How We Fuelled the Deadliest War in the World -- and It's Starting Again

The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again -- and you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket. When we glance at the holocaust in the Congo, with 5.4 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a "tribal conflict" in "the Heart of Darkness." It isn't. The United Nations investigation found it was a war led by "armies of business" to seize the metals that make our twenty-first century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you.

Every day I think about the people I met in the warzones of Eastern Congo when I reported from there. The wards filled with women who had been gang-raped by the militias and shot in the vagina. The battalions of child soldiers -- drugged, dazed thirteen year olds who had been made to kill members of their own families so they couldn't try to escape and go home. But oddly, as I watch the war starting again on CNN, I find myself thinking about a woman I met who had, by Congolese standards, not suffered in extremis.

I was driving back to Goma from a diamond mine one day when my car got a puncture. As I waited for it to be fixed, I stood by the roadside and watched the great trails of women who stagger along every road in Eastern Congo, carrying all their belongings on their backs in mighty crippling heaps. I stopped a 27 year-old woman called Marie-Jean Bisimwa who had four little children toddling along beside her. She told me she was lucky. Yes, her village had been burned out. Yes, she had lost her husband somewhere in the chaos. Yes, her sister had been raped and gone insane. But she and her kids were alive.

I gave her a lift, and it was only after a few hours of chat along on cratered roads that I noticed there was something strange about Marie-Jean's children. They were slumped forward, their gazes fixed in front of them. They didn't look around, or speak, or smile. "I haven't ever been able to feed them," she said. "Because of the war." Their brains hadn't developed; they never would now. "Will they get better?" she asked. I left her in a village on the outskirts of Goma, and her kids stumbled after her, expressionless.

There are two stories about how this war began -- the official story, and the true story. The official story is that after the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu mass murderers fled across the border into Congo. The Rwandan government chased after them. But it's a lie. How do we know? The Rwandan government didn't go to where the Hutu genocidaires were; not at first. They went to where Congo's natural resources were -- and began to pillage them. They even told their troops to work with any Hutus they came across. Congo is the richest country in the world for gold, diamonds, coltan, cassiterite, and more. Everybody wanted a slice - so six other countries invaded.

These resources were not being stolen to be used in Africa. They were being seized so they could be sold on to us. The more we bought, the more the invaders stole -- and slaughtered. The rise of mobile phones caused a surge in deaths, because the coltan they contain is found primarily in Congo. The UN named the international corporations it believed were involved: Anglo-America, Standard Chartered Bank, De Beers and more than 100 others (they all deny the charges). But instead of stopping these corporations, our governments demanded the UN stop criticising them.

There were times when the fighting flagged. In 2003, a peace deal was finally brokered by the UN, and the international armies withdrew. Many continued to work via proxy militias -- but the carnage waned somewhat. Until now. As with the first war, there is a cover-story, and the truth. A Congolese militia leader called Laurent Nkunda -- backed by Rwanda -- claims he needs to protect the local Tutsi population from the same Hutu genocidaires who have been hiding out in the jungles of Eastern Congo since 1994. That's why he is seizing Congolese military bases and is poised to march on Goma.

It is a lie. Francois Grignon, Africa Director of the International Crisis Group, tells me the truth: "Nkunda is being funded by Rwandan businessmen so they can retain control of the mines in North Kivu. This is the absolute core of the conflict. What we are seeing now is the beneficiaries of the illegal war economy fighting to maintain their right to exploit." At the moment, Rwandan business interests make a fortune from the mines they illegally seized during the war. The global coltan price has collapsed, so now they focus hungrily on cassiterite, which is used to make tin cans and other consumer disposables. As the war began to wane, they faced slowly losing their control to the elected Congolese government -- so they have given it another bloody kick-start.

Yet the debate about Congo in the West -- when it exists at all -- focuses on our inability to provide a decent bandage, without mentioning that we are causing the wound. It's true the 17,000 UN forces in the country are abysmally failing to protect the civilian population, and urgently need to be super-charged. But it is even more important to stop fuelling the war in the first place by buying blood-soaked natural resources. Nkunda only has enough guns and grenades to take on the Congolese army and the UN because we buy his loot. We need to prosecute the corporations buying them for abetting Crimes Against Humanity, and introduce of a global coltan-tax to pay for a substantial peace-keeping force. To get there, we need to build an international system that values the lives of black people more than it values profit.

