Congo on The Huffington Post

Gold Addiction Fuels Brutal Congo War (VIDEO)

2009-11-25T13:42:49Z

This Sunday "60 Minutes" will present an investigation into how the global gold industry is helping fuel violence and chaos in the Congo.

CBS reporter Scott Pelley's investigation found that conflict in the region was often to do with different militias seeking control over valuable natural resources.

"If you do a conflict analysis, you will find that when there are spikes in violence, it has something to do with contestation over the mineral resources, gold and the rest of them," John Prendergast tells Pelley. Prendergast worked in the Clinton administration on Africa policy, and co-founded "The Enough Project," which works to expose war crimes.

Despite efforts to control gold trade from the war-torn country, "60 Minutes" found they were able to freely sell gold it advertised as from Congo with no questions asked in neighboring Uganda.

The war in the Congo has claimed an estimated 5 million lives, making it the bloodiest war since World War Two. The war, CBS finds, is largely kept alive by conflict over resources, and may be brought to a conclusion if sellers of gold begin tracing their purchases to the mine, much like how the diamond industry began to do when addressing the "blood diamond" controversy.

The show will air Sunday Nov. 29 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Jon Temin: Why Sudan Matters

2009-11-24T18:04:55Z

Foreign policy realists sometimes ask how much seemingly marginal states such as Sudan really matter. The answer is that Sudan matters for many reasons, none more important than the millions dead and displaced due to decades of unnecessary internal violence. Sudan matters now more than ever because two seminal events are quickly approaching -- elections in 2010 and a referendum on the unity of the country in 2011 -- and the international community is increasingly concerned that they will lead to new and renewed violence and displacement. With the recent release of its long-awaited Sudan policy, Sudan matters to the Obama Administration and its efforts to transform the president's popularity abroad into tangible achievements.

But Sudan also matters because what is happening right now in Sudan, and what will happen in the next two years, has important implications for Africa and efforts to address state fragility globally for at least three reasons.

First, Sudan may test the inviolability of Africa's borders. Many of Africa's current borders were drawn almost blindly by European rulers at a conference in Berlin in 1885. They tend to be arbitrary and often awkward, splitting kin groups across different countries while placing adversarial groups within the same borders. But with few exceptions (the carving of Eritrea out of Ethiopia being the most notable), Africa's borders have remained static. Until now, African leaders and citizens have accepted the geographic hand they were dealt.

But in 2011, southern Sudanese are scheduled to vote in a referendum on whether to remain part of Sudan or secede. The referendum is the culmination of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between Sudan's north and south that ended decades of civil war which cost roughly two million lives. Every indication is that southerners will vote for secession - the president of the Government of Southern Sudan recently predicted that remaining in a united Sudan would render southerners "second-class citizens." Secession would mean the division of Africa's physically largest country, with the south comprising approximately a quarter of Sudan's land. This could be deeply traumatic for Sudan, but may not affect Sudan alone.

If Africa's largest country can be divided through referendum, what does this imply for an unwieldy, arguably ungovernable country like the Democratic Republic of the Congo? Or Nigeria, which, not unlike Sudan, is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines? How many of Africa's borders may be up for debate? Southern Sudan's right to self-determination should be unassailable, but the precedent set by secession would be felt well beyond Sudan -- something surely on the minds of leaders and disgruntled populations elsewhere.

Second, Sudan presents a stern test of the "African solutions to African problems" mantra. There are few durable African solutions to boast of, especially with Zimbabwe and Kenya backsliding. Particularly concerning Sudan's Darfur crisis, Africa is on the hook: the Darfur peacekeeping mission is a joint enterprise between the African Union and United Nations, includes troops only from Africa, and, until their recent departures, was led by a diplomat from Congo-Brazzaville and a general from Nigeria. The lead mediator for Darfur is from Burkina Faso. The African Union Panel on Darfur, which investigated issues of peace, justice and reconciliation, recently released its findings and was led by former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki. African Union gatherings have debated Darfur and passed resolutions -- including one condemning the International Criminal Court's indictment of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.

Despite this depth of African engagement, there are few results to show. The scale of the killing has diminished, but millions remain displaced. UNAMID is intensely unpopular among many of the displaced and remains significantly short of its mandated capacity of 26,000 troops. There is no political solution in sight, with factionalized rebel groups struggling to unite and the most influential rebel leader, Abdel Wahid al-Nur, refusing to engage in negotiations. An African solution to this problem does not seem imminent. This is by no means solely Africa's fault, as the United States, China and others bring substantially greater leverage to the situation than any African state. But it does raise the question: if so much African engagement does not bring progress, can there be African solutions to Africa's most intractable problems?

Third, following in the footsteps of Afghanistan's highly flawed election, Sudan offers another test of whether elections in volatile environments are a good idea. The CPA called for nationwide elections mid-way through the six-year "interim period." Those elections have endured several delays, and are now scheduled for April 2010, with the CPA expiring in 2011. Preparations are underway, with voter registration commencing, in haphazard fashion, at the beginning of November. But substantial flaws in the process are already emerging: the Carter Center recently noted concerns including "slow implementation of electoral preparations...unresolved operational decisions related to voter registration activities...delays in the finalization of national, regional, and state geographic constituencies; and continued harassment of political party and civil society activity across Sudan." There are also real risks of elections triggering new or renewed violence, especially in the volatile areas of the country on both sides of the north-south border.

Many Sudanese, especially in the south, profess little interest in the elections. They are skeptical of the election process and those organizing it, and, in the south, are instead counting the days until the 2011 referendum on unity or secession. During the CPA negotiations neither the northerners nor southerners were especially keen to see elections be part of the deal; it was the international community, led by the United States, which insisted that elections come first, ostensibly to legitimize the referendum. But that insistence may be backfiring, with the international community pouring substantial funds into a process that could ultimately be perceived as illegitimate and may result in the confirmation of an unhappy and unstable status quo. If that is the outcome, little will have changed, except that precious time, effort and funds will have been devoted to elections rather than to meeting mounting humanitarian needs and preparing for the referendum and what comes after it. Should this be the result, valid questions will again be asked about elections in fragile states and whether they should be a priority. It is unlikely to be the last time such questions arise.

