U.S. alarmed by film on diamond trade

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials, worried that a new Leonardo DiCaprio film about the trade of "conflict diamonds" to finance African warfare might misinform the public, say international efforts to combat the illicit commerce have been successful. Some human rights groups say, however, that illegal diamond trade still is fueling conflict around the world. The trade in diamonds originating in conflict zones, sometimes called "blood diamonds," has helped pay for wars in Africa that have killed millions in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Congo. The film, "Blood Diamond," set amid the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, opens in U.S. theaters Friday. State Department officials are eager to point out that the war depicted took place before establishment of an international initiative to control the trade, known as the Kimberley Process, which aims to force participants to certify the origins of the diamonds being traded.