Conflict Minerals from Congo: Blood in the Mobile
You might have heard the buzz about conflict minerals from Congo, which we unknowingly purchase when we buy a new cell phone, invest in a new laptop, or as Giovanni Mejia mentioned last week, line up for one of the first iPads. In the past year, the movement to end the exploitation of Congo’s vast mineral wealth has grown dramatically, moving beyond awareness building to propose meaningful solutions — via legislation, campaigning, blogging, filmmaking — and put pressure on those with the power to change the status quo. (The fact that ‘conflict minerals’ made the New York Times’ buzzwords of 2009 is saying something.)
Today, there is important legislation pending in both the House and the Senate that would help prevent U.S. companies from importing products containing conflict minerals. Currently, companies say that they have no way of knowing whether conflict minerals seep into their supply chains, but consumers and legislators are beginning to demand that this response isn’t good enough. The House Conflict Minerals Trade Act proposes a system of audits and import declarations that would help shine a light on this murky trade. And because companies may likely respond to the regulation by pulling their business out of Congo, the bill also calls for expanded U.S. efforts to help communities dependent on mining.
“Yes, locals working in the mines will be affected if companies begin boycotting Congo’s minerals, but the miners don’t want to be part of this trade. They want alternatives,” said Frank Poulsen, a Danish filmmaker, who was recently in D.C. to interview Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), the lead author of the conflict minerals bill, and activists and policy wonks working on this issue.
I had the chance to sit down with Poulsen, who for the past three years has been making a documentary about eastern Congo’s mines and the link between the war-torn region and the multi-billion dollar electronics industry. “Blood in the Mobile” is set to begin a tour of international film festivals later this year.
Acting on a tip his producer heard five years ago in Tanzania about horrific human rights conditions in the mines and the shady business of exporting the minerals from central Africa, Poulsen began investigating and traveled to Congo in 2008.
“Actually getting to the mines takes a long time,” he explained, especially with a video camera. Authorities at all levels must give their permission — officials in the capital of Kinshasa, 1,500 miles away, the immigration police, the regular police, the secret police, and finally, the warlord overseeing the mine. With the help of a 15-year-old miner named Chance, Poulsen and a cameraman have visited the notorious Bisie mine several times, and have even collected haunting footage underground, where people toil often for days at a time.
“The war in eastern Congo is horrific,” Poulsen said. “But this is just the surface. Kids as young as 10 are the ones down in the mines because they are small. We don’t often see what’s happening” at this level of the conflict, he said.
The film documents the process of uncovering these abuses, juxtaposing the story from eastern Congo with the story of the burgeoning movement in the West to compel companies to make ‘conflict-free’ products. As a Nokia user himself, Poulsen felt it would be most effective to tell the industry side of the story by confronting the company as a concerned consumer. He spent a year trying to get in touch with someone who could speak authoritatively about Nokia’s supply chain, and finally decided to just show up at the Nokia headquarters in Finland. All the while, the camera was rolling.
When I asked about the reaction people have when Poulsen explains his film in Europe and the United States, he said most are surprised to hear that there is a war going on in Congo. “Or if they knew about the war, at least they didn’t know it had anything to do with them,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is talk about what to do to end it,” using the tools we have as consumers and constituents.
Check out the Blood in the Mobile trailer:
The Conflict Minerals Trade Act is slated to be under consideration by the House Foreign Relations committee during the final two weeks of April. Keep an eye out at the RAISE Hope for Congo campaign for actions you can take to encourage your representative to sign on.
Read more at humanrights.change.org
Photo credit: Grassroots Group
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