Enough Said

In early December, Enough participated in a small gathering of organizations working on the connection between conflict and natural resources in eastern Congo, convened by the Center on International Cooperation. The idea behind the workshop was to identify points of consensus particularly related to short to medium term efforts to combat the militarization of mining. Congo specialists Jason Stearns and Steven Hege recently published a proposal that encapsulates much of the thinking from the workshop, available here.

The concept note, “Independent Oversight for Mining in the Eastern Congo? A Proposal for a Third Party Monitoring & Enforcement Mechanism,” posits the need for greater independent oversight of mining and the minerals trade as an important means of supporting wider efforts to demand increased accountability both from companies involved in the trade, as well as the Congolese institutions that are responsible for its regulation.

Importantly, Stearns and Hege underscore the importance of making this independent monitoring team a joint effort between the Congolese government and the international community, and charging it with working together with the Congolese to establish a definition for the illegal trade in minerals. Moreover, they propose merging this mechanism with the burgeoning efforts to develop a map of Congo’s militarized mines, work pioneered by the International Peace Information Service and more recently assigned to U.S. government agencies in a law passed last year. They anticipate the mechanism would cost $3-5 million annually and be funded by international donors. The proposed mechanism would eventually facilitate the handover of its responsibilities to Congolese leadership, and is explicitly framed as one part of a wider effort to formalize the mineral trade.

Given the complexities of the mineral trade and the many powerful vested interests who continue to profit at the expense of Congo’s crisis, it can tempting to say that it’s just too difficult to do something about this problem. This proposal powerfully and succinctly suggests otherwise. It deserves to be widely read and thoughtfully considered.

Jenn Altoff contributed to this post.

Photo: Man pans for gold in eastern Congo (Grassroots Reconciliation Group/Sasha Lezhnev)

Technorati Tags: Conflict Minerals Eastern Congo Prevention Protection Punishment Sexual Violence Violence Against Women

During his January 27 unveiling of the new iPad, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that his company had just sold its 250 millionth iPod. I own one of those – maybe you do, too.

If every consumer-electronics purchase is like a vote, that’s 250 million voices saying: “Yes, I’m OK with that” – with everything it took to put that device in my hand.

Such thoughts were bursting like flashbulbs in my mind during the conflict minerals session by Enough’s John Prendergast at the Pledge2Protect conference in November. He, along with human rights lawyer Sylvie Maunga Mbanga and speaker/poet Omékongo Dibinga, powerfully illuminated the connection between our choices and the horrific sexual violence ensnaring the women and girls of eastern Congo.

If I buy an iPhone or iMac – without assurance that its mineral components are conflict-free – am I not an “active bystander” to that human devastation?

It’s deeply conflicting to consider that the same tools powering my advocacy could also be contributing to Congo’s suffering. So, what to do when faced with an impending Apple purchase?

Recalling Prendergast’s charge to use our voices as consumers, I started writing. I directed individual letters to Apple image- and decision-makers: board of directors, senior management, public relations staff, advertising spokesmen, and their publicists.

I asked Apple to:
1)    Step forward as the leader in verifiably conflict-free products
2)    Sign the Conflict Minerals Pledge, and
3)    Design the industry-standard conflict-free icon

I welcome you to customize these tools – sample letter, unique spokesmen/publicist appeals, and mailing list – to join the Apple letter-writing campaign. Voice your concerns about the corporate ethics of the electronics companies supported by your purchases.

While awaiting Apple’s reply, I’m thrilled to have another way to impact conflict minerals with Advocacy Days, February 15-19. During the Presidents Day recess, U.S. representatives will be back in our home districts – a timely opportunity to say, face-to-face, how important it is that he or she co-sponsors the Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 (H.R. 4128). If made into law, it would help create the transparency we need to choose conflict-free electronics.
Please join me for Advocacy Days and represent your part of the story. You’ll find great advocacy tools and details about the event at Raise Hope for Congo.

Jenni Parmalee is the director of the Sheltering Tree Project.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Conflict Minerals Eastern Congo Prevention Sexual Violence Violence Against Women

I wanted to share a music video by southern Sudanese singer Mary Boyoi about Sudan's April elections. The title of the song, 'Elections Jai,' means 'elections are coming' in Juba Arabic, and this video features Mary and other Sudanese singers on the streets of Juba and on the banks of the Nile River raising awareness about the April polls.

Here’s a rough English translation of verse one:

This year 2010
it is a special day
in our history
to elect representative of our people
don't vote for a person because he is your tribe
don't vote for a person because he is your relative
because of you
because of you my land
We should choose a leader who will lead us equally

After watching this video, check the Sudan Tribune for some interesting web-based surveys and public comments on the two looming presidential races: for the Government of National Unity and the Government of Southern Sudan. (Hat-tip: Roving Bandit)

Technorati Tags: Darfur and Southern Sudan Sudan Now

Guest post by Lisa Shannon, who is currently working in eastern Congo.

