...[The diamond] industry is chewing its nails over the December 15 US release of a Warner Brothers movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio about diamond-fuelled civil war in Africa. Blood Diamond...focuses on the fact that diamond sales [and smuggling] helped to fund rebel groups and prolong the civil war in [Sierra Leone]. The existence of "conflict", or "blood", diamonds also played a significant role in intensifying the brutal wars in Angola, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These wars are now officially over and the diamond industry has successfully reduced the number of gems coming from illegitimate sources thanks to the Kimberley Process... Liberia and the Ivory Coast have yet to qualify for the Kimberley Process, and it has been criticised for being limited by government corruption, and by a lack of capacity to track the myriad trading networks... The World Diamond Council launched a pre-emptive strike in September when it set up a website [www.diamondfacts.org] and placed high-profile newspaper adverts to promote a more positive image for diamonds... Pressure groups say that wider problems persist in African diamond mining, from child labour to organised crime and the funding of terrorists. With this in mind, De Beers has launched the Diamond Development Initiative along with the World Bank and pressure group Global Witness. The DDI aims to tackle the problem of informal diamond mining, in which millions of people across Africa – many of them children – hunt for gems in appalling conditions. Many of these gems are sold at below market prices to smugglers, who export the gems without paying tax, depriving governments of much-needed revenues. The DDI says it is trying to achieve better working conditions for the miners and better prices for their gems.