Before the war, and especially today, the industry that matters most in Sierra Leone is not diamonds but cocoa.
"The ingeniousness of De Beers marketers lies in having forged a link between something people do not need, diamonds, and something they do need, love, " writes Hart.
It has said that the concession could not count as "conflict diamonds" because the area was not controlled by rebels.
Even if trust-busters fail, however, the cartel is under pressure, not just from conflict diamonds, but also from newly discovered deposits mined by companies that do not work with De Beers.
ECONOMIST: How to stop diamonds paying for nasty African wars
They, together with the World Diamond Council, are asking international diamond traders not to touch Marange diamonds.
"Kimberley Process participants need to have complete confidence that conflict diamonds are not entering the legitimate trade, " said Tim Martin, the organisation's chairman.
Late last year a major international environmental group pulled out of the so-called Kimberley Process designed to guarantee that diamonds do not come from conflict zones.
If you're not going to be wearing your diamonds every weekend, then the best option, according to Bob White of the Hong Kong Crime Prevention Unit, is to store them at your local bank.
It is not known if any of the diamonds stolen in the heist were marked in this way and as former gem broker Christopher Hourmouzios stresses, "whatever is cut on to a diamond can be taken off it".
Obviously, what they've done is take that material and identified these domains as diamonds when they're not.
Jewelers have their own reason not to like the idea of making diamonds an investment and publishing prices alongside the stock tables.
Also present in the region are lithium, vanadium, and rare-earth metals, not to mention a potential for uranium and diamonds.
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Not surprisingly, only Mans could recover these diamonds, as the safety-deposit box supposedly required both a fingerprint and retinal scan.
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The council says it will ban traders who are caught dealing in such diamonds and put pressure on banks not to finance them.
Stephen Lux, Gemesis president and CEO, said in a statement that price alone will not be the only selling point of these diamonds.
Some analysts wonder whether much of Africa would not be better off if its oil and diamonds were simply left in the ground.
It's not yet clear how the thieves knew that the diamonds would be on board.
Campaign group Global Witness says the industry has not done enough to tackle trade in "conflict diamonds".
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Small, plain diamonds, however, are in fact not all that scarce.
The spokesman for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre said it was aware of reports that gold and platinum were stolen along with the diamonds, but he said he could not confirm that information.
The Kimberley Process started when Southern African diamond-producing states met in Kimberley, South Africa, in May 2000, to discuss ways to stop the trade in conflict diamonds and ensure that diamond purchases were not funding violence.
In the early 1990s geologists working for companies not allied with De Beers discovered a great trove of diamonds just below the Arctic Circle in northwestern Canada.
Customs officers should be trained to ensure that all diamonds are declared on entry, with certificates of origin provided (not just the country of shipment) and values registered.
ECONOMIST: How to stop diamonds paying for nasty African wars
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