Russ Feingold: “this week marks the opening of a film that has already gotten a lot of attention, Warner Brothers' ``Blood Diamond.''…”

“this week marks the opening of a film that has already gotten a lot of attention, Warner Brothers' ``Blood Diamond.'' Many will flock to theaters to see this Hollywood blockbuster, but I hope these audiences will remember more than the celebrities and action sequences. So-called blood diamonds finance criminal activity that threatens the lives and environments of civilians, the stability of communities and countries, and national, regional, and international security. Innocent citizens, many of them children, are forced to mine the gems in hazardous conditions while rebel groups reap large profits, which are used to pay for weapons that breed brutal violence. In the past decade, the sale of blood diamonds fuelled civil wars resulting in over 4 million deaths and the displacement of millions of people in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and now in Ivory Coast. In 2003, Congress passed the Clean Diamond Trade Act, which sought to ensure that the United States does not participate in the conflict diamond trade by prohibiting the importation of diamonds from countries that fail to implement a clearly articulated system of controls on rough diamonds.”