The Coltan Miners’ Slaughter: the Congo Holocaust(s) for Absolute Beginners

The Coltan Miners’ Slaughter: the Congo Holocaust(s) for Absolute Beginners
by Lorette C. Luzajic

We talk about a lot of atrocity in the past tense. Slavery and witch burnings and the holocaust are tidily behind us, and so it’s safe to introspect about our evil forebears and how we’re not like them. We think we’re doing pretty good: the only problems left in the world are the war in Iraq, the sprawling of Wal Mart, and the economic repercussions making it harder to afford Playstations.

So you may be surprised to learn that never in history has slavery been more widespread. You may have caught the film Hotel Rwanda and cried like a baby when the hotelier tells his wife that when danger comes, she should jump off of the roof with all the children. That would be a more pleasant ending than by rebel machetes. But you may not know that there is a holocaust in the Congo, a genocide bigger than the Nazi exterminations, and one that is taking place today.

I was walking with a friend with whom I seldom see eye to eye. Usually, I don’t need to agree with someone to get along with him or her, but what came out his mouth was unbelievable. I offhandedly mentioned something about violence against women, shamefully having been recently made aware of the situation in the Congo, where women (and men and boys) are being raped as terrorism. Stunned at his apathy, I said, “There’s a genocide going on there right now.”

To my amazement, my pal said, “That’s what happens when you let Africans run a country.”

There are a few dozen problems I have with that statement, including the implications of “let.” I was gobsmacked, And I was feeling superior because I now knew the holocaust was happening, though had I not picked up that small-circulating women’s politics magazine at the coffee shop, I might still be in the dark today. Said Africans seldom make the big dailies- a few tiny paragraphs after the Who Wore What pages hardly register when you’re talking about a genocide. Genocide.

“Actually,” I said, “that’s what happens when you let North American multinationals run the world. It’s all about mining.”

My friend thought this was bullshit, that it was all about rebel tribes, to which I retorted, “Looks like you better learn to read.”

It was an unpleasant exchange that soured our evening. Usually, we agree to stay off topics that incite our respective furies. I’m used to conservative philosophy, having been raised by new-earth-creationist-inerrancy fundies who know “these people” are paying the consequence of sin. In contrast, this particular pal was a liberal nutter.  I didn’t bother asking if it would be okay for someone to bang at this friend’s door, barge in, torture him, and make off with any diamonds or rubies that happened he happened to be growing in his backyard. I already knew the answer- that somehow, that would be “different,” a simplistic rendering of a scenario I just shouldn’t worry my pretty little head about.

It is simplistic, yes. But accurate nonetheless. The Congo is home to untold riches of natural resources, and home to most of the world’s coltan. Most of us have heard of emeralds but not coltan. Just as the Spanish fled to South America to kill the heathens and help themselves to the beauty booty, today the multinationals are helping themselves to the coltan. The only real difference is that instead of getting their own hands dirty, they’re using tribal politics and corrupt governments to fuel sick massacres so that people like my pal can blame it all on black people.

As Cindy Lauper sings, “it’s the same old fucking story.”

But it has nothing to do with us, right? What is coltan anyways? We’ve never even heard of it, so we’re definitely not wearing it, right?

Aye, there’s the rub. The reason we don’t know much about the situation in the Congo is because the psychopathic corporate kings don’t want us to know. There might be a dent in their profits. Because you and I are buying coltan all the time. Would you willingly buy something knowing another had been murdered for it, or had her uterus ripped out by machete? Maybe. Never seemed to stop anyone from buying cocaine. But then, maybe your cocaine didn’t kill anyone. Your coltan did, though. It absolutely did.

Columbite-tantalite is a magic metallic ore that turns into metallic tantalum after refining. This heat resistant powder can hold high electrical charges, making it vital to the creation of capacitors, which control current flow inside almost all electronic communication devices- you know, your cell phone, laptop, pager and gaming electronica.

The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, started in 1996. (Well, technically there are two wars. One was from 1996 to 1997. Then, in 1998 the war continued.) Six million people have lost their lives.

Let me say that again- six million people have lost their lives.

Starvation, disease, rape, torture and murder cause 45 000 deaths each and every month.

The war is indeed a very complex web of alliances and betrayals, of historical feuding, of poverty, of government corruptions, of tribal conflicts, of rebel militia, of mutiny, of land ownership, of diamonds, other natural resources, and wars within wars.

