Congo "Conflict Minerals" Fuel Brutal Civil War

Human Rights Groups Raise Awareness About Illegal Trade in Congo War

Sep 5, 2009

Many mines in the eastern DRC are controlled by rebels and the national army, which terrorize the local populations. The mined minerals are used in consumer electronics.

The war in eastern Congo is one of the deadliest in the world since World War II. Over five million people have died in this conflict that has lasted for decades. According to UN figures at least 250,000 people in the provinces of North and South Kivu have been displaced this year alone. Rebel groups are fighting over control of Congo's mining areas. Illegal trade in minerals is financing the violence.

Congo's Conflict Minerals are Today's Blood Diamonds

Congo's natural resources have also become a curse. News articles compare "conflict minerals" to blood diamonds, referring to diamonds that were at the heart of civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola in the 1990's. The minerals are mined in a war zone and sold to finance more fighting. The ores that produce the minerals are cassiterite (source of tin ore), wolframite (source of the element tungsten) and coltan (source of tantalum).

The Enough Project Started an Awareness Campaign

Many mines in the DRC are located in remote, inaccessible areas and controlled by rebel groups. They are plundering the minerals, selling them illegally and force civilians, including children, to work for them. Enough, the anti-genocide project at the Center for American Progress, has partnered with Raise Hope for Congo to increase news coverage of the crisis in Congo, especially the widespread sexual violence against women and girls. Soldiers use rape a s a weapon of war. The Enough Project created a conflict minerals pledge that commits electronics companies to ensure their products are conflict-free.

Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009

Earlier this year US Senators Sam Brownback, Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold introduced the Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009 in the United States Senate. The bill would map rebel-controlled mines and require companies who use minerals from Congo to report the mines of origin to the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission. Global Witness, an international NGO that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation and human rights abuses, supports the bill as an important step towards greater transparency. In the longer term Congo and its neighbors must implement a framework to prevent the illicit trade of minerals.

"Only when it becomes more profitable to exploit the minerals legally will there be sufficient incentive for peace in Congo."

John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, in an op-ed piece for the Boston Globe (8/1/09)

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The copyright of the article Congo "Conflict Minerals" Fuel Brutal Civil War in War & Poverty is owned by Christine Welter. Permission to republish Congo "Conflict Minerals" Fuel Brutal Civil War in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.