I went to see Antoinette’s baby boy again today. When we entered the dingy hospital ward, his bed was empty. On the floor between two metal beds, we found him sprawled on a UNHCR mat, covered in biscuit crumbs, alone.

A minute later staff called his aunt to come back. She had left him alone while she went to take a bath and didn’t want him to roll off the bed.

I picked him up and just held him, this adorable, soul-crushed little guy. He rested his head on my shoulder.  His aunt asked me to watch him so she could have a break. Koko wanted to check on another relative, so I took him outside for some fresh air. No filming, no pictures, just some long quiet time with him in my lap, playing with his toes, engaging his limp interest in heart stickers that I stuck on his feet and arms, and a flower postcard he seemed to like.

Finally his dad showed up, auntie returned, and Koko offered to hold him. He put up his little arms in welcome, the boldest action I’d seen him take.

Yesterday, on a short walk to the funeral for Koko’s baby cousin (who we met last week on our first hospital visit to meet Antoinette’s baby), an elderly woman sitting under the shade of a tree, called to Koko. Since it seems like half of Dungu is family or old friends of Koko, it wasn’t out of the ordinary. But this lady’s slow turn to face us, the sober look about her, clued me in. She turned to reveal the bullet-wound-size bandage on her chest.

This is Koko’s Aunt Harriet, shot in the chest during the LRA attack a few weeks ago. Antoinette was visiting Auntie Harriet when she died.

She was in pain and hungry.  So after the funeral, we packed up a picnic lunch in the family’s sky blue plastic mesh picnic basket and visited with her. We went back today to deliver the only painkiller I have – some over the counter ibuprofen. We talked at length about that day.

Auntie loved to host young children in her Bamokandi compound, so Antoinette was a frequent guest, with kids in tow. She lived right across the way with her husband, though she was a more frequent guest these days, seeking Auntie’s advice in sorting out her marital problems. Her husband was trying to kick her and the kids out. At the moment, though, one of Antoinette’s children was visiting his dad at their hut across the way.

Auntie Harriet had just come back to her hut with a bucket of water. When she set it down, she heard screaming, a gunshot, and saw men in camouflage with guns. A neighbor screamed, “LRA! We’re dead!”

Chaos. Everyone started to run. Antoinette’s husband pushed his four-year-old son, telling him to run back to Auntie’s house – towards the LRA – while he jumped on his bike and rode away alone to safety.

I’ve interviewed so many people in Congo, and heard so many heroic stories of Congolese fathers who died trying to protect their children, even neighbors. I’ve never heard of any parent pushing his own child toward a militia in the middle of an attack. Stunned, I asked her, “What did you think of that?”

“What can I say?” Auntie Harriet shrugged dryly, “He’s not getting those kids.”

The LRA kicked Auntie Harriet’s daughter in the stomach, knocking her down, while another LRA cocked his gun, preparing to murder her. The daughter collapsed in resignation, knowing what must come next.  Harriet ran towards the LRA, screaming, “Oh God, please, don’t kill my child! Kill me instead!”

The LRA swung his gun around to face Harriet, pointed squarely at her chest, and fired the bullet meant for her daughter. While Harriet collapsed on the ground, they stomped on her daughter. Believing they were both dead, moved on.

Harriet called out to one of the children nearby and, to her shock, her daughter answered. They both managed to get up and walk with the children to safety. As they made their way up the road, they heard a gunshot and Antoinette scream.

Once they reached a bicycle, Auntie Harriet collapsed and was taken to the hospital.

“You’re a hero,” I said to Harriet. She didn’t say anything. Didn’t even crack a shy smile.

There we sat inside the little grass hut, looking at Harriet’s little bandage on broad display.  I thought of Antoinette’s husband. In dramatic writing they say choices under pressure are the only true measure of character.

Then I asked her, “Where will the children go to live?”

“When I feel better,” she replied,  “I’d like to have them."

Lisa Shannon is the founder of Run for Congo Women and the author of the forthcoming book A Thousand Sisters. She is currently traveling in eastern Congo and posting regularly to her blog AThousandSisters.com. Her previous posts for Enough Said are available here and here.

Technorati Tags: Eastern Congo

NPR affiliate WPSU, the radio station of Penn State, recently featured Professor Lee Ann De Reus explaining her belief in Ubuntu, an African philosophy that says each of us is part of an interconnected global community, and its relation to her experience interviewing women who had survived rape in Congo. De Reus traveled to eastern Congo last summer as a 2009 Carl Wilkins Fellow through Genocide Intervention Network and blogged for Enough Said while she was there.

On the radio program, De Reus recounts her amazement that the majority of the women who shared their horrific stories with her had forgiven their attackers. Yet she ultimately realized that, “when there is forgiveness, there is hope and part of our souls is restored.” The connection between all people dictates that everyone has a duty to uphold the highest standards of humanity. De Reus said she has “a responsibility now, to the women of Congo, to serve as witness, messenger, and advocate - to tell others about the crisis, to share the powerful stories of forgiveness, survival and hope, to work for change. I believe in practicing ubuntu, so we can all be fully human.”

Read and listen to De Reus tell her own story on the program This I Believe.

Photo: Lee Ann De Reus and a child in Bukavu, Congo (WPSU)

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Eastern Congo

While mainstream media and national security wonks this week fixated on intelligence director Dennis Blair’s remarks about the threat of cyber attacks and the administration’s policy on targeting American terrorists during his briefing for the House, other shifts in this administration’s understanding of national security went largely unnoticed.

In particular, the administration’s point man on national security and intelligence included in this year’s global threat assessment a section devoted to “mass killings” – a “persistent feature of the global landscape,” the report said. Though the actual substance of the brief section is not groundbreaking for those attuned to civilian atrocities committed around the world, the inclusion of the term is significant, signaling a worldview that defines national security threats in a broader, more global framework.

The section states:

“Looking ahead over the next five years, a number of countries in Africa and Asia are at significant risk for a new outbreak of mass killing…Among these countries, a new mass killing or genocide is most likely to occur in Southern Sudan.”

By linking U.S. security concerns and mass killings, the administration has also changed the policy outlook toward genocide and civilian atrocities—as national security threats rather than just humanitarian concerns. Going beyond the moral and legal arguments found in the “responsibility to protect” doctrine, which argues that the international community has the responsibility to protect populations suffering from genocide, mass killings, or human rights violations, the administration has provided a self-interested rationale for engaging in, or even just caring about, the plight of civilians on the other side of the world.

The inclusion of mass atrocities in the threat assessment is also encouraging for many who felt that the blueprint produced by the Genocide Prevention Task Force, convened by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, American Academy of Diplomacy, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, held great promise to set the United States on a path to help avert crises and human suffering. As the museum noted in a recent blog post, Blair’s statement fulfills a recommendation made by the task force in 2008: "The director of national intelligence should initiate the preparation of a National Intelligence Estimate on worldwide risk of genocide and mass atrocities."

Though this doctrinal shift may not translate right away into noticeable changes in the way policy is implemented, it is a significant move toward recognizing the interconnectedness of global conflicts and the exigency of ending mass killings and human rights violations in the world. When they’re ready to start, we’ve got some suggestions of where and how.

Photo: Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair (AP)

Technorati Tags: Eastern Chad Prevention

After impassioned lobbying from thousands of activists, historic legislation aimed at ending Africa’s longest-running war is on the verge of passing the Senate. With a record 61 cosponsors, the bipartisan Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act was submitted last month for Senate passage by unanimous consent.

But a lone senator – Tom Coburn of Oklahoma – is single-handedly blocking the bill, jeopardizing the progress toward peace so many have worked to create. Nicknamed “Dr. No” by his Senate colleagues, Senator Coburn objects to funding authorized in the bill that would help rebuild the communities devastated by the violence that plagued northern Uganda for more than two decades. If Senator Coburn is not convinced to allow the bill to pass, the legislation will die with this session of Congress.

Too much is at stake to let that happen. According to recent U.N. estimates, the LRA massacred over 100 people last month and continue to terrorize communities in three countries. Enough’s LRA researcher Ledio Cakaj reported yesterday that the death toll for the past two months may be as high as 400 in northeastern Congo alone.

Help save this legislation. Join the campaign to convince “Dr. No” to Please Say Yes by taking 30 seconds to sign the petition today.

Unless he hears from enough of us, Senator Coburn won’t budge. But we have allies in this fight. Last week, Oklahoma’s other senator – Republican Jim Inhofe – took to the floor of the Senate to plead for the bill. He called specifically on his state’s junior senator to lift his hold and allow it to pass.

If we succeed, President Obama will be required to develop a strategy to help stop LRA attacks and abductions, arrest rebel leader Joseph Kony, and provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance for the victims of Kony's atrocities. That’s the kind of leadership that has been missing for the 24 years and counting.

Help make it happen. Sign the petition today!

Visit Resolve Uganda to read more about what this historic bill aims to accomplish, and visit www.coburnsayyes.com for more opportunities to take action.

