Laura Heaton's blog

Conflict minerals are steadily gaining prominence in the public debate over how to address the conflict in eastern Congo, paving the way for meaningful advocacy directed at the companies that benefit from Congo’s turmoil.

A piece in yesterday’s Boston Globe emphasized the importance of new legislation championed by Washington State Congressman Jim McDermott (D) that addresses the complex path minerals take from mines in eastern Congo all the way to electronics devices. Currently, the minerals pass through so many hands, undocumented, that it is difficult to hold companies responsible for doing business with warlords in eastern Congo – or certify that their electronics products are conflict-free. But the atrocious conditions in the mines and the unspeakable violence against women and girls that the mineral trade is helping to fuel demand accountability.

Armed groups “are simply stealing ore and selling it to the international market,’’ McDermott said, according to the Boston Globe, and “everyone who has a cell phone has a piece of the action.’’ The Conflict Minerals Bill would set up a system to audit the trade in three minerals prevalent in Congo – tin, tantalum, and tungsten – and certify whether they originated in a conflict-free mine or not. U.S. companies would then have to indicate whether their products contain conflict minerals before importing them into the United States.

A representative from Cabot, one of the world’s leading producers of tantalum products, was quoted as saying that a challenge the industry faces is ensuring their supply chain is conflict free without sidelining the legitimate companies dealing in minerals. (Importantly, Cabot doesn’t do business anywhere in the region, according to the article.) Some mining companies are “just trying to make a living like the rest of us,” Cabot’s Andrew O’Donovan said. However, “today there is no system in place to determine the good from the bad,’’ he added.

The link between Congo’s minerals and the conflict in the east also came out clear in the U.S. State Department’s 2009 human rights report on Congo, issued last week:

“In North and South Kivu, the illegal exploitation by some FARDC units, armed groups such as the FDLR, and PARECO of natural resources--including cassiterite (a tin oxide) and columbite-tantalite (or coltan), both of which were used in the global electronics industry---continued to prolong the conflict, facilitate the purchase of small arms to commit abuses, and reduce government revenues needed for increasing security and rebuilding the country. FARDC and FDLR forces in both Kivu provinces forced civilians to work for them or relinquish their mineral production and extorted illegal ‘taxes.’”

Drawing from a number of high-level reports written by U.N. affiliates and NGOs, the State Department expanded upon these details, reiterating some of the recommendations made by the U.N. Group of Experts that would serve to address the abuses. The report also highlighted the U.N. Experts’ finding of "strong indications of high-level protection and in some cases complicity in the illicit gold trade by government officials."

Granted, few people will dig deep into State Department reports to realize how the U.S. government officials are drawing these connections, but it’s important that they are. The combination of growing public awareness, as evidenced through the increasingly frequent articles like the one in the Boston Globe, and government acknowledgement of the problem should send the message to U.S. companies that they would be wise to clean up their mineral supply chains – if not to prevent the exploitation of civilians and the perpetuation of war in Congo, then because a legal gauntlet is likely headed their way.

Photo: Gold in the palm of a miner's hand (Grassroots Reconciliation Group/Sasha Lezhnev)

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

This week’s all-new episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit once again takes on an issue we at Enough are passionate about: ending the epidemic of violence against women in eastern Congo.

In the second half, the episode “Witness” highlights the searing story of a young Congolese woman who escaped the violence in eastern Congo and now lives in the United States. Although she is many thousands of miles away from her home, a turn of events forces her to confront her own experience with rape in Congo. Her story highlights the fact that the trade in conflict minerals from Congo is helping perpetuate the violence, and as consumers, we bear responsibility for helping to end the sordid trade so that Congo’s people can benefit from their country’s resource wealth.

In the gripping, highly fictionalized style that regular followers of SVU love, scriptwriters (with some input from Enough) incorporated this tragic and underreported theme into a story that will reach hundreds of thousands of viewers in the United States on Wednesday night. Please tune in at 10/9c. After watching this account of the character’s experience, learn about the work being done daily to empower the real women of Congo and reform the conflict minerals trade.

