Mass slaughter and rape in the Congo. Conflict Minerals. They are in almost all of our smart phones, laptops, and digital cameras. A conflict mineral is any mineral mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses. Nicholas D. Kristof, of the New York Times, reported that in Congo, there are "women who have been mutilated, children who have been forced to eat their parents' flesh, & girls who have been subjected to rapes that destroyed their insides". Eastern Congo has been a site on conflict for over sixty years. They are notorious for being known as the rape capital of the world. This ongoing battle has claimed over 5 million deaths, according to Kristof's article. The connection between the electronics companies and the slaughter and rape.... Our electronics companies are by no means directly responsible for the slaughter, however, one of the factors of the conflict hinges on the sale of conflict minerals in the area. The warlords finance their mass murder operations partly through the sale of mineral ore containing tantalum, tungsten, tin, and gold, most of which is used for making the pieces of our electrical devices. While stopping the sale of conflict minerals will not completely end the war in the Congo, as it is estimated only one-fifth of the world's tantalum comes from the region, it will help to decrease the funding of the warlords and hopefully decrease the mass murders. A grassroots movement, the ENOUGH project, works to get the electronics manufacturers to buy and use supplies which are made of minerals from other countries which do not have ties to mass casualties. The campaign recently released a video mimicking the famous "I'm A Mac/ I'm A PC" ad which ties both types of electronics to the conflict minerals. According to Kristof's article, the manufactures have stated that they do not use conflict minerals as their suppliers do not source from Eastern Congo, with little to no verification. Activists want more poof or they will continue to push for people to buy "conflict free". To learn about what you can do to help those in the Congo Region check out the campaign,Raise Hope For Congo. To read Nicholas Kristof's entire article click here.

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