Michael Poffenberger is the executive director of Resolve Uganda, a D.C. based advocacy organization.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Northern Uganda Peace Prevention Protection Punishment

Your congressman really wants to know what you have to say. After all, you’re the reason he or she is in office. So why not use that power to help break the cycle of violence in Congo!?

Here’s how: Congress will be on recess for Presidents Day from February 15-19, and your representative will be home in your district. This is a perfect opportunity for you to gather a group of friends and schedule a meeting with your representative to urge him or her to cosponsor the Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 and push for its passage. Check out the RAISE Hope Advocacy Days page for more information, talking points, and other resources to help you get started. 

Introduced by Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA), the conflict minerals bill (HR 4128) would create a system of audits and import declarations that would distinguish those goods imported into the United States that contain conflict minerals. The resulting transparency would be an important step forward in helping break the links between the mineral trade and human rights abuses in Congo.

To help you prep for your meeting, join us today for the Congo Advocacy Days Activist Call with John Prendergast to learn more about the latest developments on conflict minerals following his trip from Congo. You’ll also get the opportunity to ask any questions you might have about the upcoming Advocacy Days.

Friday, February 4 @ 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST
Dial-in Information: (877) 210-8943
Call name: Congo Advocacy Days Activist Call

So what are you waiting for?

Technorati Tags:

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

Writing from eastern Congo for the Guardian, David Smith offers a unique view into the peacekeeping mission there, profiling some of the Indian soldiers serving MONUC.  The mission attracts ample criticism for its inability to protect civilians – which is certainly very valid – but Smith’s story describes an actor in the conflict zone that, from afar, we rarely consider: the people underneath the blue helmets.

Another perspective we rarely see (especially for those of us at Enough who can’t get visas to travel beyond southern Sudan) is the view from Khartoum, which photographer Deanna Dent captured in these spectacular shots.

The Guardian also ran this descriptive piece about Somalis fleeing into pockets of relative safety to escape the indiscriminate violence by the al-Shabaab militia. The feature draws in stories of people like Quresh and her baby, newest arrivals in a camp near the town of Burao; “ugly places,” the writer offers. “There are no schools or health facilities. Not even proper sanitation. Privately owned, the residents are charged to occupy their huts and draw water from the solitary well.” As the author witnesses during his short stay at Burao, new hardships often befall even those people fortunate enough to escape the violence that initially forced them from their homes. Many of Somalia’s 1.3 million internally displaced people have had to flee multiple times.

In much of Central Africa, the Red Cross is taking the lead to try to reunite families separated in conflict. Often, parents lose their children in the chaos of fleeing to safety, and the process to reconnect them can be challenging and, as this short video
shows through the story of two families, bittersweet.

To end the week on a lighter note, Foreign Policy’s Elizabeth Dickinson puts a spin on the Oscar nominations, coming up with a “best of” in foreign affairs 2009. Dickinson makes a compelling case for some of this year’s nominees, but FP is taking nominations and votes from the public too.

Technorati Tags: Eastern Congo Peace Prevention Protection Somalia

Enough has learned that as many as 400 people may have died in eastern Congo in fresh attacks by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army. The United Nations officially puts the death toll for December and January at 180, but sources within the U.N. concede that they have no presence in the affected areas and fear that their statistics drastically underestimate the severity of the attacks.

A recent report from the United Nations Humanitarian organization, or OCHA, states that 100 confirmed LRA killings took place in January 2010 and 80 people were killed in December 2009 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report also concedes that the real number for the month of January could rise as bodies are still being found and other cases are being confirmed.

While the killings for January 2010 are still being revised, reports from the ground suggest the numbers for December are far too low. The U.N. estimates that 15 to 20 people out of the 80 killed in December were from Tapili, site of an LRA attack in mid December. Some reports from the field, however, state that 126 people were killed in Tapili. The president of civil society in the town of Niangara said in an interview with the U.N. station Radio Okapi that the total number of the mid-December attacks (including Tapili) is 266 people. These discrepancies demonstrate the difficulty of getting a true picture of who has been affected by LRA attacks in recent weeks, but what’s clear is that official estimates don’t convey the magnitude of the suffering.

It is alarmingly apparent that the LRA problem will not just go away, and that recent statements from Congolese and Ugandan officials claiming that the LRA threat is over are simply inaccurate. On the contrary, the facts from the ground indicate that the situation is worsening. A comprehensive U.N. strategy for dealing with the LRA is urgently needed, and must place civilian protection as the top priority. U.N. presence is key at this moment, as the presence of peacekeepers has been shown to deter LRA attacks. Also, civilians themselves report Congolese soldiers behave better toward the local population when under the watch of the U.N.

Photo: Lord's Resistance Army rebels in Congo.

Technorati Tags: Eastern Congo Peace Prevention Protection