D R Congo: Cell phones, conflict minerals, and the worst sexual violence in the world

Conflict Minerals in DRC

Reports by the United Nations group of experts and several national and
international NGOs have shown that natural resources were, and still
are, fuelling conflict in Eastern DRC. Read our new Key Issue page on conflict minerals, detailing the current situation and what is being done to control it.

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Title: D R Congo: Cell phones, conflict minerals, and
the worst sexual violence in the world
Author: John Prendergast
Category: Gender
Date: 4/2/2009
Source: Enough Project
Source Website: www.raisehopeforcongo.org

African Charter Article# 21: All peoples shall freely
dispose of their wealth and natural resources for their exclusive
interest, eliminating all forms of foreign economic exploitation.

Summary & Comment: Here's a challenge to build a
movement to stop sexual violence against women in the DRC. The deadly
nexus between that violence and the purchase of electronics products
containing conflict minerals from the DRC is direct and undeniable. The
electronic devices used by almost everyone in the North provide unique
leverage to help end the scourge of violence in the DRC. It is
imperative that Congolese, concerned activists, consumers, and the
international community develop a more effective, comprehensive
response to sexual violence, make a concerted effort to deal with the
problem, and hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. Armed
groups from the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda finance themselves through the
illicit conflict mineral trade and fight over control of mines and
taxation points inside the DRC. If women and girls are to be protected
and empowered in the DRC, a most important priority is to end the trade
in conflict minerals. DN

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Can you hear Congo now?
Cell phones, conflict minerals, and the worst sexual violence in the
world

http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/files/congo_activism_final.pdf

The time has come to expose a sinister reality: Our insatiable
demand for electronics products such as cell phones and laptops is
helping fuel waves of sexual violence in a place that most of us will
never go, affecting people most of us will never meet. The Democratic
Republic of the Congo is the scene of the deadliest conflict globally
since World War II. There are few other conflicts in the world where
the link between our consumer appetites and mass human suffering is so
direct. This reality is not the result of an elaborate cover-up,
either. Most electronic companies and consumers genuinely do not
appreciate the complex chain of events that ties widespread sexual
violence in Congo with the minerals that power our cell phones,
laptops, mp3 players, video games, and digital cameras.

But now that we are beginning to understand these linkages, we need
to do all we can to expose them and bring this deadly war fuelled by
"conflict minerals" to an end. As a start, the Enough Project has
worked with other like-minded groups to create a conflict minerals
pledge that commits electronics companies to ensure their products are
conflict-free. We are initiating a consumer campaign aimed at
encouraging the users of these electronics products to let the biggest
companies know that it matters to us that our purchases don't prolong
this ongoing tragedy.

Rape as a tool of war-and profit

Congo's protracted wars have led to incredibly wide and diverse
violence against civilians by an array of armed groups. The general use
of violence against communities includes forced labor, torture,
recruitment of child soldiers, extortion, and killings by armed groups
to oppress and control civilians. In particular, sexual violence has
become a tool of war and control for the armed groups in Congo on an
immense scale. The Congo war has the highest rate of violence against
women and girls in the world, and reports indicate that hundreds of
thousands have been raped, making it the most dangerous place in the
world to be a woman or girl. We can only guess at the true numbers, as
an untold number of women likely chose not to report their crime given
the stigma that goes with rape and the low probability that the
perpetrators will actually be brought to justice. The scale of these
profound crimes against women sets Congo apart from anywhere else in
the world.

Competing militias rape in order either to drive communities out of
contested areas or else as a means of controlling or subjugating those
living in the areas they control. Men know that they could be tortured
or killed if they don't obey, and the women know they could be raped.
Women from communities that are being displaced are sometimes so
traumatized by the sexual violence that they will never return to their
home areas. These crimes destroy families, decimate communities, and
lethally spread HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

As Dr. Denis Mukwege of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu told Bob Herbert of
The New York Times, "The ordinary sense of family and
community is lost after a man has been forced to watch his wife being
raped, or parents are forced to watch the rape of their daughters, or
children see their mothers raped. Neighbors are witnesses to this. Many
flee. Families are dislocated. Social relationships are lost. There is
no more social network, village network. Not only the victims have been
destroyed; the whole village is destroyed." Widespread rape thus
becomes an instrument of communal terror as armed groups attempt to
exercise control over a mine or the transport and taxation of the
minerals. Sexual violence is thus used as an instrument of control and
intimidation, as well as punishment for alleged collaboration with
rival armed groups.

