This post originally appeared on August 20 on stephanbauman.com. Stephan Bauman, the author, is the CEO and President of World Relief.
Tin, tungsten, and tantalum are at the heart of the loodshed that plagues Eastern Congo. Novelist Joseph Conrad referred to the exploitation of Congo’s minerals as “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.”
When Western nations banned the use of lead-based solder in electronic equipment in 2002, tin became the mineral of choice for soldering and, Eastern Congo, an inexpensive source (1). Tantalum, used in iPods and cell phones, also comes from Congo. So does tungsten, which helps make Blackberries vibrate.
But tin, tungsten, and tantalum have been one of the leading causes of armed violence ravaging the Congo, thus the name “conflict minerals”. The proceeds of mines, along with illegal taxes collected on roads and border crossings controlled by rebel groups, militias and government soldiers, bankrolled virtually every armed group in the region (2).
To abate the flow of money from minerals mined in eastern Congo, the US government included a clause in the financial reform legislation of July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The aim of the Dodd Frank conflict minerals law was to prevent US companies from fuelling violence through their sourcing practices. Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat for whom the act is partly named, said, “The purpose is to cut off funding to people who kill people.”
But a recent New York Times editorial says the bill is having the opposite affect. The law, which has brought about a defacto embargo of tin, tungsten, and tantalum, has hurt those earning a few dollars a day from mining:
“The pastor at one church [said] that women were giving birth at home because they couldn’t afford the $20 or so for the maternity clinic. Children are dropping out of school because parents can’t pay the fees. Remote mining towns are virtually cut off from the outside world because the planes that once provisioned them no longer land. Most worrying, a crop disease periodically decimates the region’s staple, cassava. Villagers who relied on their mining income to buy food when harvests failed are beginning to go hungry” (3).
Meanwhile, it appears some warlords have turned to kidnapping and extortion to replace their lost income from tin, tungsten, and tantalum.
Complex? Absolutely. The implications of certain policies are unsettling and certainly require further review. Meanwhile, our work at the grassroots level has never been more important. Communities are being restored. Families have returned to their homes with tools, seeds, and agricultural training. Victims have been helped. And, everyday thousands of clients, most of them women, receive low interest loans through World Relief’s community banks to start or grow small businesses.
Join me as we continue to stand with the people of the Congo.
Click here to learn about World Relief’s work in Eastern Congo
Notes:
1. Tin recently reached $25,000 a ton on the international market.
2. The major groups are the FDLR [Forces démocratiques de liberation du Rwanda], the Congolese national army, FARDC, and members of the former CNDP [Congrès national pour la défense du peuple] rebel group.
3. New York Times editorial, August 7, 2011, David Aronson.