David Sullivan: The Conflict Minerals Trade Act

2009-11-19T12:35:56Z

With the introduction of the Conflict Minerals Trade Act today, Congo activists now have bipartisan legislation percolating both in the Senateand the House of Representatives. To hear a bit more about this bill and why it's so important, check out the latest edition of the Ask the Expert video series, where I discuss why this legislation has catalytic potential to cut armed groups and rights abusers out of the supply chains for our cell phones, laptops, and other electronic gadgets:

Be sure to take action on this issue: urge your representative to cosponsor the Conflict Minerals Trade Act and ask your senators to cosponsor the Congo Conflict Minerals Act.

Hopenhagen Ambassador Contest: HuffPost Citizen Journalist Will Win A Trip To Copenhagen

2009-11-16T12:48:09Z

Most people don't know it, but the fate of the world is at stake this December. The UN is holding a Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark where the world's leaders will decide whether there will be any framework at all on limiting carbon emissions before the Kyoto protocol expires and the before the amount of carbon in the atmosphere climbs to even higher, and harder to reverse levels.

While this might sound abstract, bureaucratic or boring, this global gathering will determine the future of our planet. The effects of global warming are already lapping at the world's shores, destroying species, threatening cities, and encroaching on our ability to produce food. This is real, and this is happening.

But it is not all doom and gloom.

Hopenhagen.org is working to connect every person, city and nation with what is happening at the conference in Copenhagen, believing that citizens can help push the fate of the planet down a positive path by showing political leaders that the citizens of world passionately want them to reach an agreement that would limit how much carbon emissions each country would produce. Leaders are shying away from making these commitments, and Hopenhagen.org wants to show there is a strong political will to set emissions targets -- which would mean more green jobs, and a more sustainable future for people everywhere.

At Hopenhagen.org, people can become a citizen of the Nation of Hopenhagen by signing a petition, learning about grassroots climate efforts and spreading the word to their own communities.

This message of action, bringing people together and spreading hope is why HuffPost Green is teaming up with Hopenhagen.org for an exciting citizen journalism contest.

WHAT: We are sending a HuffPost citizen journalist to Copenhagen for the climate conference as the Hopenhagen Ambassador, to represent the global nation of people who are hopeful that leaders will come to an agreement.

THE PRIZE: The winner will receive a trip to Copenhagen from December 12-19th! This will include airfare, accommodation, press accreditation for the UN conference, Media training with HuffPost Citizen journalism editor Matt Palevsky, HuffPost blogging privileges, and a flip camera to record events.

But with great privilege comes great responsibility:

The duties of the Hopenhagen Ambassador will include:

Representing the people of Hopenhagen to the media and at official events throughout the week, reporting on events in blogs and videos posts for HuffPost while in Copenhagen, doing celebrity interviews, and spreading the message of hope throughout his or her personal and social networks.

WHO: Anyone over 18 can enter the contest -- you just need to upload a one minute campaign video for why you should elected ambassador. click here for the full contest rules.

Watch the contestants' videos here.

Watch this video for more information on what we're looking for.

UPDATED DEADLINES: We are letting HuffPost readers pick the ten best candidates. The voting part of the contest will run from November 18th to December 4nd. We'll stop accepting new entries on December 2th at midnight. We'll notify ten finalists that are being considered by December 5th by our panel of judges, which will include Arianna Huffington, Laurie David, Green Editor Katherine Goldstein, Citizen Journalism Editor Matthew Palevsky and others to be announced. We will contact the finalists through their YouTube or Facebook accounts (be sure you check those!) The winner will be announced Monday December 7th.

Videos will be published on HuffPost Green, where viewers can vote on who they think should be the Hopenhagen Ambassador. Candidates are encouraged to mobilize their networks of friends, twitter followers (use the hashtag #votehope), and even seek out celebrity or organizational endorsements for their candidacy. Be creative, get attention for yourself and the cause of bringing hope to Copenhagen.

ENDORSEMENTS: We encourage candidates to gather endorsements from notable blogs and environmental organizations that might lend weight to one's candidacy. You'll see the endorsers listed below each candidate's video. To file an endorsement, an organization or blog simply needs to link to a candidate's video page on our Hopenhagen Ambassador slideshow and explain why they are endorsing. Then email us the link here with the "Endorsement of [Name]" in the headline.

We're not doing endorsements from individuals, because that could get unwieldy. To file an endorsement, an org/blog just needs to link to the video somewhere on their website, with a message about why their endorsing. Then send the link to us at this email address and we'll publish the endorsement within 24 hours.

Submit your video using the YouTube Direct uploader below. You will be briefly redirected to YouTube in order to verify your account, before coming back to this page to upload your video. You can also link to a video that already exists on your YouTube account. Put your full name as the title, a short description of your qualifications and press submit. You'll see the video on HuffPost Green within 24 hours.

Watch the contestants' videos here.

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Georgianne Nienaber: Ashley Judd: Please, Population Control is Not the Answer for Congo

2009-11-11T15:08:54Z

Ashley Judd's op-ed in USATODAY drove me to the Tao Te Ching before my head exploded. In another example of celebrity naiveté falling prey to the obfuscations of non-governmental organizations in Congo, Judd wrote: "In Congo, 600,000 babies a year are born only to suffer and die." She added, "My husband and I despondently call these precious little ones 'the born to dies.'" Judd's solution, a parroting of the NGO Population Services International, is that family planning is the answer, since fewer babies means less babies will die and society as a whole will benefit.

Image: Ashley Judd

This is a naïve analysis, since the population in Congo is barely sustainable with a life expectancy at birth of 54.15 years, and it is far less in remote areas. The statistics Judd uses are hardly compelling when she says that 20 percent of Congolese men and women approached in 2007 said they did not wish to have more children. I am sure Ashley Judd is a nice person with good intentions, but she is another example of NGO's using the bully pulpit of celebrity to line their coffers, while they operate with a western sensibility, forcing western values on tribal populations.

Let's do a reality check.

Judd profiles a home in Kinshasa, the capitol of DR Congo, and bemoans the lack of amenities in the home she visited. Let's remember that Kinshasa is one of the safest places to be in Congo these days. She describes a family with two toothbrushes, some furniture and bad drinking water. The conditions are horrible, but this family has a roof over its head and is not living in the open-air, plastic tents and volcanic rock environment of eastern Congo. Travel in eastern Congo and you will learn that the women there are fighting to have their children and keep them alive. New life equals hope and Judd has completely missed the tenacity and resolve of poor Congolese women. Judd says, " In my work around the world with PSI and our many partners, I have seen irrefutable evidence that unregulated fertility undermines every other effort to improve health, living standards, the economy and the environment."

