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It will be the government's second attempt to
sell the 709-carat gem, known as the "Peace Diamond", after it
rejected the highest bid of $7.8 million at an initial auction
in New York in May.
Over half of the proceeds from the sale will be used to fund
clean water, electricity, education and health projects in
Sierra Leone, and particularly in the village of Koryardu, in
the Kono region in eastern Sierra Leone, where the diamond was
discovered.
"There's a reason God gave these diamonds to the poorest people
in the world and made the richest people want them. This is
Tikun Olam (Hebrew for correcting the world), this is making the
world a better place," Martin Rapaport, chairman of Rapaport
Group, a network of diamond companies which will manage the
auction, told Reuters.
The diamond, which the auctioneers described as the 14th largest
in the world, was unearthed in Koryardu in March by a Christian
pastor who gave it to the government.
Diamonds fueled a decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone, ending
in 2002, in which rebels forced civilians to mine the stones and
bought weapons with the proceeds, leading to the term 'blood
diamonds'.
(Writing by Mark Hanrahan in London; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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