Somewhere out there -- lost in the great global heist of Congo's resources - are Marie-Jean and her children, limping along the road once more, carrying everything they own on their backs. They will probably never use a coltan-filled mobile phone, a cassiterite-smelted can of beans, or a gold necklace -- but they may yet die for one.

Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. To read more of his articles, click here.

To save the lives of the victims of Congo's sexual violence, you can donate money here.

To read more of Johann's reporting on Congo, click here.

Comments

[Norge]

Excellent article and thank you for that report.

Rolf with: http://www.amnesty.org and http://www.amnesty.no

[dctackett]

this kind of thing happens... does it suck? yes, but unless these resources are internationally controlled, sold on the market and the proceeds actually used to benefit the nations of origin and their people, it will continue.

Otherwise, poor, ignorant fools (unfortunately that's the state they're in) with weapons will just go over there and get those resources, anything in the way, be damned... if violence is to stop, that has to no longer be an option... and ultimately the children over there need help, they need to be invested in, so that they can grow up smarter, wiser and more peaceful than their predecessors...

if violence is calmed down it would be nice to have a corp of well educated individuals directly work with those people to build their infrastructure

[L double E]

i read over most of the other comments. Most of you people are missing the biggest point. This is about needless American consumerism. Coltan is in video game consoles, cell phones, and other small electronic devices. Think about that when you are trading in your old cell phone for the newest model (for the umpteenth time). How come when there are over five million people being wiped out, you never hear Israel speaking up?

[CrackerJacker]

WORLD, consumerism.

[arvay]

I suspect it would take very drastic action, something like governments nationalizing the companies that buy these resources, prosecuting the executives responsible and sentencing them to life at hard labor. For reasons that have become obvious, military interventions don't work.

I'd favor the steps above: the world at large as well as the African people are going to pay a price for ignoring the horrible events played out in Congo and other parts of Africa. But I'd also like to see George Bush locked up for life for war crimes, and I'm afraid that's just as likely as meaningful intervention in Africa.

I wish I could say or think something optimistic, but in all honesty I can't .

[wymck]

It's true that America has soldiers stationed in 130 countries, and, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, these other missions don't have the stench of negative public relations and negative political campaigns run by degenerate opportunists.

Historically valid reasons for warring with the Congolese would include response to hostile acts or military threats, colonization, pursuit of treasure or natural resources, subjugation, importation of slaves, or implementation of religious command.

The Congo has 2-1/2 times the population of Iraq; they are desperately poor; one questions whether large sectors of the population would prefer the safety and nourishment of detention in American-led prison camps to anything they could achieve in whatever kind of private sector that presently exists.

American doesn't have a practical interest in warring with Congo at this time, in my opinion. It would be a voluntary war; a police action at best; more expensive and bloody than the American public would tolerate at present.

The best argument for America to send troops to Congo would be to offset organizations like the United Nations that are too timid to fight and too bent on raping and stealing to perform their duties.

[arvay]

Politically, sending Americans to fight in Congo won't work, and although I'm no military expert, I wonder, given our botched record in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether we'd succeed.

France intervenes when it thinks its interests are threatened, the French army recently shot down protesters in Ivory Coast. But they are even more hypocritical that we are, their mask of "involvement" in Africa is a cover for neocolonialism.

UN peacekeepers are not intended as an interventionist force, they are intended to take over after someone else has created order. Many governments send their troops for the money, and don't care what their troops do on the ground.

Watching this horrible spectacle can make one misanthropic, or at least wonder if humanity will survive in the long run. No one can make any specific predictions, but horrors on this scale will have repercussions that will spread elsewhere. Just as the horrors we are seeing have been heightened by the horrors of colonial rule, particularly in Congo.

The waste of human potential across the globe is appalling, not to mention the cruelty and indifference humans exhibit daily.

If the people in the region are lucky, someone will kill a few gorillas in the protected areas, and that may spark some action.

Aren't we humans great? You have to think about Mozart and our creative, peaceful minority to get some balance in your mind.

[Dystopic]

the solution is an airborne agent that makes everyone it comes in contact with sterile.

[wymck]

Johann Hari posits an interesting and informative article about the Congo, which he promptly destroys with flamboyant attacks on the proletariat.

The Congo has more people than England, less wealth than Miami, and the USA exports more in 24 hours than the Congo does all year long. Its people are not collectively as poor as Afghanis, but it is damn close.