The war implicates a mish mash of alliances that seemingly change on a daily basis, a testament to the instability of east Africa, a legacy with many origins.  Foreign militia such as Uganda and the post-genocidal Rwanda pay themselves by trading off diamonds, timber, and coltan from east Congo. Considering Rwanda has no coltan of its own, it is surprising that the tiny country is earning hundreds of millions of dollars from the ore. All countries deny participating in the coltan black market, making a convenient conspiracy of silence. There are other valuable minerals, too- gold, silver, copper, zinc, uranium, magnesium and more.

Land where coltan might exist is simply seized and mines are set up, and families who live there are simply cast out or else raped, tortured and killed. Rebel thieves, who sell their wares to the countries who use coltan- us- have torn apart the gorgeous national parks, decimated the lush forests, and poisoned the environment. Congolese who participate willingly in mining can make 50 bucks a week, instead of the national Congo average salary of about ten bucks a month. Still, with so many sick, maimed, orphaned and homeless, starvation has meant hunting endangered species like elephants, for food. The gorilla population in some parks has been cut in half. Virunga National Park’s hippo population has gone from nearly 30 thousand to under 1000.

Sexual violence in the Congo is considered the worst in the entire world. Amnesty International reports that ALL of the armed forces involved in the Congo war have committed rape. In the tens of thousands, from children to grandmothers, women have been raped.

If this alone were not disgusting enough, the creativity with which these monsters employ their degradation tactics is beyond belief. Many girls are taken into captivity as sex slaves for one or more soldiers. This can last a few days or a few years. Little girls are taken and FORCED INTO COMBAT, as well as acting as “wives” for combatants. Many children and women are gang raped by 20 men, and many have had been rape victims on numerous, different occasions. Women are raped publicly in front of their helpless captive family, and often forced to perform live sex shows to entertain the rebels. These sex shows may include being forced to perform sex acts with their own fathers or sons.  Women are frequently raped with machetes- yes, chopped up- and with sticks, broken bottles, hot peppers, rusty nails, rifles, and knives. Sometimes they are shot in the vagina.

The motivations for such depravity are humiliation, intimidation, and the cessation of fertility (genocide.) Rape is punishment for noncompliance, and it is simply entertainment that clearly expresses that women are playthings and nothing more. There is no punishment for rape because literally every one is doing it.

Sexually transmitted diseases are rampant, including HIV and AIDS. But there are barely any hospitals in the Congo, not many doctors, and no money for patients to pay them with. Which means no one can afford to go. Many bleed to death, die of reproductive complications, STDs, and infection. Then there’s exile, humiliation, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, flashbacks, pregnancies by the enemy, and nightmares.

Then there’s a little matter of child labour. Children form a significant part of the workforce in Congo mines. Children also work for the various armies, including in combat.

The consequences for anyone who opens their mouth about the situation in the Congo are also a little inconvenient.

Mattias Söderberg, a campaign officer for DanChurchAid work in DRC Congo writes online, “It can be dangerous to ask questions.” He notes that the organization’ former partner, Heritiers de la Justice experienced assassinations. Silence is golden.

It can’t get much worse, but it does. As terrifying as life is for the Congolese, it’s even worse, as usual, for the Congolese natives. Homer mentioned a tribe of dwarves living south of Ethiopia, called Pygmies in Greek mythology. But the pygmies are not mythical dwarves- they are the original forest dwellers of the Congo and beyond. There are pygmy tribes all over the world. It’s considered somewhat but not terribly pejorative to say “pygmy” not because it emphasizes their short stature, but because they are not one kind of people. Just in the Congo, there are numerous tribes, such as the Mbenga, the Mbuti, and the Twa.

There are many theories why pygmy people are shorter on average than other groups of people, ranging from vitamin d deficiency to evolutionary adaptation to adolescent reproduction in history. But the most popular theory of all is that pygmies are not humans, an opinion sadly shared by other Congolese and by rebel groups, not to mention many Christian missionaries.

The Congolese pygmies are old-world hunter-gatherers who love the equatorial forests. They are a peaceful lot, preferring their own way of life without imposing it on others. Their carbon footprint is pretty much nil, and they survive on game and forest plants, sometimes trading with other groups nearby who farm. Some of the Congolese pygmy tribes, but not all, appear to have the oldest bloodlines we know of. This ancient indigenous beauty should be a source of pride for all of us, not some sick assumption that they are subhuman.

