10 August 2009
press release
Secretary Clinton's visit to Goma provides the opportunity for the United States to deepen its overdue engagement in search of a solution for the world's deadliest war.
The Congo has become the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or a girl, as rape has become a routine tool of war and social control. U.S. involvement should be as multifaceted as the complex causes. A central focus should be on the fuel that drives the violence: the contest over the conflict minerals extracted from the eastern war zone and helping to power our electronics industry. Tantalum helps cool cell phones and laptops. Tungsten enables the vibration function in a cell phone. Tin is a solder for most circuit boards in nearly every electronic product. And gold is used to encase wiring. Until the trade in minerals becomes legal and transparent, there will be no peace in Congo.
Another driving factor in the continuing violence in the East is the Rwandan militia known as the FDLR, the remnants of the militias that committed the Rwandan genocide. The UN is now supporting a government offensive against the FDLR that has no prospect for sustainable success and is unleashing an even more massive human rights and humanitarian disaster. Secretary Clinton should urge the UN and Congolese government to suspend the military operation and plan a more comprehensive counter-insurgency strategy that includes something more than the current whack-a-mole approach to dealing with opponents.
With this problem as with the issue of conflict minerals, the Rwandan government is a major part of the problem, and the U.S. should be pressuring Kigali much harder to stop being an engine of instability in eastern Congo.
Copyright © 2009 ENOUGH Project. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment