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Electronics Firms Urged to Boycott 'Blood Minerals'

WASHINGTON - The world's mass consumption of cell phones, laptops and other electronics fuels widespread sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a new study released Wednesday by the non-profit Enough Project that echoes what many human rights activists and humanitarian workers have been saying for years.

Posted in resource wars, Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2009
12:59 PM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Tel: +1-212-216-1832
Email: hrwpress@hrw.org

DR Congo: Militia Leader Guilty in Landmark Trial

Crimes Against Humanity Conviction an Important Step for Justice

NEW YORK - March 10 - The conviction of the Mai Mai commander Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga and 20 other Mai Mai combatants for crimes on major charges, including crimes against humanity, by a military court on March 5, 2009, was a crucial step toward creating accountability in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said today.

The trial by the military court of the garrison of Haut-Katanga, in Katanga province, lasted for 19 months and was the country's largest trial involving charges of crimes against humanity.

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Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Links:
Posted in Equality/Justice, Human Rights, Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2009
1:04 PM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Tel: +1-212-216-1832
Email: hrwpress@hrw.org

DR Congo: Groups Fear for Civilian Safety

UN Humanitarian Envoy Should Insist on Civilian Protection as Top Priority in Military Operations

WASHINGTON - February 6 - A coalition of 100 humanitarian and human rights organizations today called on John Holmes, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, to insist that protecting civilians be a top priority of the joint Congolese and Rwandan military operation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Holmes is due to arrive in Goma, the North Kivu capital, on February 7, 2009.
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Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Links:
Posted in Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2009
1:26 PM

CONTACT: Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Lack of Protection for Civilians Under Attack in Northeast Congo

Dungu/Kinshasa, DRC/Geneva/Nairobi - February 4 - As the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) continues to unleash violence against the people of Haut-Uélé in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the intensity of the targeted violence has prompted the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to denounce MONUC-the United Nations peacekeeping force in eastern DRC-for its inaction in protecting the population.
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Posted in Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2009
8:41 AM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Tel: +1-212-216-1832
Email: hrwpress@hrw.org

DR Congo: Rights Panel Condemns Abuses Against Children

Government Should Move Quickly to Stem Rights Violations

NEW YORK - February 4 - The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo should urgently carry out new recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to protect children from violence and abuse, Human Rights Watch and the Coalition of Congolese Non-governmental Organizations on Child Rights (CODE) said today.
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Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Links:
Posted in child soldiers, Human Rights, Congo

DR Congo Warning on Rwanda Troops

Ex- CNDP soldiers who have been integrated into the Congolese army pass through a checkpoint on the outskirts of Goma. The DR Congo and Rwanda have agreed joint operations against FDLR rebels. The UN says up to 4,000 Rwandan troops have entered the eastern Congo as part of a joint military operation. (AFP/Lionel Healing)

Inviting Rwandan soldiers into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo carries a "high risk of collateral damage", the parliamentary speaker has told the BBC.

Up to 4,000 Rwandan troops have poured over the border since Tuesday for a joint operation with the Congolese army against the Rwandan Hutu FDLR militia.

Vital Kamerhe said the push should be led by forces enjoying popular support.

Meanwhile the DR Congo authorities have reopened roads to aid convoys and UN peacekeeping troops in the area.

Posted in War/Empire, Congo

Ex-Congo Leader Accused of War Crimes

Party members and supporters of Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) march in Kinshasa, 2008. Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice-president of DR Congo, rejected accusations by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court that forces he led had used rape as a weapon of war. (AFP/File/Junior Diatezua) THE HAGUE - Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice-president of DR Congo, on Monday rejected accusations by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court that forces he led had used rape as a weapon of war.

Bemba rejected the war crimes charges during the pre-trial hearing at the court in The Hague after which the judges will decide if there are sufficient grounds for trial.

His lawyers argued that the claims were part of a political conspiracy against him.

Bemba had commanded a militia force in the Democratic Republic of Congo-based, said prosecutors.

Posted in Human Rights, War/Empire, Congo

Cell Phones and Congo's War Against Women

What in the world could a policy wonk have in common with a movie actress? As it turns out, a lot. Every day we both use electronic devices that wouldn't work without raw materials from a country halfway around the world in central Africa. That country, Congo, has been torn apart by the deadliest war since World War II, where 5.4 million have perished. Its war is fueled by our inexhaustible thirst for cell phones, laptops, video games, digital recorders and other products that owe their existence to Congo's contribution to the world's mineral supply.

Posted in Congo

Activists Slam World's "Grotesque Indifference" to DR Congo

Children who have been abandoned or orphaned by war eat dinner at the Don Bosco center in Goma in eastern Congo, in this November 20, 2008 file photo. More than five million people have died, most from lack of access to food or basic health, during a decade of fighting and upheaval in Congo, according to aid agencies. This makes Congo's enduring conflict the deadliest since World War Two. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly/Files)

TORONTO, Canada - International lust for the enormous mineral and resource riches of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) abetted by international indifference has turned much of country into a colossal "rape mine" where more than 300,000 women and girls have been brutalised, say activists.

"Rape is being used as a deliberate tool to control people and territory," said Eve Ensler, a celebrated U.S. playwright and founder of V-Day, a global movement in 120 countries to end violence against women and girls.

Posted in Congo

Congo: A Touch of Hope in The War without End

A man rests his hand on a child looking at volunteers who had gathered to entertain some of the population living at a camp for Internally Displaced People in Kibati, just north of the North Kivu provincial capital city of Goma. The UN Security Council approved an extra 3,000 peacekeeping troops to help end conflict in eastern DR Congo, where fresh fighting erupted earlier in the day. (AFP/Roberto Schmidt)

A man cradles his son as he stares intensely at the camera; the baby, secure in the strong arms of his father, playfully touches the man's mouth with an outstretched finger. Only the rough bandages swaddling the legs of the chubby infant tell a bigger story, the story of a war without end, and of those men, women, ordinary families, caught up in the fighting in eastern Congo.

Posted in Congo
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