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In some case, the United Nations has sanctioned the export of conflict diamonds, arguing that their trade finances armies in fighting against legitimate governments and perpetrating Human Rights abuses, and prolongs devastating wars. It points to the UNITA rebels in Angola and to the Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone (who it states were financed by the government of Liberia , also through diamond sales) as purveyors of conflict diamonds. The UN is attempting to implement certification procedures to decrease the number of illicit diamonds on the world market. On July 19 , 2000 , the World Diamond Council adopted at Antwerp a resolution to strengthen the diamond industry's ability to block sales of conflict diamonds. In 2002, the UN approved the Kimberley Process scheme aimed at preventing conflict diamonds entering the market. On July 29, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush signed executive order 13312, a furthering of earlier executive orders 13194 and 13213. Its preamble contains this statement: Countries such as Canada have used concerns about conflict diamonds to present domestically-produced diamonds as an Ethical Alternative which avoids the risk of unknowingly purchasing a blood diamond. The same argument is used by makers of Cultured Diamond s such as Gemesis and Apollo Diamond . Other substances are sometimes sold the same way as conflict diamonds, such as Coltan . CONFLICT DIAMOND REFERENCES IN POPULAR CULTURE
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