Hari's article doesn't mention China. The Chinese are in Congo in a big way, and they are the slave drivers of the 21st Century, forcing the locals into unsafe closed coal mines and diamond mines to scrape dust into bags for a dollar a day. Not one word about these bastards.

But Hari has mentioned the Chinese before.

May 3, 2007 -- We Shop Until Chinese Workers Drop

Our (Westerners') fault that China sweatshops are so cruel to workers.


July 5, 2007 - The Future Of Earth Depends On China

China can set a good example for the world, and cure global warming woes.


May 15, 2008 - Are there just too many people in the world?

China's one-baby policy is Draconian but wise (?) because - what the heck will happen otherwise?


But Hari says people are wrong to buy cellphones? No, they aren't.

Hari's commentary, that the villians are Western corporations who are robbing the Congo blind, and you Westerners are helping because you buy cellphones made with Congolese materials, is the economic counterpart of political correctness: slanted as hell, but slanted the proper and genteel way.

[CrackerJacker]

If you're going to buy something(Not you specifically wymck), then why would you choose to be ignorant of how many people die, or are at the very least savagely mistreated, in order for what you're buying to not only be available, but to be within your price range.

I hear what you're saying about it being a problem with other foreign nations being responsible, but it is a shared blame for a refusal by the many to accept that change needs to be made. I say NEEDS, because I truly believe that if situations like the profiteering in DR Congo aren't treat seriously, then the world will not only see species of animal become extinct and lost forever, but an entire nation could die in the name of international belligerence.

[wymck]

CrackerJacker, your argument (and Hari's argument in part) is that buyers should have some concern that workers are well-treated and well-paid before reaching for their wallets.

Mind you, for ten centuries, workers around the world earned about what we presently call $3 a day. Only recently -- and led by industrialists like America's Henry Ford -- has the idea of higher wages become so fashionable.

Socialists (Mr. Hari, for example?) want the government to command higher wages and overtime hours and proper working conditions.

Labor leaders want the government to favor them while they do the same thing, in spades.

The rest of us are content with voluntary exchange in the hopes of accomplishing the same or better without the artifice of government or other forms of collectivism. This third way -- producing products and providing services that people want and need, in exchange for good wages -- produces what I like to call the American Dream. The first and second ways do not produce it.

To prepare for the American Dream in your country, get a good education. Develop valuable skills. Demand freedom, liberty, justice, reform and fight corruption on all fronts. Be willing to fight to defend your rights. Don't surrender. Someday, you will win, and when markets are allowed to form and thrive, the wages and conditions that you want will eventually appear.

And you will deserve them; and they will last.

[blood1]

Sadly, this will not be noticed or acted upon by the American public until after the election, please RE-POST after the election, hopefully, then this article will gain the support it deserves.

[radicalcentrist44]

Has Obama said anything about this other than just a standard message that this is wrong and something needs to be done?

[CrackerJacker]

If you Google "DR Congo Obama", then you'll find a number of articles on past measures to have the problem at least acknowledged(Including calling for Condy Rice to address the violence to women in DR Congo that Johann Hari covered here), but they all seem to be past tense: There doesn't seem to have been any mention of it this year, but bearing in mind how many people would prospectively be "turned off" by a third war - one in Africa at that - I'm not surprised it's not come up. He might mention it now its at least being highlighted in places like the Independent, here on HuffPo, the BBC are covering it and I saw on the Google results that ABC are highlighting the BBC coverage in America.

If nothing else I feel that any potential war in DR Congo would be FAR more just than the current two, but this is something that would be controversial no matter how justified it might be.

[CrackerJacker]

That's actually a good idea - Make it a headline story across the opening banner on the site to at least make sure as many people as possible read it and become aware.

[radicalcentrist44]

Is this more of an issue for the UN to address?

[JohnShank]

Yes. But don't hold your breath. The U.N., while being a worthy idea, is a monument to Murphy's Law. They are weak and lame.

[CrackerJacker]

Unfortunately as much as I value the presence of such a major international body, the U.N. is currently a failure. It is a bandage made out of what can be found around the house because proper bandages are expensive. The ideals behind the U.N. are solid, but the organisation in practice is a chocolate fire-door.

Driven by the joint interests of it's member nations, it aims to "do something", but is rendered impotent by conservative minded people who would rather it was not as powerful as it needs to be in order to be of any use to anyone, apart from being a company that employs an immense worldwide staff.

