240. I realize none of you will probably read this.
conflict minerals: the new blood diamonds
As a family prepares to sit down and share a meal, their front door is kicked in and several rebels armed with machine guns and machetes file inside. Two men hold a grandmother’s frail arms as another man uses the muzzle of his gun to rape her. Another rebel soldier has a blade larger than his forearm pressed against a 10 year-old girl’s throat while he ravages her. A mother is raped and beaten to near-death as she fights for her family. Her 4 year-old son is shot in the head and tossed onto the kitchen table as soldiers laughingly suggest that he is eaten along with the rest of the meal. And the father? The rebels already found him outside and left his raped and mutilated body crumpled on the lawn, unable to help his terrified family. This is no horror film, nor any other work of fiction. This is daily life in Democratic Republic of Congo and you and I unwittingly perpetuate it.
In his November NY Times article, op-ed contributor Jeffrey Gettleman recounted some of the atrocities documented in a recent United Nations report. The report outlines a criminal network involving the Congolese Army, rebel groups and a convoluted nexus of Spanish charities, Ukrainian arms dealers, corrupt African officials and North Korean weapon shipments. The Congolese Army supplies rebel groups with weapons, aiding in the their crusade to control mineral rich areas of Democratic Republic of Congo. The conflict minerals, specifically tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold, are smuggled out of Congo with the help of government officials and ultimately end up in our hands in the form of cell phones, mp3 music players, digital cameras and laptops.
Profits from the minerals continue funding the deadliest war since WWII. The death toll is staggering: more than 5 million lives lost since the mid-90s, partly due to fighting, but mostly due to starvation and preventable disease as a result of the war (Lezhnev and Prendergast). The fighting is not soldier against soldier, rather it is soldier against civilian. Rebel groups have burned down entire villages and abducted children as sex slaves or soldiers. Gettleman notes that it is Congolese women who are subjected to the worst of the conflict, as hundreds of thousands of women have been savagely gang raped and mutilated in an area that the United Nations considers the rape capital of the world. Reports from various aid agencies cite victims’ ages from 2 to 87, with some victims being raped by up to 23 different soldiers in a single incident. One woman described being held at gunpoint while watching her husband being butchered. She was forced to collect his body parts and lay atop them while the group of soldiers raped her. Between bouts of consciousness, she could hear her 4 screaming daughters as they were raped in the next room. The eldest two daughters were only ages 12 and 14, both of whom became pregnant as a result of the attack (Hochschild).
But the brutality is not exclusive to women. Gettleman discusses the sharply growing number of Congolese male rape cases over recent months in his NY Times articles published in August. Aid workers can only explain the systematic rape as a method to humiliate and demoralize Congolese communities into submission. While the number of male rape cases is fractional compared to female cases, Gettleman points to the taboo nature of homosexuality in this region as a contributing factor to unreported male cases. He interviewed a male rape victim who said, “I’m laughed at. The people in my village say, ‘You’re no longer a man. Those men in the bush made you their wife.’” The men who have come forward reportedly only did so out of medical necessity and most of them said they instantly became castaways in their communities. The degradation is so severe that even medical necessity is not enough to make some men come forward. Aid workers told Gettleman about men who did not seek medical help after having their penises cinched with rope; they died within a few days. The aid workers reported a growing number of castrations in recent months as well.
Congolese Male Rape Victims
It is important to note that rebel groups are not the only ones responsible for these gruesome crimes; soldiers of the Congolese Army are also responsible. Gettleman discusses in his December article that the U.N. Legal Affairs Department wrote to the head of the Peacekeeping Department earlier this year, warning them not to aid the Congolese Army in any manner if there was sufficient proof that they were violating international humanitarian law. Their fears were confirmed recently when, according to the reputable medical charity, Doctors Without Borders, Congolese soldiers killed hundreds of civilians while refugees were waiting in line to receive measles shots (McNeil). Human Rights Watch, another reputable group, documented the deliberate killing of nearly 300 civilians at the hands of Congolese soldiers, who also reportedly gang-raped girls and cut off the heads of young men. This incident took place shortly after U.N. peacekeepers supplied these soldiers with ammunition and food (Gettleman December).
The U.N. report Gettleman discusses in his November article accuses not just the Congolese Army with criminal involvement, but also charges government officials in several African countries with aiding rebels to smuggle conflict minerals out and helping rebels get weapons in to them. The criminal connection and the laundry list of human rights abuses discussed in the report is expected to be a topic of the December U.N. Security Council meeting, but there are some U.N. diplomats who are attempting to delay release of the report because some of the charges may indicate U.N. peacekeepers’ involvement in some of the crimes.
It is a disturbing and frustrating situation with no easy solution. In conjunction with better Congolese civilian protection, better peacekeeping solutions and charges brought against the high-ranking government officials involved, private sector help is also necessary to halt the funds that allow the cycle to continue. During her August 2009 trip to Congo, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “With respect to companies that are responsible for what are now being called conflict minerals, I think the international community must start looking at steps we can take to try and prevent the mineral wealth from the DRC ending up in the hands of those who fund the violence there” (qtd. in Lezhnev and Prendergast).
In the early 90s, after years of bloodshed, efforts were successful in cracking down on blood diamonds in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Angola only after enough Western consumers became aware that their jewelry was directly linked to murder. Consumer uproar incited U.S. legislation that required gems be tracked all the way to their original mines. Similar legislation has been proposed with bipartisan support to crack down on conflict minerals (Lezhnev and Prendergast). If passed, the legislation would require electronics companies and their suppliers to ensure their minerals do not originate in mines that fuel the war. Activists encourage us to call or write to our state representatives and senators and urge them to co-sponsor the Conflict Minerals Trade Act (H.R. 4128 for representatives) or the Congo Conflict Minerals Act (S. 891 for senators), as well as write to our electronics companies requesting they hold their suppliers accountable for ensuring minerals purchased are conflict-free (Lezhnev and Prendergast). We are in a position now, just as we were during the blood diamond conflict, where our material belongings are directly linked to savage, systematic rape and murder and we possess, yet again, the power to make it stop.
CLICK HERE to demand conflict-free electronics from industry leaders.