Turn Off Cell Phones on October 21st from 12-1
Commemorating the slaughter of 10 million for our cell phones and computers
Jessica Berger, RN, RYT
You are invited to join in an upbeat international event to raise awareness about the rising death toll over the mining of coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo. To join in the event, all you have to do is turn off your cell phone on October 21st from 12:00 to 1:00 pm. No texting is allowed. Cell phones and computers contain a substance called ‘coltan’ to hold and generate heat. The mining of coltan has lead to the slaughter of 10 million innocent people. This article explains the history of this tragedy and outlines the involvement of multi-national corporations as well as U.S., Canadian, and British government involvement.
According to Keith Harmon Snow and David Barouski, of the Global Policy Forum, “The BBC reported that the war in Congo has claimed more lives than any armed conflict since World War II”. These authors estimate that the conflict over profit from a rich supply of columbine tantalite (coltan) and other minerals such as gold and diamonds have led to the slaughter of 10 million people.
Snow and Barouski report that Western companies daily expunge 6 million dollars worth of cobalt alone from the Congo. Cobalt is used in “nuclear, chemical, aerospace and defense industries”(“War in the Congo”, Karen O’Toole). Another mineral pillaged from the Congo by western corporations is coltan. According to Project Underground, “Columbite-tantalite, or coltan is vital to the manufacture of cell phones, jet engines, air bags, night vision goggles, fiber optics and computer chips.(Ibid) The price for a ton of coltan ranges from 100 to 200,000 dollars. While the US has been preaching peace in the Congo and supporting every UN resolution to that end, the flow of US arms and military training has not ceased. Rwanda, Uganda, Namibia and Zimabawe all continue to receive US arms and military training(Ibid)”
According to Project Underground, the United States Central Intelligence Agency was involved in “the assassination of Congo’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba in the 1960‘s.” Mobutu Sese Seko, hired by the CIA, was then put into power. Next, the USA bribed Congo (then called Zaire) with 1.5 billion dollars in aid. After that the Bechtel Corporation became involved as war advisor to Kabila. Once Kabila was victorious in war and Mobutu was overthrown, the US corporation “American Mineral Fields” cut a one billion dollar deal to mine cobalt and copper.
How do US Corporate based mining deals lead to the killing of 10 million people? What is the link here and who is responsible? Stan Cox, in an internet report called “Murder, Rape…All for your Cell Phone” (Sep 2006) relays an interview by British reporter Jonathan Miller: “As you crawl through a tiny hole, using your arms and fingers to scratch, there’s not enough space to dig properly and you get badly grazed all over. And then, when you do finally come back out with the Cassiterite(coltan), the soldiers are waiting to grab it at gunpoint. Which means you have nothing to buy food with. So we’re always hungry” explains Muhanga Kaways, a miner in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
To commandeer coltan from miners or to steal mineral rich property, soldiers have been reported by the U.K. group Global Witness to use “killing, rape, torture, arbitrary arrests, intimidation, mutilation and the destruction or pillage of private property.” Who are these soldiers and who are they fighting for? The answer to this question is steeped in a covert collusion between world leaders, multinational corporate CEO‘s, and soldiers of fortune. In their report, “Untold Suffering in the Congo”, Snow and Barouski describe this never ending war as the result of organized crime perpetrated by several multinational mining companies. Interestingly, these companies are never cited in official government human rights reports. But why not?
As per Snow and Barouski, George H.W. Bush was hired as an advisor to Barrick Gold. Barrick Gold, controls a Congolese mining town beset by violence called Watsa. Watsa’s mines are under the guns of the Ugandan People’s Defense Force. The Ugandan People’s Defense Force are reported to have flown into Watsa with Barrick Gold executives to survey their specs. According to Snow and Barouski, other directors of Barrick Gold include the “former Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney, Edward Neys, former U.S ambassador to Canada; former U.S senator Howard Baker; J. Trevor Eyton, a member of the Canadian Senate; and Vernon Jordan, one of Bill Clinton’s lawyers” (Snow, Barouski, UN Security Council, Global Policy Forum).
Heads of state and World Super powers in control of mining in the Congo are not enough to keep the word quiet about the genocide that has resulted. What was needed to keep this mass atrocity quiet is a gag order on the media. This was obtained through complicity with a major communications firm, Cox Communications, who owns an interest in the Barrick Gold firm through an individual named Andrew Young. The former mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Young holds a company called Goodworks International Lobbying firm. Barrick Gold, The Coca Cola Company, Chevron-Texaco, Monsanto, and the Government of Angola and Nigeria, are all business associates of the Goodworks International Lobbying Firm. (Ibid).
Former US President Bill Clinton appointed Andrew Young, a direct associate of Barrick Gold, as chairman of the Southern African Enterprise Development Fund in 1994. Of key importance is the fact that Andrew Young is a major National Public Radio Sponsor and heads up both Cox Communications and Archer Daniels Midland Corporation. According to Snow and Barouski, other NPR sponsors are the aforementioned Brian Mulroney, who has a stake in the Barrick Gold Corporation and G. Allen Andreas, a Kingpin of the Carlyle Group. Many Americans view National Public Radio as one of the few remaining bastions of free speech. If what Snow and Barouski report is true, then NPR is controlled by George H.W. Bush and the heads of several huge governments who have billions of dollars at stake to keep the genocide in the Congo quiet.
Continuing to extract from the Global Policy Forum, the writers depict how the Bechtel Corporation plays a major role in the Congolese genocide. The Bechtel Corporation is deeply entrenched in the United States Government. Former Secretary of State George Schultz, former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger and general Jack Sheehan of the Pentagon all held or hold seats on the Bechtel Corporations advisory panel. In the war which is killing and has killed over 10 million civilians in the Congo, “the Bechtel Corporation provided satellite maps of reconnaissance photos of Mobutu’s troops for the invasion of Congo; infrared maps of the Congo’s mineral deposits and….NASA maps to locate Rwandan civilians that fled Rwanda to Congo” (Global Policy Forum)
The US then trained the Rwandan Patriotic Front. The aforementioned intelligence materials, created by the Bechtel Corporation, were then used by the Rwandan Patriotic Front to murder nearly one million Rwandan refugees who had fled to the Congo. Bonds between the genocide in Congo and Western corporations have also been linked to DeBeers, the Oppennheimer company, and Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, who is both the director of Royal Dutch Shell and member of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Advisory Board. Given that the major communications networks are now controlled by government officials who profiteer from this mass slaughter, it is no wonder that the American people have heard almost nothing about this war.
1. “Behind the Numbers: Untold Suffering in the Congo”; Keith Harmon Snow and David Barouski; ZNet , March 1, 2006; www.globalpolicy.org
2. “The Democratic Republic of Congo”, Anup Shah, ( March 27, 2008)
Project Underground, www.globalissues.org
3.“ War, Murder, Rape…All for your Cell Phone” Stan Cox (Sep 14, 2006) www.alternet.org
4. Amy Goodman, Democracy Now “Corporations Reaping Millions as Congo Suffers Deadliest Conflict Since World War II”, Jan 23, 2008, www.democracynow.org
5. “Blood Phones”, William Thomas, www.willthomasonline.net
6. War in the Congo, Karen O’Toole, www.geocytes.com ©
2010 Jessica Faller Berger. All rights reserved. Any use
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