Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

it would have been much better if they would have been more direct about the role of private military contractors, the players and De Beers involvement in the conflicts.

if you saw the movie and don't know... the "belgian diamond buyer" was a referrence to De Beers (huge multi national diamond buyer, buying up all the diamonds, keeping them in massive under ground vaults, just to keep them off the market). when the reporter asked him "were you with the 32nd" - is was a referrence to the 32nd Battalion Reconnaissance Wing of the South African Defense Forces .. and "The Colonel" was Eeban Barlow, who led the 32nd and once it was disbanded after Apartheid (no need for elite forces to keep the darkies in check anymore) - he formed Executive Outcomes among other private military contracting companies. He organized his then unemployed, several thousand men into a huge, legal mercinary service, which proved to be very decisive in many wars in the region. The diamond fields in Sierra Leone where they were mining (called the Kono district?) - was a real place... the attack by Executive Outcomes with attack helicopters, wiping everyone out, was a real event and so on (one of many many). De Beers was also continually accused of being indirectly involved in perpetuating the conflicts as the movie portrays.

I just happened to be reading about all this and got really interested in it, before the movie came out... and was suprised that they were not more direct in what they were saying.