Lest some people use the excuse of not being affected by blood diamonds for being complacent, we should be reminded that there is no such thing as an isolated incident. Everything is interconnected and eventually at some point, repercussions will affect everyone. Even if this were not to happen, being unaffected by a horrifying activity is not an excuse for not doing anything to help when you have the power to do so. It is simply not acceptable. Still, for the hardhearted, these findings may stir up some life in you.
Right after the unbelievable attacks in New York by the terrorist group al-Quaida, countless probes and intelligence activities were launched. The American nation was united in their effort to find out how this happened. The international community was aghast and did what they could do to lend a helping hand. No one could believe that such a thing could happen in American soil. Yet happen it did.
Who would have thought, though, that blood diamonds were part of al-Quaida’s activities. Initial reports showed that prior to the September 11 attacks, the terrorist group was able to convert about $10 million into diamonds. This was crucial to their terrorist activities as after their attacks on US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in 1998, the al-Quaida’s assets were frozen by the Clinton administration. That reportedly amounted to about $240 million. Yet despite this, the al-Quaida was able to have enough funds to carry out one of the largest terrorist attacks in the history of the world.
How did al-Quaida do this? Bin Laden and his cohorts focused their activities in Liberia which was then led by the infamous Charles Taylor. blood diamonds mined in Sierra Leone and other African countries more often than not found their way into Liberia, where anyone could do almost anything as long as he had connections with Taylor. Money and arms were the players here, and the plight of the people did not count one bit.
Al-Quaida was not alone in using blood diamonds to fund their terrorist activities. The now household name Hezbollah was also known to have raised funds through blood diamonds. Reports showed that Hezbollah made use of the countless Lebanese in Africa to carry out their activities. Even Israel realized this and tried to shut down Lebanese networks in Sierra Leone.
Aside from these well-known terrorist groups, there are numerous big time criminals who operated in Liberia, exchanging weapons for diamonds. Victor Bout was one of them, one of the worst illegal arms dealers. Then there was Lenoid Menin of a Russian crime family.
These people are in it for only one thing – money. As others are suffering and dying, we simply cannot look away and pretend that nothing has happened or that nothing is happening at present. We cannot say that it is none of our business. It is everybody’s business! Atrocities happen only because the rest of the world chooses to avert its eyes.
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