The War The World Forgot

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Congo's tragedy: the war the world forgot

In a country the size of Western Europe, a war rages that has lasted eight years and cost four million lives. Rival militias inflict appalling suffering on the civilian population, and what passes for political leadership is powerless to stop it. This is Congo, and the reason for the conflict - control of minerals essential to the electronic gadgetry on which the developed world depends - is what makes our blindness to the horror doubly shaming. Johann Hari reports from the killing fields of central Africa

This is the story of the deadliest war since Adolf Hitler's armies marched across Europe - a war that has not ended. But is also the story of a trail of blood that leads directly to you: to your remote control, to your mobile phone, to your laptop and to your diamond necklace. In the TV series Lost, a group of plane crash survivors believe they are stranded alone on a desert island, until one day they discover a dense metal cable leading out into the ocean and the world beyond. The Democratic Republic of Congo is full of those cables, mysterious connections that show how a seemingly isolated tribal war is in reality something very different.

This war has been dismissed as an internal African implosion. In reality it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed four million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain's. No, this is not only a story about them. This - the tale of a short journey into the long Congolese war we in the West have fostered, fuelled and funded - is a story about you.

...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congos-tragedy-the-war-the-world-forgot-476929.html

Why the Congo?

1. The Congo is a central storehouse of strategic minerals for the functioning of modern society, particularly as it relates to the mining and technology sectors. We must demand that foreign countries and corporations implement humane policies toward the Congo.

2. The Congo sits in the heart of Africa and is bordered by NINE other countries, therefore as the Congo goes so does the rest of Africa. We must work with the Congolese and other Africans to make sure that the Congolese and NOT external forces determine the future direction of their country.

3. The Congo has a history of being pillaged and the people being used as fodder in a rush for natural resources. The Belgian king, Leopold II, ruled over a death chamber from 1885 - 1908, when conservative estimates put the number of Congolese dying as a result of Leopold's personal rule at 10 million. During Leopold's era the resources at the root of the suffering of the Congolese were ivory and rubber, today it is coltan, tin, diamonds, gold and copper to name a few. We must put a stop to mass murders in the quest for riches. To profit at the expense of the people is destructive to the human spirit.

4. Western nations under the auspices of the cold war assassinated an elected nationalist leader (Patrice Lumumba) and put in place a brutal dictator (Mobutu Sese Soko) and propped him up for 37 years while he brutalized the Congolese people and systematically stole the riches of the country. Surely, these nations have an obligation to make sure that international networks and actors refrain from undermining genuine Congolese leadership aiming to create a decent way of life for the average Congolese.

http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/congomatters/index.php



DRC is home to 80% of the world's coltan reserves

[tekisui]

1. knr!~

[PDJane]

2. Yes. And I haven't forgotten.

I wish, most sincerely, that the population of the United States were aware of what their corporations and their governments do to bring all these lovely toys to the western world.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. Yes

Corporations Reaping Millions as Congo Suffers Deadliest Conflict Since World War II

...

MAURICE CARNEY: Certainly. When you look at the Congo, you have to look at the corporate influence and everything that takes place in the Congo. When you look at the situation as it currently is, people usually talk about rape occurring at horrendous scales. However, there are basically two types of rape taking place in the Congo. One is the rape of the women and children, and the other is the rape of the land, the natural resources. And the Congo has tremendous natural resources. We’re talking about thirty percent of the world’s reserves of cobalt, ten percent of the world’s reserve of copper, eighty percent of the world’s reserve of coltan. And these multinational corporations are profiting at enormous rates while the Congolese people are suffering tremendously.

AMY GOODMAN: Which companies?

