Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - Blood Diamonds

[Elspeth]

Elspeth was flush with success from her recent victory in the world media over the food embargo situation. Nothing could be pinned on Utopia, but it was obvious that there was shady activity going on preventing Sierra Leone from getting any shipments of food. Even though there was no proof many people would draw the right conclusion. After all who else had the kind of pull necessary to create that kind of unofficial embargo? Given the uncertain situation it would be reasonable for some shipments to have been delayed or withheld, 20 or 30 wouldn't be out of the range of believability. But when only a handful out of dozens actually made it through, that was just stretching credibility to the breaking point. It would never see a court of law, but what mattered to Elspeth had been accomplished, she'd given Utopia a black eye over it and after the media storm it had created companies and organizations would be far less likely in the future to try double dealing against her.

That was the good news. The bad news was that despite all her efforts in the UN, the foreign companies that were operating inside Sierra Leone's borders, mining diamonds were not being told to leave. If anything the UN was being antagonistic against Elspeth for trying to get them removed. It was obvious to her that people within the UN were getting pay offs from the companies. She had even presented video of the living and working conditions of her citizens that were being forced to work the mines. The committee was unmoved stating in their report, "The companies involved in this activity are breaking no laws. In fact they have a legal agreement with the former government. While the new regime in Sierra Leone might not recognize the legitimacy of those who were in power at the time the contracts were signed, they are legally binding. It is this committee's conclusion that should it be brought into an international court that their rights would be upheld. We strongly encourage Elspeth to work with these companies within the law and come to an agreement that would benefit her people. Any attack upon them would be deemed aggressive action and bring down sanction upon Sierra Leone that would cause all of her people to suffer. It should also be known that while we do find the conditions under which the employees of these companies are treated to be less than ideal, it is within their rights under the agreement and those employees signed contracts and are thus obligated to perform their duties or be found in breach of contract with the legal consequences that would result. It is unfortunate perhaps, but we are unable to recommend anything other than that Elspeth and the government of Sierra Leone attempt to renegotiate the contracts."

Which was a long winded way of saying 'piss off we're not on your side.' The problem was that the companies had no desire to renegotiate. They were using what amounted to slave labor to rape the country of it's most valuable natural resource and had only been obligated to provide Jarutu with the services of a number of elites in return, the equivalent of several million dollars a year. Estimates were that they were making around a half billion dollars a year on the diamond sales and their total operating costs (not counting pay offs to UN officials) were less than 20 million. It had to be one of the most profitable corporate ventures on the planet, and most of it was off the books and it had strong international backing. That was one hard nut to crack even for Elspeth. She had been in power for over two months now and had not been allowed to speak with corporate representatives from any of the companies. Utopia insisted on supervising any talks to prevent 'undo pressures' from being applied to the negotiations by way of nova powers. In other words they didn't want to see her succeed. Elspeth had tried appealing to world opinion by showing footage of the condition of the workers and the abuse they were forced to suffer. The world responded with quiet outrage, but when any thing was attempted lawyers were quick to step forward and defend the corporations saying that they were within their legal rights. Unfortunately, unlike the outcry against the sale of Blood Diamonds in the 90s these corporations were very smart about concealing the sale of their diamonds and so the vast majority ended up on the market appearing to come from Canada or Russia.

Elspeth was at a loss on how to resolve it.