It is imperative that Congolese, concerned activists and consumers,
and the broader international community develop a more effective and
comprehensive response to sexual violence. As we have seen with other
war crimes and crimes against humanity around the globe, change will
only come when there is a concerted effort to deal with the problem and
perpetrators are held accountable for their actions. In Congo this
requires everything from grassroots development and reconciliation
efforts all the way up to an effective diplomatic strategy and a
peacekeeping force that is actually capable of protecting civilians.
The electronic devices used by almost every American provide unique
leverage to help end the scourge of violence.

Conflict minerals

Sexual violence in Congo is often fueled by militias and armies
warring over "conflict minerals," the ores that produce tin, tungsten,
and tantalum-the "3 Ts"-as well as gold. Armed groups from Congo,
Rwanda, and Uganda finance themselves through the illicit conflict
mineral trade and fight over control of mines and taxation points
inside Congo.1 But the story does not end there. Internal and
international business interests move these conflict minerals from
Central Africa around the world to countries in East Asia, where they
are processed into valuable metals, and then onward into a wide range
of electronics products. Consumers in the United States, Europe, and
Asia are the ultimate end-users of these conflict minerals, as we
inadvertently fuel the war through our purchases of these electronics
products. This trail has been well documented by the United Nations and
others.

The principal conflict minerals are:

• Tin (produced from cassiterite)-used inside
  your cell phone and all electronic products as a solder on circuit
  boards. The biggest use of tin worldwide is in electronic products.
  Congolese armed groups earn approximately $85 million per year from
  trade in tin.
• Tantalum (produced from "coltan")-used to store
  electricity in capacitors in iPods, digital cameras, and cell phones.
  Sixty-five to 80 percent of the world's tantalum is used in electronic
  products. Congolese armed groups earn an estimated $8 million per year
  from trading in tantalum.
• Tungsten (produced from wolframite)-used to make
  your cell phone or Blackberry vibrate. Tungsten is a growing source of
  income for armed groups in Congo, with armed groups currently earning
  approximately $2 million annually.
• Gold-used in jewelry and as a component in
  electronics. Extremely valuable and easy to smuggle, Congolese armed
  groups are earning between $44 million to $88 million per year from
  gold.

The deadly nexus between the worst violence against women in the
world and the purchase of electronics products containing conflict
minerals from the Congo is direct and undeniable. And it can be stopped
by a combination of focused consumer pressure and enlightened
government action. If women and girls are to be protected and empowered
in Congo, one of the most important priorities is to end the deadly
trade in conflict minerals. Take away the fuel and the violence will be
much easier to end.

The perpetrators and orchestrators of this violence do so primarily
in a mad scramble for natural resources. There is little rule of law in
the Congolese war zone and no strong mechanism to monitor the
international supply chain for these minerals. Without accountability
for their debilitating crimes against women and action to create a
transparent supply chain for the mineral trade, war criminals will
continue to commit horrendous atrocities and reap large profits with
impunity.

Building a campaign

Because we are all unconsciously part of the problem in Congo, all
of us can consciously become part of the solution. Collectively,
American consumers have enormous leverage over the companies from which
we purchase our electronics. We can marshal that power to press them to
play a positive role to protect and empower Congo's women.

We have an extraordinary opportunity for education and
movement-building. Working with other nongovernmental organizations,
the Enough Project has spent the last year researching the supply
chains that link these conflict minerals to our most relied-upon
consumer products. Our goal is to bring an understanding of these
direct linkages into every living room in America.