Image © Nienaber: Home in the IDP Camps Where Children are Cherished

Is this true? Hardly.

Congo's economy is not undermined by "unregulated fertility" rates. Why do these NGO's feel they have the right to regulate birth rates? Civil society has been destroyed by decades of war and over a hundred years of exploitation of Congo's wealth by international interests. Congo is not a country. It is a place on the map where the tribal population struggles to survive. Local populations are fed up with western interests meddling in their lives.

Consider this report from the November 4 Weekly Threat Assessment issued by the UN mission in Congo, MONUC. It is a window into the anger the Congolese feel regarding conservation and medical NGO's.

Human rights abuses by men in uniform are widely reported all over the province and the FDLR continue to pose a threat to peace and security.

During the weekend, the civil society of Lubero demonstrated violently against the deterioration of the security situation in Lubero Territory since the beginning of the Kimia II operations. They presented several grievances, including urgent action to be taken against perpetrators of human rights abuses, the extrication of the FARDC from Lubero town, a stronger MONUC presence in the backing of the FARDC operations and the removal of all NGOs (claiming they want security instead of food).

"Security instead of food," and one might argue life and liberty instead of "family planning."

The statistics are heartbreaking. 83.11 deaths per 1,000 live births. Since the outbreak of fighting in August 1998, at least 5.4 million people have died. Although only 19 percent of the population consists of children, children and infants account for 47 percent of the deaths in DR Congo. How can Ashley Judd maintain that the solution for the Congolese is having fewer children?

Image © Nienaber: The camps. Are they better off not being born?

In villages around Goma, 70% to 80% of delivery cases are performed at home and only 20% to 30% are performed at medical centers. Volunteer midwives brave rape and shootings to visit these villages to assist fragile new life as babies and mothers struggle to survive. The family is the heart-center of village life. Who are American celebrities to deny women the right to bear children?

In January of this year we met with Josephine K. who has been a witness to war and brutality for most of her 86 years. She is also a founding member of a midwife grass roots organization operating out of Goma. Josephine told us that when she was a child there were hardly any white men. With the coming of "the whites," the wars became worse. "There are so many wars, what do you want me to say?"

Image © Nienaber : Midwife

Now, the white western world wants to tell these poor black women not to have so many children. When will it stop? I would invite Judd to accompany me to the IDP camps in Kivu and meet the midwives who risk all to save babies and offer mothers nourishment in order to swell shriveled breasts.

In a separate arena, conservation groups, in some cases, are using community health initiatives and birth control as a smokescreen for land grabs and fundraising. In 2007 I visited an area in the Graueri Landscape of eastern Congo as part of an investigation into NGO abuses. American mainstream press organizations, celebrities, and television shows tout wildlife conservation and community health in this region as progress. What we found was something else. Congolese doctors and nurses in these conservation arenas explained that NGO's are paying their salaries and at the same time requiring that health professionals convince the local women--the poorest woman in the world--that they should not be having babies, because having babies is "dangerous to their health." Resist chemical sterilization and you cannot use the clinic.

But the women know that three out of five babies will die, and they resist the "required" shots of Depo-Provera which line the shelves of these remote "clinics." How do conservation organizations conserve primates in the wild? They stop hungry people from trying to keep their children alive or even having children. Meanwhile the diamonds, gold, coltan, uranium and niobium flow out of these areas and into the profits of the mining cartels in America, England, Russia and China.

Based on projections made by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Census Bureau, the American population is projected to increase to 392 million by 2050 -- more than a 50 percent increase from the 1990 population size.

Amazing. We look to be worse off than Africa, but no one is shoving Depo-Provera down our collective throats like the conservation and family planning organizations are doing in Africa. I hate to source myself, but no sense reinventing the blog here.

Joint operations between Congo and Rwanda since January 2009, have exacted a terrible toll on the civilian population and human rights groups have accused the United Nations of complicity. Most of the estimated 1200 deaths per day in eastern Congo are due to the ravages of war and preventable disease.

I have yet to see a major op-ed on United State's Special Envoy Howard Wolpe's call for the arrest of Bosco Ntaganda in conjunction with the failed operation Kimia II. This is something celebrities could really sink their teeth into if they would do some research on their own and not regurgitate the agenda's of NGO's. Congo unfortunately is the cause "du jour" on the cocktail circuit now that Sudan has exhausted its turn in the news cycle.

Former rebel general Jean Bosco Ntaganda, also known as "the Terminator", is a deputy commander of an anti-rebel offensive (the regular Congolese army, FARDC) that is being supported by the U.N. mission in Congo, MONUC. But the UN keeps denying it is supplying Ntaganda, despite repeated proof offered by human rights organizations.

Speaking like the diplomat he is, Wolpe offered a weak condemnation, but at least it was something coming from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's turf.

We just feel that anybody who has committed war crimes should not participate in military operations of this sort at the moment and he needs to be held accountable. We're trying now to work with (MONUC) and others to manage that situation in a way that will allow continued pressure on the FDLR but hopefully minimize the risk to civilians.

I addition, there is an un-reported and under-investigated story that the International Crimes Tribunal in the Hague is about to indict the former governor of North Kivu, Eugene Serufuli, for collusion with Ntaganda, who is already wanted by the Hague for war crimes in Ituri-Bunia, as Wolpe noted. Sources tell us it is assumed that General James Kabarebe of Rwanda financed both men and their militias.

Given the real stories coming out of Congo, it is a terrible thing to see USA Today giving op-ed space to "family planning" as a solution to the tragedy known as Congo. Judd termed the death of 8 million children worldwide "genocide," a bastardization of the term.

Judd should take some time and visit with the wise woman midwives who risk all for new life. The solution to the suffering of children is not the removal of children from the equation. I am not a religious person but the phrase, "suffer the children to come unto me for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," has some meaning here.

Ashley Judd is recipient of USA TODAY's Hollywood Hero Award and is also on the board of director's of Population Services International.

Zoe McMahon: Accountability for Minerals in the Eastern DRC

2009-11-11T15:03:16Z

Recently, at the annual BSR conference, I had the opportunity to elaborate on the challenges the overall IT sector faces with regards to traceability through our supply chain and the activities underway at Hewlett Packard.

