NEWSWAR & PEACE

Contrary to the view expressed in a recent OpEd in the New York Times by David Aaronson, the conflict mineral provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act has not caused or exacerbated the dire economic and social situation in eastern Congo. It is over fifteen years of conflict, decades of governmental mismanagement and neglect, a legacy of corruption and exploitation, and lack of impunity, all in the face of a multimillion dollar minerals trade financing armed groups and perpetuating violence that has terrorized the population for decades.

Rather, Dodd-Frank offers real opportunity for reform in eastern Congo by confronting the key economic driver of conflict – the trade in conflict minerals. This momentum must be seized, and your voice can help ensure these critical steps are taken.

The well-documented connection between the minerals trade and violence - from the money made by commanders to the proximity of attacks to mining communities - is absolutely impossible to ignore, and one can literally see it without even looking. Just spend a day in Goma, look at the “coltan” houses – mansions sprouting up in the middle of some of the poorest shanty towns in the city, and ask who lives there and why. The answer? People like Bosco Ntaganda, a general in the Congolese Army who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. He and others like him reap daily the economic benefits of some of the largest mines in the region.

This has been occurring long before Dodd-Frank, but the bill’s passage has provided a necessary jolt to this status quo. In fact, there is much local support for the legislation because it has already set in motion what is needed for change in not only the mining sector itself but also for a broader set of reforms, as reported by the United Nations. Dodd-Frank has proven to be a first step to squeeze out armed groups, to cut their millions in funding, and, with further support, will help create the space for a legitimate mining sector to emerge that actually leads to development and a better life for people in eastern Congo. This momentum must be seized, and there are clear, tangible steps forward for which the United States can and should be a leader.

To start, these systems need to be strengthened and expanded, and brought together under the umbrella of a credible, international certification system that ensures minerals on the market from eastern Congo or surrounding areas are not financing armed groups. Traceability, transparency, independent monitoring – it’s all beginning to happen, but requires full buy-in and follow through to achieve the highest impact.

The United States must not back down now. We have an obligation to follow through on what was started with Dodd-Frank because it has the ability to improve the lives of millions of people today and for future generations. In a conflict as complicated as Congo, it is rare to have such momentum and opportunity for real change. What we can do now as citizens is demonstrate to our leaders that there is a real political demand here in the United States for their action on Congo.

Join us in calling on Secretary Clinton to be a leader for certification of the region’s minerals, and encourage her to take the next step needed for peace in Congo. This is a real opportunity for peace in Congo. Take action for that.

Photo Credit: Julien Harneis

Libya. Egypt. Syria. Big names getting big headlines right now - and for good reason. Africa and the Middle East are in the midst of an uprising--a swell of populist support for human rights and democracy. These are equally promising and dangerous times for the entire region, and they all deserve our support as they work so hard to achieve the goals of the people.

Today I ask you to speak out for a place that has fallen out of the headlines in recent years. A place that has been struggling for the last decade to reach some sort of peace from the ongoing campaign of violence against their people.

This Mother’s Day, Academy Award winning actor and self-proclaimed “mama’s boy” Javier Bardem used his star-power by sitting down the Enough Project's co-founder, John Prendergast, to draw attention to the threats women face in the Democratic Republic of Congo, ranked as one of the 10 worst places in the world to be a mother.

Awareness about the link between eastern Congo’s decade-long war, consumer electronics, and the trade in conflict minerals is growing. Perhaps most significantly, the conflict minerals provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act passed last year in no small part thanks to the efforts of activists, who pushed a notable shift in how people in Africa’s Great Lakes region perceived public concern over Congo’s minerals.

“[At first] we didn’t take this legislation seriously, and we thought there would be a compromise,” a mining executive said recently (i.e. ‘we thought we’d be off the hook’).

International campaign successfully encourages German National Railways (Deutsche Bahn) to withdraw from supportive role in the construction of an Israeli train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that crosses Palestinian villages in the Occupied Territories.

German National Railways (Deutsche Bahn) has announced that it will no longer participate in the construction of a high-speed Israeli train line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as the route passes through occupied Palestinian territory yet is intended for the exclusive use of Israeli citizens.