MAURICE CARNEY: Well, there are a number of companies. From 2001 to 2003, the United Nations did a report on the illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the Congo. There are a number of American companies. We have Cabot Corporation, for example, out of Boston, Massachusetts, that was named in that report. Cabot—the former CEO of Cabot Corporation is Samuel Bodman, current Secretary of Energy in the Bush administration. We have the OM Group out of Cleveland, Ohio, is another company, American company, named in the report. We also have Freeport-McMoRan, who acquired mining rights from Phelps Dodge out of Phoenix, Arizona, who have been involved in copper exploitation in the Congo. And Global Witness said the copper mines, the Tenke Fungurume mine that Freeport-McMoRan has, represents one of the richest deposits of copper in the world. However, the Congolese government and Congolese people are not benefiting from the contracts that were established and that provided Freeport-McMoRan with those resources.

We have a number of Canadian companies. Almost every Canadian prime minister since Pierre Trudeau has been involved in the mining company in the Congo. We’re talking about Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien, all of them profiting from the natural resources of the Congo while the Congolese people suffer. The reports from the Congolese government state that eighty percent of the population live on thirty cents or less a day, while you have billions of dollars going out the back door and into the pockets of mining companies.

...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/23/corporations_reaping_millions_as_congo_suffers

[PDJane]

8. Yeah, I knew that too.

Canada is not innocent; we're responsible for a good deal of the mess in Haiti, too.

It's obscene, in my humble opinion.

[slipslidingaway]

3. knr nt

[panader0]

5. K&R Very interesting about the coltan

What parts of the cell phone or computer or Play Station is from the coltan? Why is it essential for these products?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

6. Inside Africa’s PlayStation War

Worth its Weight in Gold

Coltan - which is found in 3 billion-year-old soils, like those in the Rift Valley region of middle Africa, western Australia and central Asia - has become a critical raw material in high-tech manufacturing. The tantalum extracted from the ore is used mainly to make tantalum capacitors, tiny components that manage the flow of current in electronic devices. Many semiconductors also use a thin layer of tantalum as a protective barrier between other metal coatings. The metal, which is also found in other minerals and can be extracted as a byproduct of tin refining, is used in the airline, chemical, pharmaceutical and automotive industries as well.

The market for the material is huge. Last year, about 6.6 million pounds of tantalum was used around the world, 60 percent finding its way into the electronics industry, where it can be found in products like mobile phones, computers, game consoles and camcorders. (The United States is the largest consumer of tantalum in the world, accounting for 40 percent of global demand.)

In 2000, demand for tantalum capacitors exploded in tandem with the mobile phone and PC markets, causing a severe shortage. Tantalum ore prices shot up, with per-pound charges for refined powder climbing from less than $50 to a peak of over $400 at the end of last year. Today, with demand softening worldwide, prices have fallen to around $100 a pound.

In response to the increased demand, coltan miners all over the world increased production. In the Congo region, both legitimate and rogue coltan merchants joined the rush. The boom brought in as much as $20 million a month to rebel groups, as well as independent factions, who were trading coltan mined mostly from northeastern Congo, according to the U.N. report. That money helps fuel the war.

...

http://www.globalissues.org/article/442/guns-money-and-cell-phones

Inside Africa’s PlayStation War
JOHN LASKER / Toward Freedom 8jul2008

In the rugged volcanic mountains of the Congo the conflict known as Africa’s World War continues to smolder after ten grueling years. The conflict earned its name because at the height of the war eight African nations and over 25 militias were in the combatant mix. But more recently the conflict was given another name: The PlayStation War. The name came about because of a black metallic ore called coltan. Extensive evidence shows that during the war hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coltan was stolen from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN and several NGOs claim some of the most active thieves were the Rwandan military, several militias supported by the Rwandan government, and also a number of western-based mining companies, metal brokers, and metal processors that had allegedly partnered with these Rwandan factions.

After it is refined, coltan becomes a bluish-gray powder called tantalum, which is defined as a transition metal. For the most part, tantalum has one significant use: to satisfy the West’s insatiable appetite for personal technology. Tantalum is used to make cell phones, laptops and other electronics made, for example, by SONY, a multi-billion dollar multinational based in Japan that manufactures the iconic PlayStation, a video game console. And while allegations of plundering coltan from a nation in desperate need of revenue seem bad enough, the UN also discovered that Rwandan troops and rebels were using prisoners-of-war and children to mine for the "black gold."

