Sierra Leone's troubling stones

The murky river Meya runs straight through Koidu town. Six months ago, a visitor would have seen thousands of teenage boys doubled over in the river – shirts off, brows dripping with sweat – sifting for diamonds.

Today, most of those boys are gone. Gone, too, are the "boss men" – hardened Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel leaders who ran the show from dilapidated bridges overhead, drugged on cocaine and fanning themselves under big colorful umbrellas.

The peace agreement signed in January between the government and the rebels has not significantly changed the look of Koidu, the main town in Sierra Leone's diamond-rich Kono district – a place known during the 10 long years of civil war as "the Wild East." The roads are still filled with potholes and overgrown with weeds; the buildings, pockmarked by bullet holes, are still in ruins; and burned-out tanks belonging to South African mercenaries still lie rusting in the surrounding jungle.

Still, there are clear signs that new sheriffs are in town.

President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, reelected last week to another five years in office, and in control of the whole country for the first time in 10 years, has sent out supervisors and police to regulate the activities in these fields of riches. These government men, operating out of an old grocery store and lacking any means of transportation, are meant to process licenses, oversee mining, chase down smugglers, and see to it that the diamonds found are sent to the capital, Freetown, to be taxed and certified before leaving the country.

Their task is crucial. For if Sierra Leone is unable to regulate this industry, say analysts, diamonds – or rather the lust for them – could well fuel another war in this impoverished, unstable land.

For years, the diamonds mined in the Kono district were used by rebels to buy weapons and enrich themselves, perpetuating the civil war. The diamonds were smuggled into nearby Liberia and Guinea, or sold directly to agents in Antwerp or Tel Aviv. Middlemen, unscrupulous arms dealers, and of course, the rebels – who started the war in the name of democracy and equal distribution of resources – all benefited.

The big losers were the people of Sierra Leone. More than a million were displaced in the war; some 50,000 were killed. Thousands were abducted, raped, robbed, and their hands or legs cut off.

Sierra Leone is not the only warring country where the gleaming rocks have contributed to mayhem. For years, rebels in resource-rich Angola and Congo have financed their wars with illegally smuggled "blood" diamonds.

A World Bank study last year estimated that $138 million worth of diamonds was exported from Sierra Leone in 1999; only $1.2 million worth left the country through legal channels. Liberia, the suspected destination for most of these stones, had been a marginal exporter until the mid-1990s. Since then, Liberia has exported more than 200 years' worth of its own national capacity, according to trading records in Antwerp.

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