[blondecuban]

John, if you haven't already done so, why don't you do something about it? Informing people like this is great, but it's not going to help. Get yourself on Larry King Live and Charlie Rose, get in touch with the new administration about it, etc. You have a very valuable perspective about this -- use it.

[avraamjack]

.
Hopefully Washington will shortly be more amenable to these arguments.
.

[CrackerJacker]

Agreed.

[phoebeb]

Cogent reporting--wonderfully tangible and concise picture of the politics, the economic, and the people caught in the middle. Maybe with a new president, the US can begin to make more of a difference here. Meanwhile, please carry more of these stories, Huff Post, including ideas about what individuals can do. It's easy for me to boycott diamonds since I don't wear them and I don't much use cell phones, but there must be other avenues for action.

[mgray80]

We should send more money to Africa- I mean , the money we have sent there definitely goes to what we intend it to, not to thugs and warloards

[looking4thelight]

If you must buy jewelry then get a vintage or antique piece not a new one. Diamonds aren't rare anyway. They have big piles of them locked away to keep the prices up. They certainly aren't worth what they are asking for them. Thanks for this article. It makes me really sad that people have to suffer that much over trivial stuff like rings and phones. Support your local antique merchant down the road in these tough times or buy your pretties from Native Americans using materials found right here. I remember reading how little kids are going blind polishing gems and making gold chains in nasty factory conditions. Mountains blown up and rivers polluted in search of little colored rocks. These things aren't worth what we think they are. Thanks again for this piece. Reminds me of the cruelty of the fur trade but worse. It makes me think of the Amish and how right they are regarding these things.

[Yermammy]

Thank you Mr. Hari. Sobering news, but not surprising. Our masters tell us we are "exceptional" in this Country. We are not. The farce has gone on too long and we must deal with reality. When Barack is President, we'll see how he listens to the real truth. He's playing the Corporate Machine's game right now, but I have an idea he'll straighten up after he gains power. We're the opposite of special in this land of ours. We're selfish and smug. That has to end. I'm encouraged that there's people like you that will tell us the truth. Hope springs eternal! :)

[wendynyc]

Shameful that we have done so little in Africa - especially the French.

They have plundered their resources and built their wealth on the backs of the Africans!

[HansB]

Why especially the French? I think the French - however reprehensible their neocolonialism - are angels compared to the British, the Belgians, the Portuguese and the Americans, all of whom allowed their former colonies to fall into civil war after having destroyed the formerly existing structures. And who wash their hands in pretended innocence as they suck out the resources. The French, at least, acknowledge their continuing responsibility, and they are preventing civil war in Ivory Coast as they've done before in other former colonies.

[JohnShank]

Ask the Vietnamese about French colonialism...

[vegas9999]

And the left says we can fix this the same way they want us to fix the education problem. Give the UN more money and give the teachers union more money.

[Scudrunner]

Can YOU fix it without money?

[wmfor]

And the Right says, "So? If it's profitable, it's good. That's not genocide. It's "the invisible hand of the market".

[boophus]

And the right says "what's the problem?"

[JohnShank]

Actually did hear from the left, the knee-jerk left that is. The one that blames America for everything that's wrong in the world. And uses the word "we" to impart guilt and shame because that is their stock and trade for motivating people. (It worked so well for Jimmy Carter) A lot of times the citizens of this country have no understanding of what our elected officials are doing in the world of foreign policy. But somehow everything is still blamed on "us".

I get it. The United States isn't perfect. Sometimes the country can be seen as downright arrogant. (especially with the current ig. norant president) Mistakes have been made and should be rectified. However, a lot of bad things happen in the world. WE didn't do it all. The United States isn't all bad. Not even close. How about an article about what's right with the United States for once.

Don't hold your breath. And don't buy new jewelry.

[CrackerJacker]

I don't blame America, I blame the population of not only America, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Australia - the list goes on - because elected officials are left alone to their own devices because so much effort is based on the elections that put them in power. We as the people have a right and a responsibility to chide the officials that claim to represent us for what we perceive to be their failures. If we do and we are proved wrong by said officials, then we carry on from there. But there's an implied trust that comes from public restlessness, where the public merely accept that the leader has the job and we should stay the course - And this happens so many times, even with the leaders which deeply un-inspire so many of their constituents. Such as Georgie. Politicians are mandated by the public, but with the public unwilling to get their hands dirty and ISSUE a mandate of ANY sort, politicians wander aimlessly between the opinions of polls and talk show hosts.