The topic of traceability is gaining momentum. Industry sectors ranging from food, textiles and many others, are expected to know both the country of origin of their raw materials and the sustainability of the methods used to extract them. During my participation in the conference, I described the challenges of tracing "conflict minerals" in HP's supply chain. These minerals which may be used in electronics have recently appeared on political and civil society agendas, especially in the United States and Western Europe.

As another step toward addressing this concern, on October 20, HP, Dell, Intel, Motorola and Philips co-hosted a multi-industry forum on the topic of metals extraction issues, set to coincide with the BSR conference. More than forty attendees discussed potential industry actions to address the reported role of the mineral trade in financing of armed conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The specific metals under discussion are gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten. To varying degrees, these metals are used in components commonly found in electronic products (Social and Environmental Responsibility in Metals Supply to the Electronic Industry). Tantalum is arguably the most significant metal on the list for the electronics sector. It is used extensively in the production of capacitors for electronic equipment. All four metals are used by many other industries, such as automotive and aerospace. In the case of gold, products from other industries represent the majority of their use. In addition to being used broadly, none of the metals are exclusively mined in the Eastern DRC or even in Africa.

As such, the aim of the forum was to define a multi-industry path to assure that these metals are sourced from mines not associated with the conflict in the DRC. While the meeting was not attended particularly well by sectors outside the electronics industry, the broad representation from the electronics industry as well as NGOs, certification bodies and other stakeholders led to a lively and informative debate about this very topical issue. As a group, we believe that we will not be successful unless significant users of these metals come together to address this issue.

Based on the discussion, it was clear that a dual strategy is warranted. First, we must address the concerns in the Eastern DRC region (and the responsible sourcing of metals in general) by engaging multi-industries and all stakeholders to develop an effective system of mineral certification and supply chain assurance for metals. Second, international and local governments, institutional investors, development agencies, and civil society must continue to ensure that resources are focussed on the elimination of the conflict and its root causes.

Although the electronics industry can't solve this issue alone, we at HP believe that addressing conflict minerals is a natural extension of our existing efforts. Since the launch of HP's Supply Chain Social and Environmental Responsibility (SER) Program in 2000 -- the first of its kind in our industry -- we at HP have made ourselves accountable for our product materials and manufacturing suppliers' SER performance. Fundamentally, we expect suppliers to conduct their worldwide operations in a manner that does not result in labor or human rights violations and that includes operations which contribute to the direct financing of armed conflict. We have built a commitment to SER among our supplier base and begun to tackle the toughest challenges in the supply chain. We are also committed to transparency and in 2007 HP became the first company in our sector to disclose our list of suppliers.

HP has surveyed our suppliers, and they have responded that there is limited traceability to the level of the mine. This is, without a doubt, the biggest challenge ahead for the electronics sector. The Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) have working groups and projects aimed at both better understanding, and developing systems of assurance for, metals' supply chain in the electronics sector (especially tantalum). Other efforts exist within specific metal industries like tin, as well as jewelry sector and the mining industry itself. At some point, these efforts will need to unite, helping all of us bring an effective solution for sourcing minerals responsibly.

In keeping with our history of supply chain social and environmental responsibility, HP is working to ensure that our products do not contain metals sourced from mineral trade financing the armed conflict in the DRC. We will take further steps to educate our own supply chain and develop an approach to validate the assurances from our suppliers. We will continue to work with our sector and other industries using minerals from the region to develop an effective, cross-industry solution. In addition, HP will engage with groups with firsthand experience of the situation in the Eastern DRC to gain further insight into the specifics of the challenges ahead. Tremendous power and influence can be exerted when people from many perspectives come together to solve a common problem.

Jim Fruchterman: Training Human Rights Defenders In The Democratic Republic Of Congo

2009-11-10T12:49:02Z

Human rights and social justice groups throughout the world gather and collect large amounts of data, yet these organizations often lack the resources to document human rights violations systematically and securely. Much of their information is stored in insecure formats that prevent it from being effectively shared. Critical documentation is also lost to viruses, computer theft, fire, neglect and staff turnover.

Information about human rights abuse is the key asset of human rights groups. The loss of this information is a problem with far-reaching implications. Social justice organizations know that timely, accurate data distribution is one of their most powerful weapons against human rights violations. NGOs gather information to draw attention to the circumstances of victims, pressure perpetrators and encourage judicial accountability. They also use field data to focus media attention and help deliver justice in the form of truth commissions and tribunals. Without the collection and use of such information, human rights campaigns have limited chance of success.

In an effort to address this critical problem, Benetech developed Martus a secure software application designed to gather, organize and back up human rights information. Launched in 2003, Martus is a free and open source information management technology that supports effective collaboration within social justice organizations.

Martus Outreach Coordinator Vijaya Tripathi has just completed training staff members of human rights NGOs in the Democratic Republic of Congo. During her visit, she also had an opportunity to meet the staff of the United Nations Mission of the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC). Tripathi is a great example of how technologists can make a contribution to the cause of human rights.

The Benetech Human Rights Program was invited to conduct these trainings by the International Center for Transitional Justice which assists countries pursuing accountability for mass atrocities or human rights abuses.

Martus allows human rights defenders to create a searchable and encrypted database of sensitive information from witnesses and victims - and back this data up remotely to their choice of publicly available and secure servers.

Tripathi reports that the first Congolese Martus training took place in Kinshasa, the state capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is located on the bank of the Congo River in central Africa. The second Congolese Martus training took place in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province located on the shore of Lake Kivu.

The trainings offered an important opportunity to bring Martus to the exact groups we built the tool for - human rights defenders who are collecting sensitive documentation and need help securing and backing up that information quickly and effectively.

Benetech is honored to work with these Congolese activists, several of whom have been on the frontline of human rights monitoring and advocacy in the DRC for many years. According to Tripathi, the people we trained drew on examples from their own experiences to inform the training process. They shared anecdotes about information organization, management, security, and in some cases, information loss due to theft and destruction.

"Despite the difficulties of resource constraints and shifting security conditions, we are optimistic about the long-term possibility of Martus users in the DRC due to the enthusiasm and experience of the human rights defenders we worked with," writes Tripathi from Kinshasa. "Benetech's Human Rights Program hopes to return to Kinshasa and Goma to continue to support the dedicated men and women we had an opportunity to train."

While Benetech awaits more opportunities to assist human rights workers in the DRC, it's vitally important that the international community continue to support peace efforts there. CNN reported November 2nd that the United Nations has suspended assistance to a Congolese army brigade battling rebels amid allegations that its troops killed 62 civilians, including women and children, between May and September. I encourage you stay informed about developments in the DRC and support efforts by NGOs to help defend human rights in the region.

