Chiefdom Shading Key:

	No violations reported (in statements to the TRC)
	Less than 25 violations reported
	25 or more violations reported

Note: Chiefdoms are shaded according to the number of violations recorded in the TRC's statements. Unreported violations may have occurred in chiefdoms where none are shown. Also the reporting of violations within a chiefdom does not imply that the abuse occurred at a particular location within that chiefdom. Outliers are excluded where evidence supports this decision. See the methodology for further explanation.

Diamonds in the Conflict

In November 1992 the RUF attacked the diamond producing district of Kono, extorting money and gems from the traders in the central town of Koidu. Additionally, since the start of the war, the RUF force that had attacked Pujehun has been taking diamonds from the smaller gem fields around Zimmi. These two facts might be taken as support for popular explanations of the war that revolve around diamonds.

However the Commission rejected the idea that diamonds triggered the conflict. Although it is true that the RUF partly financed its war effort through diamond trafficking, the gems played only a minor role in the early years of the war. The initial attack on Koidu was short lived and the exploitation of the Zimmi fields was for the personal gain of individual fighters, rather than a source of income for the RUF as a whole. Following further attacks on Kono district in 1994 and 1995, more permanent RUF control of the area was only established in 1997.

Nevertheless, as the war progressed, it was fuelled by the smuggling of conflict diamonds. A letter written by Foday Sankoh in 1996 boasts that he had been able “to organise serious mining operations in precious minerals which [he] believes will help [them] generate the needed foreign exchange for [their] mission". As well as extorting money and gems from diamond traders, the RUF kidnapped civilians, forcing them to work at gunpoint in the diamond mines. Profits from diamond sales funded the purchase of weapons and ammunition.

Exploitation of Sierra Leone's diamond resources was not confined to the RUF. On a smaller scale, SLA soldiers and - in the later years of the war - the Kamajor militia were also involved in diamond smuggling schemes. The role of diamonds in the war is covered comprehensively in the TRC report chapter "Mineral Resources, their Use and their Impact on the Conflict and the Country" (from paragraph 72).