Antwerp Invites ‘Blood Diamond’ Hero to Discover Real Diamond World

Antwerp, January 17, 2007 – Next week Blood Diamond has its premiere in Belgium. Blood Diamond is the newest adventure film by {{Edward Zwick}} with {{Leonardo DiCaprio}} in the leading role. The {{Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC)}} congratulated DiCaprio for his role in this action film with a high James Bond profile. At the same time the AWDC expressed its regrets in an official announcement about the totally false image that this Hollywood production creates of the diamond sector. Very little or no attention at all was paid to the many strict measures that have been in force in the sector for many years. Hence one of the reasons for the AWDC’s invitation to DiCaprio to visit the world diamond centre of Antwerp, so that he may get a first hand insight of the strength and transparency of the organization and structure of the real diamond sector. %% Blood Diamond – the adventure film by Edward Zwick is staging its premiere in Belgium. The international diamond sector acknowledges that this is just another spectacular film, but at the same time it questions several aspects of this latest Hollywood product. “Blood Diamond” is more than mere innocent entertainment in the cinema. It is the first public film to feature the history of ‘Conflict Diamonds’. The story goes back to the nineties in the last century and one of the subjects it covers is the trade in ‘Conflict Diamonds’. The diamond sector and the government have been working together for years to fight this type of illicit trade. Measures such as the {{Kimberley Accords}} and the {{Certification System}} are just a few of the practical examples,” according to {{Freddy J. Hanard}}, Managing Director of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC). %%{{ Come & Discover Realities:}} %% The AWDC, formerly known as HRD, internationally recognized as the official representatives of the Belgian diamond sector, congratulated Leonardo DiCaprio for his leading role and wished him a lot of success with this film. “The script of Blood Diamond is well written and will have the tension in many cinemas running very high. Action and entertainment are combined here with a particularly high level of fantasy. But the reality is quite different. This is why we have invited DiCaprio to the world diamond centre. Here in Antwerp he will be able to discover the real diamond world and see for himself how diamonds are traded today, how transparency has been the key word in the organization and structure of the sector for several years now. He will also be able to see the strict monitoring systems that have been developed as part of the Kimberley Accords. Antwerp has the strictest regulated market in the world. A policy of zero tolerance is applied here to the so-called Conflict Diamonds,” Hanard concludes.