Seems the blood diamonds issue has for 10 years been the passionate concern of a small London-based organisation, Global Witness, who provided the spark for this new Oscar-nominated movie. The film's director Ed Zwick said the people behind the charity are "the real heroes of the conflict-diamond story". Global Witness have a very informative website on all this.
Amnesty International USA has joined forces with Global Witness and the film to mobilise awareness. You can even get a red 'blood diamond/clean diamond' bangle from Amnesty.
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As one with contacts in the industry, it's interesting to note the reputed ten million pounds spent in countering negative publicity caused by this film; interisting also that they had a much simpler and cheaper alternative in their hands already - the Kimberly certification process - an excellent initiative that suffered only from lack of promotion (and I speak as one who tried and tried to get it trumpeted from the rooftops) - which was denied it because... the industry feared that it would suffer from the very mention of conflict diamonds. I'm tempted to say 'I told them so!'
Excellent 'insider' book on the subject: Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones by Greg Campbell.
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