Susan Smalley, Ph.D.: Creating Gender Equality In The 21st Century

2009-11-06T10:35:37Z

I grew up in the 60s in Midwest America. It was a time of change in the U.S. when a new sweep at gender equality crossed our nation. I was a child before the women's movement and a woman in its aftermath. Women gained many newfound freedoms; but what if I had been born in another era or another country where gender equality is far from a basic human right.

Nichlas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's recent book "Half the Sky" is a call of awakening for all men and women to take action and right the wrongs existing in the world today because of gender inequality.

As they so clearly point out, this is not a women's rights issue; it is an issue of human rights.

The facts are startling and too hard to forget.

A conservative estimate is that 3 million women and girls are slaves (some put the number higher than 10 million).

It is estimated that 2 million girls disappear a year due to gender discrimination (deaths due to things like withholding vaccinations, not seeking medical care, etc. because the child is a girl).

More girls have been killed in the last fifty years because they were girls than all men were killed in battle in the 20th century.

Burning a girl or woman (with kerosene or acid) due to disobedience occurs once every two hours.

It's hard to 'wrap my head' around these numbers while going to the grocery, working at the university and doing my day to day routines knowing that just because someone is female she is being raped, burned, or killed -- within cultures that see it as acceptable.

But awakenings can happen -- it did for people in America in the 60s and it can for people world-wide. In my own short lifetime, I've seen cultural beliefs change radically. Strongly held beliefs of 'better than/less than' because of color or gender have virtually been eradicated (like polio) in less than three generations.

Cultural change happens when people speak out. Kristof and WuDunn's book helps by telling the stories of those affected by gender inequality. In the aftermath of reading their book, I saw a television special on 'sexual slavery' in America (it is not only happening beyond our borders), and I read the play 'Ruined' by Pulitzer Prize winning author Lynn Nottage re-telling the horrors for women and girls in the Congo. Talking, writing, and sharing the stories of those affected by gender inequality is a way for an awakening to spread.

The stories remind me of the fallacy of the statement "Ignorance is Bliss". As we wake up to the pain and suffering related to the ignorance of gender inequality, we may notice how easy it is to be 'ignorant' and pretend it is happening somewhere 'over there'. That kind of bliss pales in comparison to the bliss arising in the power of knowledge.

It is that kind of power that can change the world.

I think of girls and women who can't imagine a different kind of world, like many women here in the U.S. before the women's movement. The status quo is 'just the way it is'. Those that do think otherwise in countries of extreme gender inequality do not have a means of being heard. But we can listen, and our voices can make their way across oceans, country boundaries, and illiteracy.

A single voice becomes a crescendo when it arises in unison with others. And voices in unison can create a world where gender inequality no longer exists.

For information, see Kristof and WuDunn: Half the Sky (2009) or visit Equality Now

David Sullivan: Electronics and Atrocities: Tech Supply Chains Must Do No Harm

2009-11-05T18:53:23Z

Sarah K. Dreier, a graduate student at the University of Washington and a former researcher at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, co-authored this post, which originally appeared on The Wonk Room.

From the satellite mapping of atrocities and data-driven prosecution of war criminals to the use of social networking to mobilize against repressive regimes, advances in science and technology hold unprecedented potential to make human rights a reality across the world.

A new report from the Center for American Progress, "New Tools for Old Traumas," calls on President Obama -- recently dubbed "Scientist in Chief" for his unprecedented commitment to research and development -- to lead efforts to use these new tools to bring human rights perpetrators to justice; halt ongoing atrocities; and empower victims to fight against injustice. Cell phone companies have crucial roles to play as well because part of the complexity of this issue is ensuring that these tools do not foster human rights atrocities as well as stop them.

Today, the mobile phone that an activist uses to mobilize protesters in Tehran is made with tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold, whose mining in eastern Congo has fueled the world's deadliest conflict since World War II.

All electronic devises -- from satellites to smart phones -- require these specialized metals. Tin is used to affix components to circuit boards. Tantalum is a vital element of capacitors that store electrical charge. And tungsten is a key ingredient in vibrate alert functions and LCD displays.

Unfortunately, the mines in eastern Congo that produce these mineral ores fuel and support armed groups on all sides of the conflict. These groups -- including the Rwandan Hutu rebels who helped commit the 1994 genocide and Congo's ill-disciplined and predatory armed forces -- exploit impoverished miners and extort exorbitant 'taxes' from this trade. They use the profits to finance some of the worst human rights abuses in the world, including an epidemic of sexual violence that makes eastern Congo the most dangerous on the globe to be a woman or a girl.

Eastern Congo is the sight of the worst abuses in the supply chain for electronics products, but it is by no means the only one. From extraction in mining to unsafe and exploitative conditions in manufacturing facilities in Asia, the intricate supply chains that produce these products are opaque and electronics companies have yet to fully assume responsibility for the behavior of their suppliers or their suppliers' suppliers.

These tools, which have such potential for fostering free expression and abating atrocities, must no longer be used to fuel this violence.

Last week, Washington took a small but important step forward on this issue. The Defense Authorization legislation that President Obama signed into law contains a requirement for the U.S. government to support efforts to map the militarized mining sites of eastern Congo. This will help to increase transparency of the trade and aid efforts to distinguish between mines controlled by armed groups and those that are free of conflict. But government cannot solve this problem on its own -- the makers of mobile phones and other electronics products have a central role to play.

Electronics companies should commit resources to trace supply chains back to the point of extraction, conduct independent audits and spot check assurances for fraud, and ultimately certify electronics products as conflict-free.

As daily consumers and users of laptops and cell phones, average citizens too must demonstrate that we are willing to pay to make this happen. Give your mobile phone company a call, and tell them, "I want to buy a conflict-free phone."

Ensuring that these products do no harm will require an ethical revolution in how we manage the intricate and globalized supply chains for electronics. We should care as much for how our technology is made as we do for the pleasure and convenience we derive from using it.

Reporters Uncensored: The Real Refugees of Kakuma County

2009-10-31T11:34:33Z

Imagine you and your family in Kenya's Kakuma camp, along with seventy thousand refugees. Dust storms darken the sky and dry out your skin and the few scraps of food that aren't sealed away. You do all you can to guard your children from malaria but can't keep them from malnourishment. Your life expectancy is less than 60 years and you won't spend one day of it free from hunger, disease and hopeless poverty. Your children have never left the camp, but then, for one day, you can take them to Oz. With the help of this week's social innovator, the hearts and imaginations of thousands of people around the world have a chance to be freed, if only for an hour or two, from the bleakness of life in a refugee camp.

This week we're profiling FilmAid International, a non-profit organization that aims to bring the healing and educating power of cinema to refugees in the most desperate situations. The organization was founded in 1999 by a group of film professionals to entertain refugees in Macedonia at the start of the war in Kosovo. They began screening movies in refugee camps to restore hope, educate and inspire those who were displaced by the war. In 2001, FilmAid expanded to support refugees from Sudan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Rwanda. In addition, they also had a program helping families in the United States left homeless after Hurricane Katrina.

FilmAid's programs consist of three components. First, the organization partners with other aid agencies to provide video-based educational workshops. Sessions are held in community centers and schools throughout the camps, and involve topics relating to health, gender-based violence, conflict resolution and family planning. They also offer outdoor screenings inside the refugee camps. The films screened are typically local African films related to social, health and environmental issues. They stress positive messages that are meant to provide the viewers with tools for coping with often taboo issues. Finally, FilmAid works directly with the refugees to produce short films on the issues that affect them most. In doing so, they keep a finger on the pulse of communities and provide a forum for public dialogue.

For more on FilmAid, check out our latest show ON DEMAND.

David Sullivan: Mapping Congo's Militarized Mines

2009-10-30T14:24:00Z

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, signed into law yesterday by President Obama, has been making news because of all the things left out of it, including billions of dollars in cuts to expensive weapons systems. But for those of concerned with the role of conflict minerals financing armed groups and military units in eastern Congo, tucked away in this law is a modest but crucial step forward. Thanks to an amendment by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), section 1252 (search for "mineral-rich zones sec. 1252") of the legislation calls for the State and Defense Departments to work together to "produce a map of mineral-rich zones and areas under the control of armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo." The U.S. government is tasked to work with U.N. and NGO experts to produce the map and keep it regularly updated.

The idea of a mapping exercise to better monitor who controls key mines in eastern Congo is not new. The U.N. Group of Experts, tasked with monitoring Congo's arms embargo, included mapping of mines as a key recommendation in its 2008 report, which was then taken up by the Belgian research group IPIS. They published an online map of militarized mining sites based upon field research they conducted in conjunction with a number of Congolese organizations this past summer. The vast technical resources and know-how of the State and Defense Departments will certainly augment such efforts. Because the context in eastern Congo remains so fluid, a map that shows which armed groups control which mines at a static point in time will only be so useful, but increasing the transparency of the trade is a crucial precondition for excluding rights abusers from the supply chain and helping to shift the market for minerals toward legitimate sources.

Cross-posted from Enough Said.

Rahim Kanani: The Great Convergence of Crises: Can We Handle the 21st Century?

2009-10-21T10:36:44Z

We have entered a new era of human civilization in which the challenges pressed upon our world have yet to be matched by the fierce intelligence required to resolve them. The challenges we face encompass a boiling planet and vanishing cropland; extreme poverty and fledgling economic development; and impeding shortages of fresh water, oil and other natural resources, among many others--all of which are arrows in the crossbows of mankind. The moving target: effective, sustained, and strategic global partnerships. This century, the world shares a uniquely common future, whether in tragedy or victory, and the only way to nail that bull's-eye is shifting the mentality of the international community from one of reactive assessment to proactive engagement.

There's just one caveat: the United Nations estimates the global population surpassing 9 billion by the year 2050. Of this projected increase, nine countries are estimated to account for a full 50% of this growth. Listed in accordance with their contribution, they are India, Pakistan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Uganda, the United States, Ethiopia, and China. Pause for a moment, and think about integrating the implications of adding an additional 3 billion people to planet earth to the host of already-complicated challenges outlined above. Failing to build in consequence will result in devastating scenarios. One example is the new notion of food security. Recently, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton noted that since 2007, there have been riots over food in more than 60 countries. "Massive hunger poses a threat to the stability of governments, societies and borders," she held.

Just last week, World Food Day was marked by UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman declaring that for the first time in human history, more than 1 billion people around the world are suffering from malnutrition and hunger--up 100 million from 2008. We are losing the battle to feed the world's unnourished, and if we continue down this line of negative progress, one can imagine dozens of food riots evolving into dozens of armed conflicts. Indeed, the quest for basic life-saving sustenance will also encourage incredible population flows unrestrained by international boundaries, sharply increasing the number of refugees worldwide.

Mass migration is unquestionably another foreseeable challenge: instead of developing an emergency action plan upon witnessing the tens of millions of people around the world who are ultimately forced to migrate beyond their borders after having suffered from the damning effects of climate change, extreme weather and severe impoverishment, we need to intelligently anticipate the crisis and prescribe potential solutions well in advance. One avenue of resolve is for the international community to encourage regional leadership in parts of the world likely to be most affected by this astonishing growth, and to call on them to act as Ambassador's for 2050. Rather than leading the charge, we must act as brokers of new partnerships between nations who must confront these crises, in addition to integrating their implications into our national strategies of international development, diplomacy, and defense. We must help countries help themselves, and enable them with the proper tools of research, policy planning, and resource management to allow them to incorporate predictive modes of thinking into their current frameworks of decision-making.

There has been no other moment in history that has required our civilization to, more quickly and more adeptly, re-conceptualize the way in which we understand ourselves in relation to the other. Every citizen of the earth has a stake in the future peace and prosperity of our species, and we can no longer limit our thinking to merely second and third generation consequences, for we must start thinking about fourth, fifth and sixth generation consequences--the challenges of our time demand such prudence. The learning curve is a steep 90 degrees, and it will take courageous leadership from all levels of society to rebrand the future as common, shared, and valued. A critical component to rebranding the next one hundred years is the proactive measure of redefining the role of education in addressing societal ills. The need for creative and interdisciplinary thought, study, and action has never been greater. We must institutionalize a culture of innovation into our educational systems; revamp our curricula to reflect the defining issues of our time; and graduate cadres of students around the world who are well versed in the interconnectedness of social, political, economic and environmental challenges. A transformation of the education sector provides a new method of problem solving, and is not a solution in itself. Rather, it is a gateway to elicit new bodies of issue-specific knowledge required to predict and solve future calamities, valuing the wisdom of hindsight equally with the wisdom of foresight.

