By Staff Reporter
They may have been "a girl's best friend", as Marilyn Monroe once sang, but, of late, diamonds, or rather alleged "blood diamonds", have proved to be anything but, if you happen to be supermodel Naomi Campbell.
Testifying at The Hague, at the war crimes trial of deposed Liberian leader Charles Taylor, Campbell, who is alleged to have received a "blood diamond" or "diamonds" from Taylor, found herself the centre of attention in worldwide headlines.
Campbell admitted that back in 1987, along with many others, she was not exactly au fait with "blood diamonds".
Tonight, with African and international headlines being dominated by the story, in Blood Diamonds: A Tragedy of Historic Proportions, the History Channel (254 on DStv at 8.30pm) puts the record straight on the human cost of mining the stones.
In the 1990s, the small African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo disintegrated into civil war.
Rebels raped, murdered and, notoriously, hacked off the limbs of many civilians during the decade-long war. Collectively, more than four million civilians died.
What connected each conflict was the currency used to fund them - diamonds.
The History Channel provides a detailed look into the harsh reality behind the production of the world's most valuable gems. Blood Diamonds depicts the brutality of a regime - supposedly backed by Charles Taylor - where millions lost their lives due to the conflict over blood diamonds.
As citizens in four African war zones suffered, diamonds from those countries flowed freely into the world's diamond market.
Diamonds are the world's most precious gems, but in West and Central Africa, their cost has been far greater than anyone could have ever imagined.