Gem industry not taking a shine to Blood Diamond movie

VANCOUVER -- The global diamond industry is bracing for a new movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, knowing it will put a spotlight on shoddy practices that the sector has worked hard to eliminate.

Industry officials are worried about consumer reaction to The Blood Diamond, an adventure film set in Sierra Leone in 1999, and are preparing retailers to respond to questions about it.

Scheduled for December release, the movie has been a major talking point at the congress of the World Jewellery Confederation in Vancouver this week. "This is a high-profile movie that will look at an unsavoury period in Sierra Leone's history,'' said Louise Prior, a spokeswoman for Diamond Trading Co., the marketing arm of De Beers SA, the world's largest diamond producer. The movie focuses on a period when rebel forces and illegal miners in Sierra Leone used so-called conflict diamonds to finance the kind of civil war that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in central Africa.

A key concern is that consumers may not know that conflict diamonds have been virtually eradicated from legitimate trading circles, thanks to a certification system known as the Kimberley Process. The World Diamond Council says the process has cut the number of conflict diamonds in trade to under 1 per cent, from 4 per cent at the height of the war in Sierra Leone. Formally implemented in 2003, the Kimberley process requires rough stones to travel with documents that state their origins.

In 15 key markets, the World Diamond Council will distribute to retailers "Diamond Confidence Packs'' that will include possible questions that may come up and how they should respond. "It's a huge job,'' said Ms. Prior.