Leonardo DiCaprio © AFP/File Washington, Sep 6: In a bid to ease diamond lovers concerns about their authenticity, the diamond industry will take out full-page advertisements in major newspapers in the US to help quell any negative publicity from Leonardo Dicaprio’s new movie Blood Diamond set in Sierra Leone in the late 1990’s.
‘Blood diamonds’ and ‘conflict diamonds’ are the names given o the gems that finance civil wars in certain African countries.
A new Web site about diamonds is also coming up to inform retailers and buyers positive things about the diamond industry, and to detail them about what's been done to put a stop to conflict diamonds.
“We want to make sure that when people go to buy diamonds, they do it happily, assured that the diamonds they are buying aren't tainted," Contactmusic quoted World Diamond Council chair Eli Izhakoff, as saying.
In the film, DiCaprio plays a mercenary gun smuggler who takes up with a diamond buyer during the violent 1999 civil war in Sierra Leone.
Izhakoff further said that the film represents the way things previously were in Sierra Leone and other countries, but that the industry has worked hard since then to eradicate the problem, including supporting the Kimberly Process, whereby rough diamonds are tracked and certified. (ANI)