Researching Eastern Congo

          In November 2010, I traveled with four other EMU students to New York City to attend MCC's UN Liaison's annual student conference. That year the topic was conflict minerals. We learned all about the four minerals (Tin, Tungsten, Tantalum, and Gold) that are being mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo to be used in our cell phones, computers, and other electronics. The mining of these minerals is causing much violence, however, because different rebel groups fight to control the mines. We heard many different speakers who spoke on the work the United Nations is doing to pass international legislation that will make electronic companies have better control of the resources and do due diligence to know exactly where their minerals are coming from, as to not add to the violence in the country. The conference was very informative, but we left feeling kind of helpless, not knowing what we could personally do to help make things better.
          Then this past semester, EMU's International Student Organization hosted a speaker from the Enough Project for International Women's Day, who spoke on conflict minerals and the violence it has caused to women in the country. My friend Josh Kanagy, who had been in New York with me, and I attended the coffeehouse and talked to the speaker afterward. We learned of the Enough Project's campaign titled the "Conflict-Free Campus Initiative." Two weeks later, Josh and I traveled to Washington D.C. to attend a weekend conference with students across the United States who were interested in working to stop the human rights abuses in the DRC. The Conflict-Free Campus Initiative is taking place on over a hundred college campuses across the country. As a huge consumer of electronics, colleges can make an impact on electronic companies policy. The campaign works to have universities pass resolutions saying that they only want to buy electronics that come "conflict-free," or in other words, do not contribute to the violence in the DRC. Josh and I learned a lot and decided that we want to start the campaign at EMU. We believe that this is a tangible way that we can help to try to make change.
          So this summer I decided to make it my goal to learn everything I could about the situation in Eastern Congo and the best ways to get involved. The first part of my plan was to get informed. To do this, I have been reading informational websites, blogs, and books. My first book was Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle (the actor from Hotel Rwanda) and John Prendergast (the founder of the Enough Project). Although this book did not directly address Congo, it did give some ways on how everyday people can work to make a difference. They explained in detail how people need to raise awareness, raise funds, write letter, call for divestment, join an organization, and lobby the government.Many celebrities, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and others, have joined in this cause to try to make a difference when it comes to genocide.
          The next book that I just finished is called Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason K. Stearns. The book gives the political history of the conflict in Congo since 1992. I was very impressed with the book and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand the conflict. I leaned so much about how the government in the DRC functions and how the conflict in the country cannot be reduced to just one cause. The conflict minerals play a role, but are only one of many strands of an intricate conflict that has been going on for years. However, we as Americans have a role to play to make it end. Stearns writes in his conclusion,
            "But why should we help at all? First, because it is not just an act of joint humanity. We owe it to the Congolese. Most obviously because of the centuries of slavery, colonialism, and exploitation of rubber, copper, and diamonds, which benefited western companies and helped build Belgian cities.Those past injustices should be reason enough for feeling a moral debt toward the country, but we don't need to go so far. Most of the foreign companies operating in the Congo today are listed on stock exchanges, are incorporated in Europe or North America, or obtain their financing from banks based in those countries. Many of these companies are engaging in questionable behavior that would be proscribed in their home countries. Big mining companies have signed contracts that provide little revenue to the state and have allegedly provided large kickbacks to government officials. Smaller trading companies buy minerals from the eastern Congo without scrutinizing the origins of their shipments to make sure they are not funding armed groups. Se we should do what we can to allow the Congolese to benefit from their riches, not be held back by them."
          I am very convicted that this is an issue all of us need to be concerned with. We all have cell phones and computers and so in a way, we are all partly responsible for some of the violence. So it is our responsibility to stand up to electronic companies and demand conflict-free products! We need to tell our Congressmen that we want legislation passed that will benefit those in Congo. I hope to post more throughout the summer of ways in which I am becoming involved and how we can make a difference from the United States. Good resources I have found are the Enough project's website, http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_areas/eastern_congo along with their sister organization Raise Hope for Congo http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/. To keep up with current developments in the country I would suggest reading Jason Stearn's blog at http://congosiasa.blogspot.com/.