Buy an iPad, Fund Rape and Violence in the Congo?

Do you have an iPod, iPhone, or Mac? Are you considering getting one of those awesomely named iPads? Well, you might be funding the ongoing brutal conflict in the Congo, in which many women bear the brunt of rape and violence.

Amanda Hess reports for Washington City Paper that the Enough Project, a campaign of the Center for American Progress that works to end genocide and crimes against humanity, is protesting outside a new D.C. Apple store. The Congo is a major source of the shiny minerals we need to create the electronics that make our world go 'round, but, unfortunately, armed groups consider exporting these natural resources as a great source of funding for their killing and raping. According to the Enough Project press release, Apple has been particularly loathe to step up — unlike Intel, HP, and other software manufacturers — and take real action to make certain that the components of their little toys are conflict-free.

In the course of the prolonged conflict, five million people, men and women, have died, and hundreds of thousands of women have fallen prey to the use of rape (and gang-rape) as a tool of war. The Enough Project states that an estimate $183 million goes into the pockets of organized armed groups through the sale of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold, all of which are used in the production of electronics. That's $183 million a year to pay for truckloads of weapons and ammo. And this means that whenever you buy an apple product, you could be chipping in for a brand-new machine gun.

You can support the efforts to get a conflict-free iPod, iPad, and all those other wonderful devices by signing the petition here to ask Apple and Steve Jobs to implement better sourcing for their materials and guarantee consumers conflict-free technology.

Photo credit: Yutaka Tsutano