Ethical issues in the movie Blood Diamond

Conflict Diamond (Blood Diamond): The first and foremost ethical issue in this movie is indicated by the
title of the movie itself; blood diamond or in other words, conflict diamonds which are rough and uncut
stones used by rebel and terrorists to finance their act of terrorism and war.

Diamond smuggling: the movie is based on this scenario where diamonds are smuggled from Africa and
illegally sold to high-end businessmen of other countries to fund the war in Africa. This act leads to so
many unethical and illegal behaviors.

Child soldiers: This is a very serious issue, where many children are kidnapped by the rebels (R.U.F.) to
make them soldiers who obey them.

Child Labor: labors are made through implying fear on their minds. For example, the chief of the rebel
cuts off the hands of a kid in order make them fear him. Such acts are inhuman and barbaric

Brain washing the children: the adult rebels manipulate them by poisoning their minds with praise,
drugging them and torturing them

Slavery: As we can see in the movie, to mine the diamonds out, the rebels use slaves. They raid villages
and capture men, women and children to work as their slaves. More over those

Violence: Miners in sierra Leone faced human rights violation including rape and torture, innocent
people are treated like disposable objects. They kill whoever tries to act on his/her free will, making
them unable to run or defend themselves

Corrupted Government Superiors: The movie also highlights the ethical issue of corrupted officers who
use their power for money. Colonel Coetzee who is a superior military officer in the movie is shown to
have misused the power given to him by his position as he was involved in the trading of illegal
diamonds out of his country. Furthermore, his merciless behavior shows that he will go to any extend to
get his profit

poverty: in artisanal diamond mining, sierra Leone people mines with the methods like digging pits or
panning in riverbeds almost all of them lived in extreme poverty, many of them earned more than $1 a
day

Lack of safety at workplace: Working conditions were very often dangerous and dehumanizing, they
faced higher risk of cave-ins and health problems

Environmental Impacts: As a part of the mining plan several environmental degradations occurred such
as, soil erosion and degradation, deforestation, and harm to plant and animal life were inevitable.
Furthermore, Negative impacts on the environment includes habitat loss, spread of disease to animal
species, population decline of critically threatened or endangered species, increased human/wildlife
conflict, decline in water quality, and destruction of land and aquatic ecosystem

Emerging of Conflict diamond: As per the diamond industry estimates that conflict diamonds
represented 4 percent of the total trade in sierra Leone. Due to the severe limitations of the Kimberley
Process, diamonds tainted by human rights abuse are widely sold and certified as "conflict free.

Dominance of leaders: leaders who operate under the guidance of darkness are quick to justify their
actions claiming that they are acting on behalf of those unable to make their own decisions. In reality,
their own personal, selfish interests guide their decisions that is to be followed by miners.

lack of morals and values: RUF successfully implemented morals and values in their camps while among
sierra Leona people they didnt pay attention in respecting life and liberty of sierra Leona people, which
progressed to chaos and unethical actions.