Similar to the blood diamond scenario, which gained some attention from the 2006 Hollywood film of the same name, and more lately by Naomi Campbell’s well-publicized appearance in International Criminal Court in The Hague, conflict minerals fuel wars and atrocities in undemocratic countries. Rebel and militia groups are funded by the huge profits from gold, tungsten, tantalum and tin mining in the DCR, though miners receive only around $1-5 US per day.

These militias make millions and millions of dollars. We estimated that they made about $180 million from trading in these minerals last year and they’re able to continue their existence and their armed struggle on the basis of this trade.

–Sasha Lezhnev, Enough

US President Barack Obama recently signed a new provision requiring US companies to submit annual reports to divulging whether their products contain minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo or neighboring states. Several electronics companies like Intel, Motorola and HP have initiated stronger policies of their own accord.

This is a difficult and complex problem, partly because what funds militias who commit atrocities, also pays the meager wages of poor miners.

For more details on the story see the following report from the Voice of America:

Tracing DRC’s Conflict Minerals a Daunting Task

Also check out this video report from Time Magazine:

Conflict Minerals: Is There Blood on Your Laptop?

Additional resources:

Enough project – Eastern Congo

photo by ENOUGH Project (Flickr Creative Commons)

Supermodel Naomi Campbell has been in the headlines lately for allegedly receiving ‘blood diamonds’ from former Liberian leader Charles Taylor at a 1997 celebrity dinner in South Africa, hosted by then President Nelson Mandela.

Charles Taylor was reputedly paid in blood diamonds by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone, a rebel group responsible for widespread atrocities – such as using child soldiers and hacking off victims’ limbs – during Sierra Leone’s civil war.

Taylor himself currently faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, including murder, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers.

From an article in the Independent:

Taylor is accused of being criminally responsible for countless atrocities in which innocent victims were shot, hacked and burned to death, and subjected to horrific acts of sexual violence.

Naomi Campbell testified in the Hague today that she received some dirty looking stones after the 1997 dinner in South Africa from two men who she was later told worked for Charles Taylor.

From a BBC News report:

She gave the stones to Jeremy Ratcliffe of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund because she wanted them to go to charity, and said when she spoke to Mr Ratcliffe on the telephone in 2009, he said he still had them.

Campbell’s involvement in Taylor’s trial has brought the issue of blood diamonds and other conflict minerals – minerals that fund wars in poor and undemocratic countries – to the media’s forefront. This is in turn heating up the political pressure for countries to stop all trade in conflict minerals.

A new provision signed by US President Barack Obama requires US companies to submit annual reports to the government divulging whether their products contain minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo or neighboring states.

[…] in the Democratic Republic of Congo, armed groups that murder and rape civilians trade minerals such as gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum taken from mines under their control for weapons, money and other resources. Some of these minerals end up in cellphones and computers sold in the United States.

–Elisa Massimino in the LA Times

And not just the United States, obviously, but anywhere in the entire world where mobile phones, computers and other electronics are bought and sold.

The opposition ‘red-green’ coalition in Sweden has also called for a similar measure to prevent Swedish companies from trading in conflict minerals. The coalition is made up of Sweden’s Social Democratic, Left and Green parties. They have promised in a press release to adopt such a measure should they win Sweden’s forthcoming national elections in September.

Read more about this crucial and often-ignored issue in the below-linked article for the LA Times by the president and chief executive of Human Rights First, Elisa Massimino.

Blood diamonds: Why Naomi Campbell’s testimony at The Hague matters

Additional resources:

BBC News – Extracts from Naomi Campbell’s testimony

Enough Project

Children in Sange; photo by The Advocacy Project (Flickr Creative Commons)

Over 230 people have been killed and 110 injured in Sange, a village in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, when an oil tanker exploded, setting the village on fire.