Attached to this public education blitz will be targeted campaigns
and actions aimed both at the U.S. government and international
corporations, which both have a hand in the solution. Our campaign will
emphasize how we can use our consumer power for good to take concrete
actions that will make a difference. Once people realize their
purchases are funding the worst sexual violence in the world, we hope
they will be primed and motivated to join in building a popular
movement against these atrocities. Because women and girls have become
primary targets in the war of attrition between the armed groups,
Congo's transformation must begin with them.

A century ago, thousands of people across the globe joined together
in what became one of the 20th century's first great international
human rights movements in protesting the bloody reign of Belgium's King
Leopold II over the Congo. In a murderous effort to exploit the vast
natural resources of the country, half of the Congo's population was
decimated by King Leopold's personal rule-an estimated 10 million
people. The resulting public outcry helped curb the worst abuses of
that period.

This was before the Internet. Before television. Before the
widespread use of telephones. A century later, the people of the Congo
need a new popular movement to end the atrocities once and for all.
Today, we can use the very technologies that have fueled Congo's
fighting to put an end to these crimes against humanity and help build
a hopeful future for Congolese families that have suffered too much. It
is up to us.

What we want:

Government and corporate action

In order for real change to occur-and to help create space for
Congolese civil society and others fighting for peace-action is
required from three actors: President Barack Obama, electronics
companies, and Congress.

President Obama

We need presidential action. President Obama must make a clean break
with past policy toward Congo, which has too often been designed to
half-heartedly manage the symptoms of the crisis through humanitarian
aid, erratic diplomacy, and peacekeeping assistance. President Obama
should make the objective of U.S. foreign policy to end the conflict
there, which will change the way America engages.

To achieve the objective of ending the crisis, President Obama
should name a high-level special envoy with a team that can work in
coordination with others on the local, national, and regional sources
of instability. Just like Richard Holbrooke in Afghanistan-Pakistan,
George Mitchell in the Middle East, and Scott Gration for Sudan, the
Congo needs such a presidential envoy, someone who reports to the
president and whose job it is to find solutions. Robust diplomatic
leadership is needed to pressure the governments of Congo, Rwanda, and
Uganda to better protect civilians and stop fueling the deadly cycles
of violence from which they profit in the context of the illicit
mineral trade.

Further, the president should provide all necessary support to the
International Criminal Court as it attempts to introduce accountability
for war crimes in Congo, and press for rape as a weapon of war to be a
primary focus of criminal investigations in the eastern part of the
country.

Alongside diplomacy, the president should ensure that America's
defense and development capabilities contribute to a comprehensive
solution for eastern Congo. For instance, the new U.S. Africa Command,
or AFRICOM, should provide additional support for army reform,
demobilization programs, and capacity building for the U.N.
peacekeeping force in Congo to help protect civilians and to help
establish legal control over the mining sector. And our foreign
assistance programs should focus on creating legitimate economic
opportunities in eastern Congo, including a mining sector that does not
finance war crimes, as well as on helping Congolese to build viable
state institutions in the east.

Electronics companies

None of the big electronics companies want to fuel the deadliest war
in the world. But at a time of financial crisis, when every penny of
profit counts, corporation may continue to turn a blind eye toward
Congo's conflict mineral trade. Therefore, we need to use our
considerable market muscle to demand evidence from companies such as
Apple, Nokia, Hewlett Packard, and Nintendo that their products do not
contain conflict minerals. This will require them to change their
procurement practices and demand that their suppliers provide proof of
where their minerals are sourced from. The electronics companies are
powerful actors in their supply chains.

If they show leadership, they can fundamentally change the way these
minerals are bought and sold, ensuring that the minerals don't
contribute to armed conflict and the continuation of the worst violence
against women and girls in the world. As consumers, we can compel them
to exercise that leadership. To that end, the Enough Project has worked
with other organizations active in the fight against conflict minerals
to develop a corporate pledge that commits these corporations to
ensuring that their products will be conflict-free by taking specific
steps (See below).

Governments and companies have developed sophisticated approaches to
staunch international money laundering and terrorist financing and
corporations should capitalize on those advancements to ensure that we
are not financing crimes against humanity.