Please help spread the word about Wednesday night’s episode and the resources available that explain the real-life dimension of the tragedy unfolding right now in eastern Congo. On Twitter and Facebook, please post:

Law&Order #SVU this Wed takes on war over conflict minerals in #Congo. Learn about real-life drama: http://bit.ly/9zraNG

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

The news that Enough broke yesterday of a contingent of the Lord Resistance Army moving into Darfur generated considerable interest from a variety of regional actors.

Some of the reactions, while predictable, were interesting for simply being over the top. An LRA spokesman in Nairobi said the LRA “would like to dismiss this baseless report with all the contempt it deserves” – which makes one wonder why the spokesman can't muster a bit of contempt for his own organization’s long track record of committing war crimes. Colonel Michael Anywar and Justine Labeja, representatives of the LRA’s political wing in the Kenyan capital, claimed that the Sudanese government stopped supporting the LRA in 2002. Both LRA officials quoted from Nairobi participated in the most recent round of peace talks in 2006, but it is unclear how closely they are linked to the fighters in the field.

The Ugandan president weighed in on the news today in a press conference in Kampala. He said he received reports from the Ugandan army a month ago saying that the LRA’s messianic leader, Joseph Kony, had “disappeared” and that the group he travels with crossed over the border from the Central African Republic to Darfur. After pushing the LRA out of northern Uganda, the Ugandan army received authorization from the governments of Congo, southern Sudan, and CAR to track the LRA in their territory.

President Museveni also seized the opportunity to point out that the Sudanese government – a longtime adversary with whom Uganda shares a history of providing safe haven to each other’s rebel groups  – has been a patron of the LRA in the past. If Khartoum provides a cover for Kony in Darfur, “it makes no difference because they supported him much more in the past,” Museveni said. “But whatever they gave him, we captured." The fact that the Ugandan president has accused the LRA of moving into Darfur would seem to ensure that this story will continue to play out for some time.

The response from Sudan came from the government’s representative at the United Nations, the outgoing Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, who, it must be noted, doesn’t tend toward bland, diplomatic statements. The ambassador blasted Enough, saying that the report was meant to derail the “peace train” for Darfur, currently making a stopover in Doha. As a note to the outgoing ambassador, the peace train rhetoric and LRA denials might be a little more believable if the Government of Sudan hadn't long lied about its previous support to the LRA and wasn't currently engaged in attacks in Darfur that have claimed hundreds of lives in recent weeks.

Coincidentally, news of the LRA in Darfur occurred a day after the U.S. Senate passed legislation calling for the Obama administration to devise a strategy for militarily defeating the LRA. That job just got more complicated now that it appears Kony and Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, both wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, have once again teamed up.

To date, U.S. officials have insisted simply that they can neither confirm nor deny the LRA presence in Darfur. Here is hoping that Congressional leaders can push for an answer that is considerably more forthcoming than that.

Technorati Tags: Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Northern Uganda Omar al-Bashir Prevention Protection Sudan Now War Crimes

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.

The International Rescue Committee created this short and catchy video to urge people to sign a petition calling on Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act. It’s very shareable, so pass it around in honor of International Women’s Day/Month.

Reporting from the Liberian capital of Monrovia, Doreen Carvajal of the New York Times highlighted the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s innovative approach to nation building in a post-conflict setting. At 14 percent, women peacekeepers in the Liberia mission represent the largest proportion of women in missions worldwide.  Professor Gerard DeGroot, who has done extensive research on the influence of women in the military, explained the rationale:

“When female soldiers are present, the situation is closer to real life, and as a result the men tend to behave. Any conflict where you have an all-male army, it’s like a holiday from reality. If you inject women into that situation, they do have a civilizing effect.”

This State Department apology, covered by Foreign Policy, to the Libyan president is pretty funny.  Mr. Crowley, we knew what you meant, but now that you mention it, your assessment of President Qaddafi’s performance at the U.N. General Assembly wasn’t so diplomatic.