The blast occurred late Friday evening after the tanker – en route from Tanzania –overturned and began leaking oil. The tanker had been trying to pass a bus on a dirt road in Sange. Villagers gathered around to collect some of the leaking fuel, which is a valuable commodity in the Congo. The fuel had already leaked and spread over a large portion of the village when the tanker ignited, spreading fire and causing death and devastation.

According to an article in the Observer, over a quarter of the victims were children.

From an Al Jazeera English report:

Some people were killed trying to steal the fuel, but most of the dead were people who were indoors watching the [World Cup] match.

–Marcellin Cisamvo, the governor of South Kivu province, DRC

The population of Sange has doubled over the past year to around 40,000 due to refugees from regional conflicts and has a large number of orphans.

Watch the below report from Al Jazeera English for more:

Graham Land

Image Source: Flickr. By: John & Mel Kots

Those suspicions were correct.

According to the commander of the army’s 15th Brigade (which is behind most of the killings), the soldiers have resorted to poaching because of the inadequacy of their food rations. On top of the poaching for food, soldiers have also developed an illegal ivory business in Nord-Kivu province, where the National Park is located. Traders purchase ivory from the troops in Goma and Butembo and then they ship the ivory to either China or Dubai.

IDPE (Innovation for the Development and Protection of the Environment) have been involved in the case. They claim that soldiers “use their wives and cousins to sell the meat” in villages near the park. Virunga National Park is the oldest in Africa and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Hunting and fishing is completely banned in the park, though what punishment lies ahead for the soldiers remains to be seen.

At the very least, the military may be removed from the park altogether, as proposed by IDPE. More updates will be posted as they happen.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Flickr. By: Stefan Gara.

It would seem some animals are not safe even in the places that are supposed to protect them.

Yesterday, Bantu Lukambo of the environmental group Innovation for Development and Environmental Protection, accused Congolese soldiers of killing animals in Virunga National Park. Lukambo believes it was done in February, while the soldiers were stationed in the area to fight rebels.

This particular park is home to a huge number of animals, including 200 of the world’s remaining 720 mountain gorillas. However, the animal killings have removed at least 7 hippos, 2 elephants, 2 chimpanzees and 4 baboons from their sacred homes.

Along with the killings, the soldiers were also accused of partaking in illegal fishing and logging activities. Fortunately, the army is at least doing something about it. According to Army Col. Philemon Yav, the army is investigating things and will punish anyone found guilty of poaching.

More updates will be posted as they occur.

By Heidi Marshall

photo by Stig Nygaard (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

2009 was a banner year for the confiscation of illegal ivory, with 14,000 articles made from the body parts of elephants seized – a rise of more than 2,000 pieces compared with 2007, according to an article in Sunday’s Observer. But this increase is not down to better law enforcement, but rather a growth in the grizzly trade spurned on by soaring ivory prices in East Asia, which have risen from ₤150 ($245/ €170) per kg in 2004 to a whopping ₤4,000 ($6,500/4,500€).

‘At the same time, scientists estimate that between 8% and 10% of Africa’s elephants are now being killed each year to meet the demand. The world’s largest land animal is again threatened with widespread slaughter.’

–The Observer

The issue is complicated: countries such as Tanzania have seen their elephant population almost triple in the past 20 years. Many poor farmers now consider elephants a nuisance and the Tanzanian government would like to see the sale of seized ivory legalized. Yet Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo have experienced more poaching in recent years and are for an extension of the ban on ivory.

According to wildlife trade monitoring network, Traffic:

‘The remarkable surge in 2009 reflects a series of large-scale ivory seizure events that suggest an increased involvement of organized crime syndicates in the trade, connecting African source countries with Asian end-use markets’

–The Independent

Exceptions on the ivory ban have sometimes been allowed. In 2008 a cache of 105,000 tons of ivory from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe was sold to Chinese and Japanese dealers over £15 million ($24.5m/ €17m). It is just this sort of activity which Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo believe increases the demand for ivory, thereby encouraging poaching.

by Graham Land

Additional resources:

The Independent – African countries set for new fight over ivory sales

Chinese medicine, ecology and endangered species