The forest dwellers are highly intelligent people who know the secrets of the rainforest intimately, familiar with its dangers, paths, plants and so on. They are skilled hunters and trackers. Though they have never taken up arms in any of the Congo conflicts, their superb knowledge of their surroundings is very useful to other Congolese, rebel militia, and more. So the pygmy people are kidnapped and used as guides. Furthermore, the rainforests are being decimated to unearth more coltan mines, leaving tribes homeless or dead. Historically, they have been kept as pets. Still, these are nicer fates than the frequent alternatives: sex slave, human mule, or food.

Yes, in addition to being raped, tortured, decapitated, or enslaved, the pygmies are being hunted for sport and for food. The cannibalization of these groups by rebel forces is justified because they are meat, not human beings. There is a literal meat market selling pygmy pork. And yes, this is happening today, not millennia ago. Today.

While pygmy hunters justify their actions by pointing out that monkey is familiar game in the Congo, they also hold bizarre beliefs that the sex parts of pygmies will imbue them with magical superpowers.

The London-based Minority Rights Group has been gathering evidence of rape, mass murder and cannibalism, appealing to the International Court of Justice to charge those responsible with war crimes or crimes against humanity. Individuals may do the hunting, but there are also groups like The Erasers who hunt, feast, then erase the forest and set up coltan mines.

That’s an awful lot of bang for your buck, now, isn’t it? Cutting down one of the world’s largest rainforest isn’t great for our oxygen supply or global warming. Genocide and destruction of the land is a foolish thing to close our eyes on when the Congo has the agricultural capacity to feed everyone in the world for the next quarter century. So why are the inhabitants starving to death? Why are they eating each other?

It always comes down to money. I feel sick every time I answer my cell phone. I didn’t know when I bought it. Can we live in a world without cell phones? Computers? Video games?

I need mine. I’m not willing to go without it, but now that I know I’ve been an unwitting accomplice to crimes against humanity, to rainforest destruction and hippo extinction, to cannibalism and gang rape, I want to take responsibility. I want multinational corporations to take responsibility, too, and start telling the truth about war. The kind of racism that still passes for truth here has kept us “minding our own business” with no knowledge of our complicity in atrocity.

The friend I mentioned earlier who made a very racist comment about black people not being able to run a country was merely reiterating the kind of theology we are puppeteered with. And while there is no doubt that African groups, like European groups, Asian groups, Middle Eastern groups and all groups, are historically shattered by conflict, that’s not the whole story. I doubt my friend is aware that much of Rwanda’s and next-door Congo’s tribal distress are inheritances of Belgium’s colonial plundering. The Congo region and all that was in it was “given” to the King of Belgium as a gift, creating a perpetual turmoil ever since.

Indeed, the situation we’ve got is a little bit of a déjà vu. For some reason, we decry the inhumanity of Hitler, yet have never heard of the Congo’s previous holocaust. The tyrant King Leopold the second murdered around TEN MILLION people (1885 – 1908). Leo took and ran the Congo as a business venture, wanting the profits from its rubber and ivory resources. He studied the colonial trades of the Spanish in Latin America as inspiring models.

“The real reasons for the ongoing war in the Congo is described in great detail in several United Nations Security Council Expert Reports, make clear that war and massive civilian deaths in the Eastern Congo since 1996 have little, if anything to do with “tribalism,” “ethnicity,” or even the “Rwanda genocide.”  But, rather, have everything to do with the rape of the Congo’s resources by the militaries of Rwanda and Uganda and their local surrogates,” writes by Prof. Peter Erlinder at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10815. “According to three separate UN Security Council Reports, issued between 2001 and 2003, war on the Congo began when Uganda and Rwanda made common-cause with local Congolese leader Laurent Kabila, and other Congolese elites, to control the vast resources of the Eastern Congo in 1996. The UN Reports show that that since, the 1996 invasion and a second invasion in 1998, Rwanda and Uganda have become the major trading centres for diamonds, precious metals and other natural resources that are not found in either country…but which exist in great quantities in the Congo.”

Massive corporations justify their participation in the massacre with the old standard: “they should be happy they have jobs.” Indeed, the mess is so huge and poverty and disease so widespread, that the argument often resonates as reasonable. Yet the root of most of the unrest, violence, poverty, displacement, orphaning, rape, and joblessness is mining. The people have become dependent on it- especially the people who don’t even live in the Congo yet wish to profit from it.

So what can I do if I’m not willing to throw away my cell phone? Throwing it away after the fact will mean that millions died in complete vain, rather than dying so you can check every thirty three seconds if that hottie texted you yet.