With United Nations Day approaching this Friday, it is important not to ignore the role of this institution in handling these crises, which is, at best, facilitative, and at worst, irrelevant. The debate between legitimacy and efficiency, while of necessity, has come to a crossroads: it is now time to choose. The effective, sustained, and strategic global partnerships I refer to as essential in confronting these issues are not based on principles of universal inclusion, nor are they driven by global consensus--they are a constellation of action-oriented alliances aimed at specific regional and international challenges. Cooperative agreements between particular nations, rather than 192 member states, targeting key areas on a collision course with climate change, preparing for the coming needs of millions more hungry souls, designing refugee and migration policies where massive growth and flow is inevitable, and exercising smart fiscal and social management of finite resources, is the sensible way forward in the 21st century.

The symptoms of catastrophe are unmistakable, and the diagnosis is clear: we are in a race against time with the forces of the natural world. Predictive modeling and preventative planning is phase one of the cure. We must administer the treatment, as for the hundreds of millions to be born in societies already unable to provide for their people, this truly is a matter of life and death.

Mandela Denies He Wrote Forward To African Leader Denis Sassou-Nguesso's Book

2009-10-20T12:50:07Z

JOHANNESBURG — A new self-serving book by a central African president lists Nelson Mandela as the writer of the glowing foreword, but South Africa's iconic leader says he never wrote those words or even read the tome, and his foundation vowed to take action.

"We condemn this brazen abuse of Mr. Mandela's name," Verne Harris, acting chief executive of the Johannesburg-based Nelson Mandela Foundation, said in a statement Tuesday.

Ntoto: Life in the Village or Life on the Run

2009-10-19T18:15:19Z

I am writing from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country with incredible natural beauty, a bounty of mineral resources and site of a brutal and protracted conflict that has caused the death and displacement of millions of people since the mid 1990's. MONUC, the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC, was deployed here nearly ten years ago, and its current mandate - which includes over 40 separate and complicated tasks - places priority on the protection of civilians, mainly in the DRC's unpredictable eastern region.

Ann M. Veneman: World Food Day: More than One Billion People Suffering from Hunger

2009-10-15T14:54:04Z

On this World Food Day more than one billion people are suffering from malnutrition and hunger, an increase of 100 million in just over a year. Consensus, international leadership and urgent action are needed to help end this global travesty.

At the recent G8 summit in Italy leaders committed that food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture should be prioritized on the global agenda. Lack of access to food in some parts of the world has triggered other threats, including conflict and environmental degradation, undermining the health and wellbeing of children.

In my travels around the world, I have seen the heartache and pain in the eyes of parents who have lost a child and communities devastated because crops are scarce and disaster, conflict and climate change are impacting livelihoods. This was abundantly clear on a recent visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where attacks by soldiers on villages -- raping and pillaging -- has left destruction and fear, destroying infrastructure, crops and water supplies.

On average, in Africa 40 per cent of children under five years old are stunted which is an indication of chronic under-nutrition. Stunting is high throughout Africa and Asia and among marginalized people throughout the world.

Children who are chronically undernourished before their second birthday are likely to have diminished cognitive and physical development for the rest of their lives. The burden these children carry and the disadvantages they face are not immediately apparent. Children who are stunted are short for their age, but if you saw them and didn't know how old they were, you might assume they were well.

Under-nutrition is an underlying cause of child mortality -- it moves silently and stealthily, inhibiting children's growth and pushing them closer towards death when the state of their health is already precarious. If a child suffers diarrhea from lack of clean water, it will drain nutrients from his or her body. Children who are weakened by nutritional deficiencies cannot stave off illness for long, and the frequent bouts of illness they experience make them even weaker. More than a third of the children who died from pneumonia, diarrhea and other illnesses could have survived if they had not been undernourished.

The health of the child is inextricably linked to the health of the mother. Maternal under-nutrition affects women's chances of surviving pregnancy. Women who were stunted as girls, whose nutritional status was poor when they conceived or who didn't gain enough weight during pregnancy may deliver babies with low birth weight; these infants in turn may never recoup from their early disadvantage. Like other undernourished children, they may be susceptible to infectious disease and death, and as adults they may face a higher risk of chronic illness such as heart disease and diabetes.

Under-nutrition diminishes the ability of children to learn and earn throughout their lives. Nutritional deprivation leaves children tired and weak, and lowers their IQs, so they perform poorly in school. As adults they are less productive and earn less than their healthy peers. Thus, the cycle of under-nutrition and poverty repeats itself, generation after generation.

It is critical now, more than ever, that the most vulnerable nations, along with international partners, invest wisely in nutrition interventions, which are demonstrated to be among the best investments in development that countries can make. The period from the mother's pregnancy through the first two years of the child's life provides a crucial window of opportunity in which nutrition interventions can be effectively delivered with long-term returns over lifetimes.

While on this World Food Day more people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, there must be a renewed commitment to save lives.

The world must seriously address the impacts of climate change, conflict and natural disasters on water availability, crops, and food supplies, particularly in the most vulnerable regions of the world. By doing so we can make significant strides to meet and exceed the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Ann Veneman is the Executive Director of UNICEF. World Food Day is October 16th, 2009. To learn more about UNICEF programs and World Food Day, visit www.unicef.org.

Congo forest protector shares alternative Nobel

2009-10-13T20:27:42Z

JOHANNESBURG — Rene Ngongo, honored with the "alternative Nobel" this week, grew up in a Congo where he could marvel at the wealth of animals and trees.

"Those are memories my children won't have," the father of four told The Associated Press, expressing fears that his work to save the forests may have started too late.

DR Congo: Civilian Cost of Military Operation is Unacceptable

2009-10-13T12:30:20Z

(Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, October 13, 2009) - The Congolese government's military operation in eastern Congo, Kimia II, backed by United Nations peacekeepers and aimed at neutralizing the threat from a Rwandan Hutu militia group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), has resulted in an unacceptable cost for the civilian population, said 84 humanitarian and human rights groups in the Congo Advocacy Coalition today.

