednesday, on Valentine’s Day.

The speaker discussed the diamond trade, specifically in Sierra Leone.

Bryony Heise, one of the organizers of the event, said, “We decided to host Greg Campbell because of the incredibly important work he’s done regarding the mining of diamonds and its relation to fueling brutal conflicts in Africa.B This is an extremely timely event, due to the coming out of the movie “Blood Diamonds,” and in conjunction with our campaign for Valentine’s Day: Dangers of the fresh-cut rose industry for its workers in Latin America, conflict free diamonds, and fair trade chocolate.”

Campbell began his talk by explaining that his book was based on several trips made to Sierra Leone in 2001.

He said his book had no ties to the movie, which was recently released with the same name.

However, Campbell did agree with the way the movie portrayed the horrifying consequences of the diamond trade.

Campbell gave a historical overview on how the De Beers company gained control over the diamond industry beginning in 1882.

The discovery of diamond deposits brought thousands of people from Africa and Europe to the mines.

Cecil Rhodes, the founder of De Beers, saw an opportunity to make an enormous profit by stockpiling the excess diamonds and limiting their sale.

The De Beers monopoly worked to the advantage of some countries like Botswana. However, in the cases of Sierra Leone and Angola, restricted availability of diamonds and their preciousness had very damaging consequences.

Eighty percent of all the diamonds discovered in Sierra Leone were smuggled out to surrounding countries like Gambia and Libya. They were sold to companies like De Beers, leaving Sierra Leone in utter poverty despite the country’s wealth in diamonds.

Sierra Leone rebel factions captured mining towns and enslaved the workers.

The rebels raised $175 million a year on diamonds sales. The civil war in Sierra Leone ended in 2002, but not without leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead or mutilated.

According to the United Nation Web site, “conflict diamonds are a crucial factor in prolonging brutal wars in parts of Africa.” The Web site explains,”In Angola and Sierra Leone, conflict diamonds continue to fund the rebel groups, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), both of which are acting in contravention of the international community’s objectives of restoring peace in the two countries.”

A course of action called the Kimberly Process was created to ensure that conflict diamonds are not bought and sold.

This process is supposed to track the mining and sale of each diamond. All diamonds should have a certificate to ensure that it did not come from a conflict zone.

Campbell explained that in spite of this process, conflict diamonds could still enter the market in three ways.

First, many conflict diamonds are still stockpiled in companies like De Beers. Since there is no way to tell those diamonds from non-conflict diamonds, they will be sold to De Beers numerous clients and distributed mostly in the United States.

Second, the Kimberly Process is meant to involve only countries that are not currently in conflict.

The problem is that many of these countries border countries like Angola. Therefore, diamonds from Angola are being smuggled to countries like Namibia, Zambia and Botswana and are being certified by the Kimberly Process.

Finally, the process only covers rough diamonds, so if a rough diamond is smuggled to somewhere in Europe, for instance, and then cut and put into jewelry, the diamond is no longer traceable through the Kimberly Process.

It is estimated that Americans buy 60 to 70 percent of all diamonds purchased in the world, and, of that percent, four to five percent are coming from conflict zones.

In the end Campbell left the group with a sobering thought. “You don’t want to think that something you’re giving as a sign of love and devotion could be the result of someone losing their arm…or their family.”