The coltan boycott may be too late- it’s already all here in our stuff. It’s no coincidence that we didn’t hear about this mineral for the past decade as cell phones and laptops became part of every day life, from veritable inexistence into staples of our existence, making a few honchos rich at the cost of millions of lives.

But you can indeed refuse to buy more of this shit. Do you really want a fancier phone now, knowing a baby got raped with a broken bottle to get it to you? Buy secondhand. Buy from companies who refuse to use Congo coltan. Though coltan is rare in other parts of the world, and will cost you more, it won’t cost you your life so do the right thing.

Manufacturers respond quickly to your money. Withhold it, making clear why you’re giving it somewhere else. If we all promise our dollars to Congo-clean companies, more companies will follow suit. Activist Maurice Carney told Alternatives.ca that we should all call our electronics manufacturers and ask whether they buy Congo coltan or mining, otherwise do business in Congo. He said it’s not just about refusing to use coltan- huge companies can pressure the Congo government to reform it’s closed eye policies, and come up with a system that benefits the country instead of benefiting Rwandan rapists and the American elite.

Recycling cell phones and electronics seems inconsequential, but the extra effort may mean an acre of rainforest or a life saved. If you invest in stocks, take care that your mining investments or other investments are not bloody by researching the sources of your stocks, as well as other investments your company may make and business it may do. Refuse to earn money on death.

You can also campaign in support of the Congo Conflict Minerals Act 2009, urging your politicians to stand up for it. The Act would be a great step forward in demanding disclosure from companies that use blood minerals, including stocks. In addition, it calls for ways to reinvent the Congo resource system as humane and beneficial to the victims in the aftermath of this genocide.

You can support Friends of the Congo financially or by spreading the word. Head to http://friendsofthecongo.org/friends/index.php to find about the projects they do for the sick, impoverished, orphaned, and raped. They have excellent resources online to help you understand the histories, and why it matters.

You can also visit http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/ to find ways to help support and empower Congo’s rape victims and other women.

Or check out Breaking the Silence’s cool Congo week. They’ve got some great projects we can help out on. http://congoweek.org/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&Itemid=101 Friends of the Congo team up with the Association of Widows to help out poor ladies who’ve witnessed their husband’s decapitations or impalings. They help rape victims and families. Another really important project we can help with is with RENEC. “RENEC is made up of institutions from diverse sectors of the Congolese society: youth/students, religious, women’s groups, grassroots civil society groups, environmental groups and labor coalitions. RENEC provides education and training to the

forest pygmies

Congolese population regarding their civic responsibilities in a newly democratic society. Also, RENEC builds the capacity of grassroots organizations seeking to provide social, human rights and civic support to the people of the Congo.”

A great resource for getting started is  http://www.congoglobalaction.org.

I’m going to be picking up a copy of King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild, which is apparently an amazing, readable account of the Congo’s problems at the turn of last century. The book has garnered criticism from Belgium for not being objective enough, and from reviewers who feel Leo was simply an opportunist who was passive when everybody else suddenly started killing each other over the wares he insisted were his own. I’ll continue reading after that, to get a better understanding of the complex web of conflict.

Congo has one of the darkest histories of any part on earth, and yet up until a few months ago I knew nothing about it at all except for a vague recollection of Michael Crichton plague novels when I worked for Chapters. I’m quite interested in Africa and even took a couple of courses in university on it, but my impressions about the specifics were vague. How can this be when this war is much huger than the one in Iraq, much more current than the Second World War?

Indeed, the war in the Congo (which has “officially” ended, by the way, which is a farce) is also called the African World War. But it’s not just Africa. It IS a world war. You and I are players in it. Our countries are massive contributors. All developed nations and their citizens who own technology are part of this world war, and we deserve to know more. Any war that involves heavyweight players like the United States, Japan, China, all of Europe, and most African countries is a world war no matter how you spin it.

It is imperative now that we know, to choose not to participate in the war. And perhaps, to choose to help the world work toward the healing of this precious part of our world.

The Congo is a land we must cherish and share. We have no choice. Maybe you’re a real creep and don’t actually care about the Pygmies or about someone raping grandmothers and babies.

But The Congo isn’t just about weird jungle diseases and tribal massacres over superstition and so on that don’t really affect you. That forest is the world’s crowning jewel of our oxygen, curing us of over a billion tons of carbon emissions per year. We can’t live without it.