Millions of lives are at stake. We have the power to demand an end
to the horrific crimes against humanity in the very place where the
term "crimes against humanity" was invented a century ago. We need to
demand that President Obama, Congress, and our electronics companies do
all they can to help end the violence. Our lives are made vastly easier
by the technology in our cell phones, laptops, and other electronics
products. This could not happen without an array of minerals, many of
which come from the Congo. The price we pay for these goods is modest.
The price that Congo's women and girls pay is unacceptable.

We must tell our politicians that we cannot allow such crimes
against humanity to continue. Not on our watch.

Conflict minerals pledge

Companies manufacturing, retailing, or trading in materials
containing tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold that may originate in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo have an obligation to ensure that they
are not financing armed groups and military units or contributing to
human rights abuses at any point along the supply chain. As consumers
and suppliers of these products, we are united in our belief that we
can be part of the solution to this deadly conflict.

FOR COMPANIES TO SIGN

By signing the Conflict Minerals Pledge, the company
commits to ensuring that its products will be conflict-free. In support
of this goal, companies commit to the following steps:

1. Trace the supply chain for all tin, tantalum,
   tungsten, or gold in their products to verify their mines of origin.
2. Conduct independently verifiable supply chain audits
   to document the routes taken, intermediaries involved, and transactions
   made from mine of origin to final product.

The Enough Project and its partners will work with
companies that sign the pledge to help them fulfill their commitments,
and support efforts to provide companies with definitive guidance from
the United Nations, the U.S. government, and expert sources on conflict
actors and areas of concern in eastern Congo. If you are a company that
would like to learn more or sign on to the pledge, please send an email
to conflictminerals@enoughproject.org.

FOR INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS TO ENDORSE

By endorsing the Conflict Minerals Pledge, organizations
and individuals commit to using their voices and consumer power to
influence companies to sign the pledge. Specifically:

1. Contact the largest makers of cell phones,
   portable music players, digital cameras, PCs, and video games, and urge
   them to sign the pledge.
2. Commit to only purchasing electronics from firms
   that have taken and are abiding by the conflict minerals pledge.
3. Educate fellow consumers and activists about the
   crisis in Congo, the role of conflict minerals, and how they can be a
   part of the solution.

To endorse the Conflict Minerals Pledge:
text: "CONGOPLEDGE" (one word, no spaces) to
ACTION (228466) or
visit: www.raisehopeforcongo.org/specialpage/conflict-minerals.

How to make an impact

The crisis in eastern Congo is fueled by conflict minerals, but we
can stop the deadly cycle by using our power as activists and
consumers.

1. Join the Movement at: www.raisehopeforcongo.org
2. Text "CONGOPLEDGE" (one word, no spaces) to
   ACTION (228466) or
   visit www.raisehopeforcongo.org/special-page/conflict-minerals
   to endorse the Conflict Minerals Pledge.
3. Send emails to the industry leaders and
   ask them to be a leader on this issue by signing
   the pledge.
   Visit www.raisehopeforcongo.org/special-page/conflict-minerals
   
   to send your emails now.
4. Call the White House switchboard at 202.456.1414 or write to
   President Obama at www.whitehouse.gov and ask him to appoint a special
   envoy for the Great Lakes region.

*Enough is a project of the Center for American Progress to
end genocide and crimes against humanity. Founded in 2007, Enough
focuses on the crises in Sudan, Chad, eastern Congo, northern Uganda,
Somalia, and Zimbabwe. Enough's strategy papers and briefings provide
sharp field analysis and targeted policy recommendations based on a
"3P" crisis response strategy: promoting durable peace, providing
civilian protection, and punishing perpetrators of atrocities. Enough
works with concerned citizens, advocates, and policy makers to prevent,
mitigate, and resolve these crises.

To learn more about Enough and what you can do to help, go
to: www.enoughproject.org .

Enough
1225 EYE Street, NW, Suite 307,
Washington, DC 20005
. Tel: 202-682-1611
. Fax: 202-682-6140
. www.enoughproject.org