Is Your Electronic Gear Funding War in Congo?

In the past two weeks, media coverage of a UN report about the funding of rebel groups in the eastern Congo has highlighted the connection between the trade in minerals used to make laptops, cellphones and digital cameras, and the ongoing violence that has killed more than 5 million people.

Articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and elsewhere. A report on CBS's 60 Minutes last Sunday reported that the armed militias terrorizing civilians in eastern Congo are fighting for control of the area's wealth of minerals, such as gold, tin, tantalum (also known as "coltan"), and tungsten which can be used in a variety of electronic devices.

In this month's PDNews article "Would You Switch Digital Cameras If It Could Save Lives?", John  Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, an anti-genocide initiative, describes his organization's campaign to get electronics makers to eliminate so-called "conflict minerals" from their supply chain and offer consumers a way to buy certified "conflict-free" electronics.

Prendergast believes that, just as furor over "blood diamonds" cut off the biggest incentive for fighting in Sierra Leone, Angola and Liberia, consumer demand for "conflict-free" electronics could do more to stop rape, murder and the displacement of civilians in the eastern Congo than peacekeepers have managed to do.

PDN asks Prendergast what hurdles face electronics makers trying to trace the source of their minerals, why Enough Project supports passage of the Congo Conflicts Mineral Act in the US Senate, whether legitimizing the country's mining is enough to solve the country's many problems, and why his organization is targeting electronics companies, rather than other users of tin and tungsten.

When we asked Prendergast which electronics manufacturers have so far been willing to meet with Enough Project and which ones were, in his words, "stiff-arming us," he was cagey.  At this point, he says, the emphasis is on consumer action. "If enough people say, 'Make a conflict-free product and we'll buy it," that's a pretty powerful statement to these companies,'" he says, "I think it's a pretty great opportunity for these companies to get ahead of the issue."

You can read the full interview on PDNOnline  or in our December issue.

If you want to read more about the conflict mineral campaign, you can check out Enough Project's Web site, which is currently hosting multimedia work about the Congo created by photographers with the VII agency.

Comments

[duckrabbitblog]

If Pendergast or Bleasdale filmed a video of themselves smashing up their MACS, mobile phones and a few cameras that would be something worth watching.

Infact I would bet it would be seen by more people and have more impact than the same black and white images of Conglolese misery that are supposed to spur us into action.

[Ken]

It's good to see that this war and one of the main causes of the ongoing war in Congo is brought to light. Google coltan wars to get more info. The blood and death behind the electronics business needs to be exposed. We can all play a roll to end this blood shed. Bravo

[Pale Africa Fox]

Another one of those typical PC issues driven in the US. Total emotional bigotry. Come to Africa and see the real thing, rather than watching from the sofa! Africa lives by Africa rules. Business will always be business. Who is the biggest sponsor of the Ugandan civil war, dragging on for years? Wake up and smell the coffee, grown in Central Africa and available at your local Starbucks!

[anderson]

Instead of hating electronics and smashing all them up, why don't we simply ask for conflict-free electronics?