They symbolize love and happiness. They glimmer and sparkle. They are “forever” as De Beers says. They are diamonds.

This week love is in the air and the dollars are flowing. It’s fair to assume that people the world over made the decision to buy diamonds for their loved ones this week. Many people, however, don’t realize the path those gems take from the mine to the slender finger of that special someone.

Why should we care?

Because the dollars and cents we spend on diamonds here in the United States could be used for financing terror and mayhem in the countries that produce the gems. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “An estimated 3 percent to 15 percent of the world’s $57 billion in diamond sales” originate from three countries.

The tragedy is that in these three African countries – Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo – the profits from diamond trade are used to acquire weapons for use in armed conflicts. Those weapons in turn have been used, to kill, rape, mutilate or abduct tens of thousands of people, according to human rights groups.

There are several militias that human rights groups charge with serious violations. Armed political groups in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are under sanction by the United Nations. Those groups are Uni…o Nacional para a Independˆncia Total de Angola (UNITA), National Union for the Total Independence of Angola and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone.

London-based Amnesty International stated Thursday that diamonds “do not symbolize love, but conflict, misery and poverty.” In a campaign promoted on their Web site, they said that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the situation is appalling. Amnesty International believes “thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of unarmed civilians have been deliberately and arbitrarily killed by armed forces involved in the conflict since August 1998.”

The situation in Congo has created as many as two million refugees, most of them having lived around mining areas. Still more have died from starvation, exposure and lack of treatment for diseases.

In fact, just this week scores of civilians were killed and at least 15,000 displaced by renewed ethnic fighting “rooted in conflict over land,” American-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

In Sierra Leone the predicament is serious as well. Since 1991, RUF has been a waging war of arbitrary executions, amputations and rape, according to Amnesty. The RUF controls the diamond producing areas of the country and uses the profits to fund its military campaigns.

The issue is further complicated by Liberia’s involvement in the trade. The Liberian government is often accused of violating U.N. trade embargoes and giving military assistance to the RUF.

Human rights groups have been working with this issue for more than three years. And indeed, slow progress has been made. Efforts have been made to control the diamond trade on the part of involved governments and companies, including through and agreement known as the “Kimberley Process.” Next month, talks in Canada will decide the future of the process and if a final agreement to create a universal system to control diamonds is possible.

In 2000, international diamond giant De Beers announced that it would stop the sale of “conflict diamonds.” But there is little chance of that promise becoming reality without a strengthening of the “Kimberley Process” guidelines.

The human rights groups have some recommendations. First, there must be a public international database on the production and trade in rough diamonds.

Second, an agreement on coordination between producing and consuming nations must be reached. Third, on the ground international monitoring for illegal shipments must be enforced. Countries under United Nations sanctions would be a good place to start.

Many of these objectives will be discussed at the upcoming “Kimberley Process” talks next month. It would be a disastrous setback for human rights efforts if an agreement is not reached in the near future. So in this season of love and valentines, remember the origins of your diamonds.

Express another form of love this time of year – love for justice and human rights rather than shiny expensive diamonds. Write your representative to tell them you demand a change in policy.

Seek out the origin of the gems you buy and support a tough, universal certification process for rough diamonds – from mines to hands.

The people of the African diamond lands will thank you.

Omar Tesdell is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication and technical communication from Slater. He is online editor of the Daily.