Nigeria, June 25 -- "Throughout the history of Africa, whenever a substance of value is found, the locals die in great numbers and in misery. This was true of ivory, rubber, gold and oil. It is now true of diamonds... according to a devastating report by Global Witness, the (proceeds from the sales of the) stones are used to purchase weapons and finance civil war."

This above line is spoken during the opening conference sequence in the blockbuster movie "Blood Diamond," where policymakers and industry representatives discuss conflict diamonds while the film cross-cuts to scenes of forced diamond mining in Sierra Leone. The speech argues that valuable natural resources have historically brought exploitation and suffering to local populat...