EDITORIAL PAGE — Diamonds in the rough

Africa, diamonds and mercenaries are words that fire the imagination and inspire adventure novels. Put them together and you have the makings of a television documentary that delivers something out of the ordinary for most North Americans.

A recent edition of The Fifth Estate, the Canadian version of 60 Minutes, did just that when it profiled a Vancouver-based company that employs a security force made up of former soldiers from South Africa to protect its diamond mining assets in Sierra Leone and Angola.

The program generated some controversy by questioning the ethics of the practice. On the one hand, it included interviews with those who felt the use of “mercenaries” was reprehensible in that the soldiers would kill, if under attack, to protect the investment of foreigners. Implied here is the notion that the pension funds of North Americans are worth more than African lives.

On the other hand, as was pointed out, security is part and parcel of the diamond mining industry everywhere in the world. Indeed, because of the potential for self-enrichment, it will be a component of Canadian diamond operations when they are up and running in the years ahead. And in Russia, a breakdown in security measures has led to scandals and allegations of business impropriety that have destabilized the country’s diamond industry.

The issue, therefore, is not about whether security is necessary; rather, it is about the ethics of using a private security force made up of South African soldiers — who may have played a role in enforcing apartheid in their country — to protect foreign investments in other African nations.

Without experiencing the realities of Africa, it would be easy to condemn the practice. But there are consequences to this rush to armchair judgment.

Imagine if, based on this moral position, all privately paid security forces (which are typically made up of former soldiers and army officers) withdrew their services from all of Africa.

The result would be widespread crime, economic devastation and, in some regions, the slaughter of local populations — in short, anarchy. It is not a pretty picture, but neither is the tribal violence that still rocks Sierra Leone, that has made Angola an economic wasteland and that still flares up in Rwanda. Even in relatively peaceful South Africa, private security firms have had to help police protect property and citizens from a massive increase in crime. This does not imply a link between violence and black skin. The horrors in the former Yugoslavia, and in Europe this century, can put this delusionary notion to rest.

The program acknowledged, albeit briefly, that private security forces have been more successful than local armies in restoring peace and order to some parts of Africa. Indeed, now that they have been secured, the diamond concessions of Sierra Leone and Angola have become a refuge for workers who once had to endure, on a daily basis, terrors few of us can imagine.

No country in the world can have peace and prosperity without having law and order. The corrupt and short-sighted political leaders who consistently fail to deliver and uphold these building blocks of nationhood are morally bankrupt — not the investors, who are, in effect, laying the foundation for economic growth and a better future.

And it is our bet that most citizens of Sierra Leone would prefer to be protected by professional South African “mercenaries” than by the murderous bands of thugs who have destroyed their country while fighting to become its government.