Geoffrey York of the Globe and Mail blog Africa Diary offers an interesting discussion of the recent grenade attacks in Kigali, Rwanda through an interview with journalist Didas Gasana of the embattled weekly Umuseso. York describes one theory of the journalist:

Although he cannot prove it, [Gasana] believes there is a possibility that the grenade attacks were orchestrated by state intelligence agencies to justify a crackdown on electoral politics. It’s an uncomfortable question, but without the independent media in Rwanda there would be nobody to raise such questions.

Colum Lynch’s second edition of his new daily round-up over at Foreign Policy’s U.N. blog highlights a number of stories relevant to Enough, including coverage of the U.N.’s commemoration of International Women’s Day, Special Envoy Gration’s (distressing) suggestion that parties need to hustle through the Darfur peace process before full-time focus must be dedicated to Sudan’s elections, and a real zinger about my boss from the outgoing Sudanese ambassador to the U.N.

Technorati Tags: Africa Darfur and Southern Sudan Peace Protection United Nations Violence Against Women

During our recent trip through southern Sudan, focused on capturing individual stories that help illustrate the challenges people there currently face, Enough’s South Sudan researcher Maggie Fick and I were intrigued by a relatively new actor in the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army near Sudan’s border with Congo and the Central African Republic – a local defense force known as the Arrow Boys.

While the loose-knit, meagerly armed group may not seem like a good match to the ruthless fighters of the LRA, many people we met – from civilians displaced by LRA attacks, local and state government representatives, church officials, and aid workers – say the Arrow Boys play an indispensable role in protecting civilians in the region. In an Enough Field Dispatch published today, we examine the need for the Arrow Boys and the strategies they use, and we discuss the concerns that quickly arise when a new armed group emerges in a volatile corner of Sudan.

Here’s a glimpse:

The regional leader of the Arrow Boys, who asked for his name not to be used for security reasons, explained that after watching the LRA ravage their communities, southern Sudanese men and boys decided to respond.

“Very many people have died, and many others have had to flee their homes. […] We came with the mind of how to provide security for those that are here and end that threat [of the LRA],” he said.

“When I saw that kind of killing—they could crash the heads of your sons and daughters so they can’t even be recognized—it pained my heart,” said the leader of one group of Arrow Boys. “It depends on the heart. Any boy can be an Arrow Boy,” he said.

Click here to read the full dispatch.

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

The Senate bill aimed at devising a strategy for stopping the brutal, 24-year insurgency by the Lord’s Resistance Army passed last night with a record 65 co-sponsors. After weeks of uncertainty when Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R) put a hold on the bill, the victory for anti-LRA activists – a contingent of whom camped out in front of Coburn’s office for 11 days – is particularly poignant.

In a statement issued by lead co-sponsors and longtime champions on the LRA issue, Senators Feingold (D-WI), Brownback (R-KS), and Inhofe (R-OK) noted the delay in passing the bill but were enthusiastic about the outcome. Feingold said:

“The passage of this bill sends a message that the United States will no longer stand by and watch the Lord’s Resistance Army terrorize innocent civilians across central Africa, kidnap thousands of children and force them to become child soldiers. This legislation also sends a clear signal that the United States is committed to working with regional stakeholders to change the conditions that have allowed this war to persist for so long."

Brownback expressed his gratitude to Senate colleagues for appreciating the importance and urgency of the bill, and Inhofe called last night’s affirmative vote a “victory for the countless lives destroyed at the hands of [LRA leader] Joseph Kony.”

But even as Enough, along with advocacy partners Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children, celebrate this progress in Congress, new alarming reports have emerged that a dangerous contingent of the LRA has made its way to Darfur. Based on field research and analysis, Enough confirmed today that a group of LRA fighters have found safe haven in areas of Darfur controlled by the Sudanese government. This development – signaling renewed collusion between Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and LRA leader Joseph Kony, both wanted war criminals – demands investigation by U.S. policymakers and the international community.

