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Mineral-Rich Land Spurs Seething Congo Conflict

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The Associated Press

Published: November 3, 2008

LONDON - The conflict in eastern Congo is being fueled and funded by a tussle for control of minerals that end up in cell phones, laptops and other electronics - deepening the stakes in a war that sprung out of festering hatreds from the Rwandan genocide.

Rebel militias and Congolese army troops are fighting each other for control of mineral-rich land. They can then sell the raw materials they mine and use the proceeds to fund their activities and buy weapons, prolonging the conflict.

"The links are very clear between the mining activity going to finance these groups," said Lizzie Parsons, a member of the Congo team at London-based Global Witness, a nongovernmental organization that investigates natural resource exploitation.

Congo's present conflict stems from a rebellion started four years ago by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, who claimed the country's transition to democracy had excluded the Tutsi ethnic group. Despite agreeing in January to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, he resumed fighting in August.

But analysts say the struggle for minerals is at the heart of the conflict.

"In some ways mineral exploitation has become the means and the ends of the conflict," said Jennifer Cooke, the director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in New York.

Congo - particularly the eastern region recently besieged by rebels - is awash with gold, diamonds and metals such as cassiterite and coltan used to weld small pieces together in electronics.

There are several paths to the international market - mostly bound for Asian factories for use in devices such as mobile phones and portable music players, said Colin Thomas-Jensen of Enough Project, a Washington-based human rights organization that carries out field research into various African conflicts including Congo.

"Basically, the rebels control the mines. They are selling the minerals to middlemen who sell them to the next buyer and it goes up the chain," he said.

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