UN Criticized For Part In Congo Offensive

2009-10-13T11:41:26Z

United Nations peacekeepers have been criticised for supporting a government military offensive in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Georgianne Nienaber: Satellite Imagery Proves Catastrophic Failure of Joint Rwanda/Congo Military Exercises

2009-10-13T00:19:03Z

Seeing is believing. For the past ten months, human rights organizations, political sources, eyewitness reports, and secret communiqués from remnants of Laurent Nkunda loyalists have reported that joint military operations between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been a catastrophic failure. Now DigitalGlobe and GeoEye satellite photos provided by The American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) are irrefutable proof of atrocities perpetrated by the regular Congolese Army (FARDC) and Rwandan Rebels (FDLR) against innocent villagers. Satellite imagery of the Busurungi area in North Kivu clearly shows burned villages.

The statistics are overwhelming and hopefully these startling images from the heavens will galvanize the world to act. For every rebel combatant disarmed during the operation, one civilian has been killed, seven women and girls have been raped, six houses burned and destroyed, and 900 people have been forced to flee their homes.

Up to six million souls have lost their lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998. 800,000 to one million people have been displaced from their homes in eastern Congo since this January, when The United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC) ostensibly partnered with Congolese and Rwandan military forces to drive out Ugandan, rebel Rwandan forces, and other militias from the Kivu Provinces.

"To allow these troops to be led by commanders like Bosco Ntaganda, with a known track record of horrific abuse, creates a climate in which atrocities flourish," Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch said in July to deaf ears. MONUC has backed the Congolese army in the Kimia II operation since March, after Rwanda abandoned its commitment to Operation "Umoja Wetu," and after the ouster of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda of the CNDP.

Rwanda engaged in a secret agreement with the Congolese president Joseph Kabila to depose CNDP (National Congress for the Defense of the People) rebel General Laurent Nkunda and install Ntaganda in January. Why? For approximately four years Nkunda had erected a wall of protection for ethnic minorities and had also made significant military gains in territory and weapon seizures from the FARDC. Kabila was rapidly losing territory and support and turned to Rwanda to neutralize Nkunda. Rwanda was happy to oblige, since the rebel Tutsi leader had become too popular and too independent.

Now, HRW reports that FDLR militia are deliberately targeting civilians and burning their villages as punishment for the Congolese government's decision to launch military operations. Congolese government soldiers have also persecuted civilians through killings and widespread rape, looting, forced labor, and arbitrary arrests.

But it gets worse.

Sexual violence has grown even more brutal in areas affected by the Kimia II operation. "We're seeing more cases of mutilation, extreme violence, and torture in sexual violence cases against women and girls, and many more of the victims are children," said Immaculée Birhaheka of Promotion et Appui aux Initiatives Féminines (PAIF).

Some previously displaced people in the Kivus have returned home to areas that have become relatively secure. But the ongoing military operations have caused new displacement of civilians in Masisi, Rutshuru, Lubero, Walikale, Kabare, Kalehe, Walungu, Shabunda, and Uvira territories of North and South Kivu, as well as in southern Maniema and northern Katanga provinces. Many civilians who have recently left displacement camps around Goma and elsewhere have moved on to secondary displacement sites since they fear returning home.

The United Nations provided backing for the failed and incompetent Kimia II operation, including tactical expertise, transport and aviation support, as well as food rations, fuel, and medical support to Congolese army soldiers, at an estimated cost of well over $6 million.

"With an investment this big, the UN has clout and should not remain silent when abuses occur," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The UN needs to make it clear that if the Congolese government wants its continued military support, the army should remove abusive soldiers from command positions and its soldiers should stop attacking civilians."

Reprisal attacks against unarmed populations by the FDLR militia have made the task of protecting civilians increasingly complicated for the Congolese government and UN peacekeepers. Yet the 3,000 additional UN peacekeepers authorized by the UN Security Council in November 2008 are only just arriving in eastern Congo, and the helicopters and intelligence support requested by UN officials have still not materialized, HRW reports.

The numbers do not add up if you are a civilian in DRC.

1,071 FDLR combatants were repatriated and 1,143 civilians were killed, including at least 10 local chiefs. An estimated 250-300 FDLR were combatants killed and 7,000 women and girls raped, the majority by the FDLR and FARDC soldiers deployed on military operations. 1,632 FDLR dependents have returned to Rwanda. Nearly 900,000 civilians were forced to flee their homes since January 2009 in North and South Kivu.

Image: IDP Camp (Georgianne Nienaber)

10,949 Rwandan refugees have returned to Rwanda, and 6,037 homes were burned (by both the FDLR and FARDC). There is new recruitment of children by the FDLR; armed groups are still not integrated, are maintaining parallel command structures, or are threatening to abandon the integration process.

We have been writing since January about the corruption, embezzlement, rapes, murders, burnings, misappropriation of soldiers' salaries and other uncountable and unimaginable atrocities. The Huffington Post has been steadfast in its support for innocent Congolese citizens, but more is needed. What are required are outrage and an international force of will to end this madness.

Until then we are all trapped in the belly of Satan, whether we want to open our eyes or not. So far, the United States has been dumping money and not American blood into this cesspool. Will this change when SOS Hillary Clinton's AFRICOM puts boots on the ground?

John Prendergast: Nobel Hope and Reality in Africa

2009-10-09T12:41:54Z

It is enormously encouraging that the Nobel Committee chose its Peace Prize winner on the basis of the hope he instills and inspires around the world. With the added luster of such an award, peace activists hope that President Obama will wade more deeply into resolving the deadliest conflicts in the world in the last half century: Sudan and Congo.

The Nobel Peace Prize will provide new momentum and a new point of positive leverage on behalf of America's peacemaking efforts around the world. As the president himself remarked this morning:

[T]hroughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.

Nowhere else is such engagement more pressing from a humanitarian and human rights standpoint than in Congo and Sudan, two of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman or a girl due to the prevalence of sexual violence.

The United States has appointed special envoys for both conflicts, but could do much more to move from conflict management to conflict resolution. With the president's help, more united international action could prevent a return to deadly war in southern Sudan, where over two million lives were lost before a 2005 peace deal, and could catalyze a peace deal in Darfur, which everyone supports but no one is pushing forward strategically. In Congo, the new Nobel Laureate could help catalyze efforts to end the trade in conflict minerals, helping to lay the foundation for peace in much the same way ending the blood diamonds trade helped end the wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Angola.

Throughout Africa and the rest of the world, the selection of Barack Obama is generating further hope for real action in support of peace. It is hard to conceive of a more propitious time to act on that hope than now, and difficult to imagine two places that need it more than Congo and Sudan.

John Prendergast is Co-Founder of Enough, the anti-genocide project at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.