MANSFIELD, Conn. – (UWIRE)Cell phones and laptops are virtually everywhere. They are balanced next to books in cafes and flipped out to text all our friends.
But these technologies, while beneficial to us, contain gold, tungsten, tantalum, and tin — elements that are very dangerous to millions of people in the Republic of Congo.
Because the Congo is rich with these metals, they are the main source for them. But the profit from mining and selling these metals is funding a bloody civil war between tribes.
These metals, called conflict metals, are strictly regulated and taxed illegally by the mafia like militias that control the Congo, according to Enoughproject.org.
These militias control the mines that produce the conflict metals and the lives of the workers who live there. The wages they give to the workers are often minimal and do not adequately compensate the worker for taking the immense risk of mining. Many of the miners are children who are forced into service by the militias.
After taxing the mines, these militias also control smuggling routes and usually ask for very high prices to allow the metals out of the country. Enoughproject.org estimates the militias make $183 million each year off of conflict metals.
Where does this money go? Short answer: weapons. All of the money gained by exploiting the miners is used to purchase weapons needed to fuel the deadliest conflict since World War II. This war has claimed the lives of 3 million people since it started.
And killing isn’t the only crime these militias commit. Their preferred psychological weapon of choice against enemy tribes is rape. The Congo contains the worst rates of sexual violence in the world, according to John Prendergast, a founder of Enoughproject.org. “This is the most dangerous place to be a woman,” Prendergast said.
An interview posted on YouTube with some former militiamen reveals the extent to which these men have been brainwashed.
They fidget on camera as they justify why they raped, all the while vowing to destroy any man who did the same to their wives and sisters.
But perhaps the most chilling testimony was from a man who looked straight at the camera and insisted that being raped was a patriotic sacrifice necessary for the success of the cause.
The process by which these conflict metals end up in your cell phones starts in the mines of Congo. With little profit to the miners, the ore is then sent to trading houses in big cities where it is sorted.
Next, the ore is smuggled out to neighboring countries. Here it is shipped to factories in India, China, Thailand and other countries to be mixed with other metals. Finally, the metal is processed into components which are put into our technology.
The companies who use these metals, such as Microsoft and Apple, claim that tracing the origin of the ore is very difficult. But conversations with some of the traders in the Congo show that each mine creates a different look in the ore, thus making it easy to trace back.
The good news is that this is a problem that can be solved. It starts with every user of these blood-soaked technologies. It starts with you.
You, the consumer, need to speak up and show interest in these conflict-free products. Show that there is a demand for conflict-free products — and that companies could profit by converting to them.
In addition, there is a bill in Congress, S-891, which intends “to monitor and stop commercial activities involving the natural resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo that contribute to illegal armed groups and human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Show interest in this bill by sending our senator an e-mail expressing your support for it.
This wouldn’t be the first time a conflict-causing product was banned. The Clean Diamond Trade Act of 2005 banned the purchase of diamonds that fueled wars in Africa. The same needs to happen with these conflict metals. The change starts with us, one consumer at a
time.
The change starts with you.
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Contact The Daily Reveille’s opinion staff at [email protected]