Smillie - Blood on the stone: greed, corruption and war in the global diamond trade

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR BLOOD ON THE STONE

A masterly account of the dark side of the diamond trade. Smillies scalpel has cut very deep.

Matthew Hart, author of Diamond: the history of a cold-blooded love affair

Required reading for anyone who still believes the diamond trade is only about love, honor and trust A devastating, important work Read this before you buy another diamond.

Greg Campbell, co-author of Flawless: Inside the Worlds Largest Diamond Heist

Smillies compelling narrative of the journey from teacher to prosecutor is touching and breathtaking.

Peta Thornycroft, award-winning Zimbabwean journalist

Very high-octaneby far the most interesting and illuminating account of the blood diamond campaign.

Lansana Gberie, author of A Dirty War in West Africa

Ian Smillie was among the first international and most eloquent investigators who understood and publicly denounced the use of blood diamonds In Blood on the Stone, he links his own experiences and deep knowledge of the diamond trade to the history of how these gemstones with no intrinsic value drive conflict, corruption and mayhem. It is an important story, and one that needs to be understood if the world is to help end the misery of conflicts driven by commodities and greed.

Douglas Farah, co-author of Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible

Global Witness, after first alerting the world to the horror of blood diamonds in 1998, has worked closely with Partnership Africa Canada on the campaign to stop diamonds funding war. Smillies book is a fascinating read about the world of diamonds, war and greed.

Charmian Gooch, co-founder, Global Witness

Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2010
by ANTHEM PRESS
75-76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave. #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

A copublication with the
International Development Research Centre
PO Box 8500, Ottawa, ON K1G 3H9, Canada
www.idrc.ca / info@idrc.ca

Copyright Ian Smillie 2010

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Cover image Artisanal Diamond Miner, Democratic Republic of Congo
reproduced courtesy of Shawn Bore, Partnership Africa Canada

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.

ISBN 13: 9780857286611

For Sharon

What do you know about diamonds, Bruce?

Theyre forever.

Corny.

Theyre a girls best friend.

Which decade are you from?

Theyre not cheap.

Yeah.

Hoods call them ice.

Theyre wrong.

And theyre probably trouble.

Thats for certain.

The Big Killing, Robert Wilson

Many people helped bring this book to fruition. Sharon Capeling-Alakija gave me invaluable editorial advice as the book began, along with encouragement that has endured. In 1999, Ralph Hazleton, Lansana Gberie and I started to work on the issue of conflict diamonds, eventually travelling the globe - if not always physically together, together at least in spirit. This book benefited enormously from their efforts and their company. My old friend Cloudy Beltz caught many errors in the first draft, including a grammatical mistake in the first line of the prologue. Many other people have wittingly or unwittingly helped me in understanding diamonds. They include Andrew Bone, Chaim Even-Zohar, Stphane Fischler, Simon Gilbert, Martin Rapaport, Matt Runci and Richard Wake-Walker. For ideas and encouragement at various points on the trail, thanks are due to Charaf Ahmimed, Shawn Blore, Abu Brima, Deborah De Young, Christian Dietrich, Annie Dunnebacke, Susanne Emond, Dorothe Gizenga, Charmian Gooch, Corinna Gilfillan, Andrew Grant, Karen Hurston, Susan Isaac, Adrian Labor, Jose Ltourneau, Flora MacDonald, Bernard Taylor and Alex Yearsley. Some of them commented on early chapters of the book, as did Joan Baxter, Barbara Brown, Jim Freedman, Matthew Hart, Don Hubert, Terry Jones, Nick Koumjian and Don Law-West. To all I am very grateful.