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=Sierra Leone =

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Diamonds and civil war
Sierra Leone is a country in the western part of Africa. This country is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Civil war has devastated this country for almost twenty years, which has prevented it from becoming a rich, well-developed land.

History [[image:Sierra_Leone.Coat_of_arms.JPG align="right"]]
Our history starts in 1930, when the first diamondwas found. Only five years later, “De Beers' Sierra Leone Selection Trust” gained all mining rights for 99 years. However, it didn’t take long before the first smugglerswere there, and started what was going to become a huge conflict.

As the real diamondrush began in 1950, the government was forced to send in huge groups of soldiersto regain control of the biggest mining area, Kono. Without that area, they would have lost the most important source of income for their country.

In 1961they gained independence from Great Britain. Siaka Stevens, who was the one who became prime minister in 1968 created a company named National DiamondMining Co (NDMC), which was supposed to have control of the diamonds. NDMC, worked as he had planned, and their country started to harvest the resources of their country in a positive way. This was the start of something good for their country.

Civil war [[image:Sierra_Leone.RUF.JPG align="right"]]
On March 23rd, 1991a civil war started in Sierra Leone. Revolutionary United Front (RUF), was a group of 100 soldiersfrom both Sierra Leone and Liberia. The original purpose of this group was to fight crimeand corruption, but it soon became clear that their actual purpose was to gain control of the diamonds. RUFtook civiliansas prisonersand forced them to work in the mines. They used insane punishments for the smallest break of any rules. Amputationwas not a rare thing.

For nine years the world ignored the war, but they couldn’t stand on the side, just watching the war for ever. In 1999the UNdeployed a mission which was supposed to deal with the trouble around the diamonds. However, the mission was not a success, and didn’t stop the Civil war. The mission was followed by several different programs, but the country is still in Civil war, and it looks like there’s nothing we can do about it.

The smuggled diamondsprovides resources to buy weapons for the Civil war, and the weapons are used to get more diamonds. It’s a bad circle. As long as there are “blood diamonds” on the market, and people who buys them, there will be war in Sierra Leone.

Facts[[image:Sierra_Leone.flag.JPG width="288" height="168" align="right"]]
Capital: Freetown Official language: English Area: - Total - 71,740 km2 - Water - 1,1% Population: 6,440,053 Motto: "Unity, Freedom, Justice"

Sources
[] [] [] [] @http://www.creativecommons.no/