Enough Co-founder John Prendergast reacted to the news in a press release issued this morning:

"The Khartoum regime's principal tool of war during its 21-year reign has been support for marauding militias such as the Janjaweed, the Murahaliin, and the Lord's Resistance Army," said Enough Co-founder John Prendergast. “Facing no consequences for this destructive method of governing, it is unsurprising that the regime is again providing safe haven for the LRA. Absent a cost for this, we will likely see the LRA unleashed again later this year to destabilize the referendum in southern Sudan."

Amid news of the passage of the Senate LRA bill and revelations about the insurgency spreading to Darfur, Enough’s LRA researcher Ledio Cakaj published his latest report documenting abuses by both the LRA and the Congolese army on civilians in northeastern Congo. It’s a damning look at how civilians bear the brunt of the violence from both sides, while the U.N. mission remains relatively futile when it comes to protecting civilians. The report is a sobering reminder of what’s likely in store for the already traumatized people of Darfur as the LRA continues its march north. It is also a compelling case for why last night’s passage of the Senate LRA bill couldn’t have come soon enough. Now we must focus attention on pushing the companion bill through the House.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Genocide Northern Uganda Prevention Protection Punishment Sexual Violence United Nations Violence Against Women War Crimes

After 262 hours protesting on the streets of Oklahoma City, activists focused on ending the senseless violence perpetrated by the Lord’s Resistance Army claimed a victory yesterday when Senator Coburn (R-OK) signaled he would remove his hold on a popular, bipartisan bill.

The Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 (S. 1067) calls on the Obama administration to devise a strategy for addressing the 24-year insurgency led by Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The legislation also request that a modest amount of funding be allocated to rehabilitating child soldiers from the LRA ranks and rebuilding communities in northern Uganda. Senator Coburn, who has made it his policy to oppose legislation that raises the national deficit, objected to this final piece, which amounted to $40 million (the equivalent of 25 cents per U.S. taxpayer).

Senator Coburn spoke to activists and Resolve Uganda yesterday afternoon to formalize a compromise proposed by two of the bill’s leading co-sponsors, Senator Feingold (D-WI) and Senator Inhofe (R-OK).

In Capitol Hill-speak, the bill’s authorization of appropriations was replaced with Sense of Congress language, which basically conveys the message to the Senate Appropriations committee that the Senate strongly recommends allocating the requested funding. While this written request doesn’t bind the Appropriations Committee to provide the funds, backing from the bill’s 64 co-sponsors (more than any other piece of legislation on sub-Saharan Africa since 1973) makes the priority clear.

The bill will now be sent to the Senate floor for final passage, so barring any unforeseen objections from other senators, expect another victory for the anti-LRA movement in the next day or two.

The Hold Out campaign in Oklahoma City, led by Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children, lasted 11 days, generating lots of local news coverage and thousands of phone calls to the senator’s office. Check out the local news coverage of the victory:
 

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

Across 18 countries, at 103 events, women and men gathered to commemorate International Women’s Day yesterday as part of the Join Me on the Bridge global event sponsored by Women for Women International. Enough’s RAISE Hope for Congo campaign partnered with Women for Women International for the Washington, D.C. event.

We met yesterday at noon at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial and marched across the Memorial Bridge toward the Lincoln Memorial. With bright blue sky as a backdrop, participants held high their posters and banners calling for “Equal Rights Now” and “End Rape Against Congo Women.” Among the more than 100 people who turned out, the crowd included students from local universities, women who sponsor survivors through Women for Women International’s Congo network, and a group of Congolese women from Belgium who are visiting D.C. (they've launched their own advocacy organization, Collectif des Femmes Congolaises pour la Paix et la Justice). I spoke to a woman from Iraq who recently resettled in the United States and is looking for ways to stay connected to women at home. An inspiring young woman from Washington, D.C., told me about her own experience with domestic violence. “If we don’t take action, if I don’t take action, the perpetrators win,” she said.

In Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and New York City, similar conversations were undoubtedly taking place between participants connected by their shared passion to help end global violence against women. Now the key is for all of us to spread the word.

Throughout the month of March, Enough’s RAISE Hope for Congo campaign is coordinating its own activities and highlighting other ways to get involved in the movement through partner organizations. Visit our International Women’s Day special page for details.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Prevention Violence Against Women

UPDATE: A large, energetic crowd turned out today for Washington, D.C.'s Join Me on the Bridge event. All over the world, women and men commemorated International Women's Day by gathering on bridges to send the message that we must join together and work collectively to end global violence against women. Here are some photos from our event on D.C.'s Memorial Bridge, with more to come tomorrow.

9:30 a.m. -- It’s a beautiful morning in Washington, D.C., with temperatures predicted to be near 60˚ by the time we gather on Memorial Bridge to celebrate International Women’s Day today at noon. Join Me on the Bridge is a global event organized by Women for Women International to honor the resilience of millions of women survivors of war around the world.

Enough’s RAISE Hope for Congo campaign teamed up with Women for Women International to host the D.C. event, which will highlight the victories and the challenges women face in Congo. Featured speakers will include:

Sylvie Maunga Mbanga, Congolese human rights lawyer
Jimmie Briggs, Executive Director, Man Up Campaign: Stop Violence Against Women 
Candice Knezevic, RAISE Hope for Congo Campaign Manager, Enough Project
Andrée Simon, President and COO, Women for Women International
Seema Jalan, Director of Global Development Policy, Women Thrive Worldwide

We’ll meet at noon at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at the end of Memorial Drive on the Virginia side of the bridge (Click here for a map and more details.) The closest metro stop is Arlington Cemetery on the blue line. We will walk across the Memorial Bridge to the Watergate Steps at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, where our speakers will provide remarks. The event should finish around 1:30.

Please come and walk in solidarity with women around the world. If there isn’t a Bridge event taking place near you, here are some ideas of other ways to commemorate International Women’s Day. We’ll update this space this afternoon with photos from the event.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Conflict Minerals Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Peace Prevention Sexual Violence Violence Against Women

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.

Foreign Policy published an excellent piece late last week about genocide as a national security threat. Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher laid out a strong case for why the Obama administration should beef up its prevention mechanisms for confronting both genocide and mass atrocities.

Here’s a key graf:

Genocide's negative consequences for the United States are increasingly plain. Mass violence destabilizes countries and entire regions, threatening to spread trafficking in drugs, arms, and persons, as well as infectious disease pandemics and youth radicalization. When prevention fails, the United States invariably foots much of the bill for post-atrocity relief and peacekeeping operations -- to the tune of billions of dollars. And even as Washington is paying, America's soft power is depleted when the world's only superpower stands idle while innocents are systematically slaughtered.

Marcus Bleasdale’s stunning photographs from his new book Rape of a Nation were published in this slideshow on Burn magazine. Bleasdale’s deep familiarity with Congo, a place he has worked for many years, is apparent in the intimacy of this collection.

This feature piece by AP reporter Malkhadir Muhumed describes the use of radio in blasting out Shabaab propaganda on one station – and countering with reports from the fragile U.N.-backed government on another. Loyalty to the government station runs its risks, but as one father of nine said, "I know I'm risking my life. But I need a different point of view.”

In this interview, The Root spotlighted award winning playwright Lynn Nottage, with whom Enough worked last fall to bring a staged reading of her play Ruined to Washington. Nottage talks about the research that went in to writing the play, set in a brothel in modern-day eastern Congo, and what she hopes audiences will take away. As the interview reinforces, she’s an exceptional spokesperson for the Congo cause.

The March/April edition of Foreign Policy magazine includes this exclusive collection of photographs from some of the world’s most acclaimed war photographers. The slideshow includes remarkable testimony from the photographers for added context, often including insights about the scene that was transpiring right outside of the frame.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Conflict Minerals Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Genocide Peace Prevention Protection Sexual Violence Somalia United Nations Violence Against Women War Crimes