"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said British politician Oona King, who was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2005.

...

http://www.mindfully.org/Technology/2008/PlayStation-Coltan-Congo8jul08.htm

[maryf]

7. K&Rnt

[leftstreet]

9. K&R

[HamdenRice]

10. The Congo war is a vast tragedy that needs to be ended, but the OP analysis is simple minded

and simplistic. Ending that war is going to take more than simple sloganeering and consumer guilt.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

11. Such as?

Don't want to give up your toys Hammy?

The more than fifty-year legacy of the US fighting the Cold War by proxy in Africa through military aid loans, training and vigorous weapon sales at the expense of pro-democracy support and economic development funds has made a huge contribution to causing political and economic crises and fueling conflict among a wide range of interests. As has been much too common, the US invariably supported and armed ruthless despots like Zaire's Mobuto Sese Soko whose dictatorship lasted for 30 years despite horrific human and civil rights abuses. Along with a half-dozen other nations providing arms, the US has indebted scores of African nations with loans for military armaments while undermining progressive social and economic institutions. Despite 'noble' rhetoric about promoting peace, democracy and progress, US Foreign Policy seems intended to keep the African continent in a perpetual state of chaos and dependency, the better for western corporations to exploit its lucrative resources -- to feed capitalism's insatiable need for growth.

While dated (2000) the report cited below provides a blunt, damning critique of the US's role in creating the context for the horrific wars, crimes and genocide that have taken such a huge toll in Africa over the past decades. Insiders like ex-CIA agent John Stockwell have detailed the US's covert actions in Africa that have contributed to continuing conflict.

Yet another instance where the US's disasterous, destructive Foreign Policy agenda has been set to suit the MIC and western corporations, kept hidden from the American public and out-of-bounds of public debate. Some 'democracy', eh?

...

REPORTS - Weapons at War - January 2000

Deadly Legacy:
U.S. Arms to Africa and the Congo War
by William D. Hartung and Bridget Moix of the Arms Trade Resource Center

"We hope to build a new and lasting partnership between Africa and the world, based on common interests, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to peace, prosperity, and freedom."- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Statement to the UN Security Council Ministerial on Africa, Sept. 24, 1998

"When the United States assumes the Presidency of the Security Council next month, in January 2000 – the first month of the first year of the new millennium – I wish to announce today that we intend to make Africa the priority of the month."- U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke Pretoria, South Africa, Dec. 6, 1999

"The problem of all the ethnic and tribal wars must be either resolved or at least largely reduced through a big effort by the countries that deal in arms to prevent the over-militarisation of Africa."- Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Michel Camdessus Comments to French radio, Jan. 2, 2000


Executive Summary
I. Introduction
II. U.S.-Congo Relations: Stabilizing the Region or Handicapping Peace?
III. The U.S. Role in Militarizaing Africa
IV. Changing Rhetoric, Changing Policy
Key Policy Recommendations
Other Resources for Information and Action
Endnotes
Tables:
Table 1: Post-Cold War U.S. Arms Transfers to Governments Involved in the Congo War, 1989-1998
Table 2: Post-Cold War U.S. International Military Education and Training (IMET) to Countries Involved in the Congo War, 1989-1998
African Militaries Trained by the U.S., 1997-1998

...

http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/congo.htm

[blindpig]

13. k&r

Coltan, the opium of the masses:

http://guides.gamepressure.com/overlordii/guide.asp?ID=7717

Ya wonder where people get their ideas....

[DCKit]

12. No mention of Chinese involvement, which I find surprising.

I know they're "colonizing" in Africa and South America (exactly the same as we've always done, and for exactly the same reason) and can't imagine they don't have a presence in the Congo after their unwanted exposure in the Sudan debacle.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

14. oh, from your head-line, I thought you were talking about the US invasion of Iraq

[Orwellian_Ghost]

16. That too

it seems.

[Octafish]

15. JFK Cried for Congo

http://www.orwelltoday.com/jfkcongo.shtml

[Orwellian_Ghost]

17. Bump