The news comes after an international campaign let by German, Palestinian, and Israeli activists calling on the Deutsche Bahn Group to withdraw from the project, which activists claim violates international law.

The line is set to cut travel time between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to 28 minutes and is scheduled for completion in 2017. Deutsche Bahn was consulting with Israel Railways on the electrification of the route. According to a report in Der Spiegel, Germany’s Federal Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer told Deutsche Bahn CEO that the project was politically “problematic” and violated the “terms of international law.”

As a young soldier, I remember wearing the patch of the 2nd Infantry Division on my shoulder with a sense of pride and honor; even today it takes considerable space on a plaque in my home that displays the military awards and insignia that I have earned and worn over the years.

I can still roll off the Division motto —the gallant unit the patch represents— with the same sense of vigor in which I had repeated countless times back then. "Second to none!"

These days, I also see the same patch in the pictures of U.S. soldiers proudly displaying the bloodied bodies of the innocent and unarmed Afghani civilians that they maliciously slaughtered. Part of the self-dubbed "Kill Team," this platoon of young infantry men devised countless strategies to murder civilians then set it up as a legitimate attack.

They were proud of having killed so many out in the open and with impunity.

In Rwanda, people were incited through radio broadcasts to go on a killing rampage - “kill all the cockroaches” they were told, referring to fellow Rwandans. In a mere 100 days nearly a million Rwandans had been hacked to death by machetes, their corpses littering the roadside. The world was stunned.

Gaddafi has gone on State TV repeatedly and called protesters rats, dogs and traitors. In various speeches he’s said they are drunk and on pills, working with Al Qaeda, foreign agitators and American invaders coming to steal Libyan oil. He encourages followers to search every alley, invade every home and murder those who oppose him. He pledges himself to show them no mercy.

Saif Gaddafi uses state TV to threaten citizens to give up their demands that Gaddafi step down. He warned in a rambling and ominous speech that the streets would run with blood. “We are not Egypt, we are not Tunisia”. Within days the regime made good on their threats and images of unspeakable atrocities showed up without mercy on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Libya Al Hurra TV (the first ever live stream TV broadcast from Free Libya).

On Monday, we kicked off a petition asking Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson to donate the fee he’d received from performing for a private performance that the Venice Film Festival in 2005. A few days and a couple hundred signatures later, 50 wised up and announced he’d be making a donation to UNICEF.

When I contacted 50 Cent’s representatives to confirm this donation would be equal to the fee he’d been paid, they denied further comment beyond the statement they issued to the press: “In light of the ongoing events in Libya, 50 Cent will be making a donation to UNICEF which is providing vital relief supplies to meet the needs of women and children at risk during this crisis.”

The motivation for this campaign came as the situation in Libya evolved from protests into a bloody conflict, and people who had happily done business with the Gaddafi regime came to the harsh realisation: they were sitting on a pile of ill gotten gains.

As March began, celebrities and other began to donate the fees they had collected from the Gaddafi regime. On March 1, Nelly Furtado led the pack by announcing that she would be making a million dollar fee to charity. They next day, Beyoncé announced that she had donated her fee to Haiti recovery efforts a year ago, as soon as she found out where the money had come from. Mariah Carey made her donation and apology the same day the head of the London School of Economics (LSE) announced he would resign over his links to the Gaddafi family. Usher then closed out the week, announcing he would donate what the Gaddafi clad had paid him as well.

Last week, I reported that it looked like BP hadn’t stopped all of its operations in Libya. And since then, another 500 signatures have piled on Change.org member Alyssa Kwan’s petition asking them to completely pull out.

When it was first announced on the 21st that they we’re shutting down operations in Libya, it came with the caveat; “offshore operations in the region were still open and the closure would not impact oil production.”

Then on March 2, concern that BP was still doing business in Libya was reinforced when Platts reported, “A vessel chartered by British major BP was being held at a jetty in Libya half-loaded, a source close to the deal told Platts, as payment concerns held up part of the cargo being supplied by Libya's National Oil Corporation.” I wrote my story right after this but was left with lingering doubts about the reality of the current situation.