This bill was not passed by the last session of Congress and was therefore cancelled. It will need to be reintroduced in this session. We will keep you updated on any news. Please write your Senator and urge them to reintroduce this bill.
An important piece of legislation is currently in the Finance Committee of the US Senate. This legislation has a direct bearing on the current conflict in the DRC. Much of the funding for the rebels, renegade army troops, and militias comes from the illegal mining of Coltan (columbite-tantalite) and Cassiterite (Tin). These ores are widely used in the electronics industry and used in cell-phones, computers etc.
Anyone who cares to see the fighting ended and peace restored to the DR Congo should write there senators and ask for them to co-sign this bill and help to bring it to the floor for a vote.
I imagine there will be strong opposition to this bill from the industries that benefit from using Coltan and Cassiterite.
I have include the full text of the bill as a page on my blog.
For more info on the bill:
Go here to track the bill.
PDF of the bill to download.
Library of Congress THOMAS page on the bill.
From Senator Brownback’s ( the bills sponsor) website,
Brownback, Durbin Introduce Conflict Mining Bill
Legislation would require certification of minerals mined in Congo
Friday, May 23, 2008
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the Conflict Coltan and Cassiterite Act, legislation which would require certification of minerals imported from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We are witnessing a grave humanitarian crisis in Congo, and we must act now to put an end to the death and suffering,” said Brownback. “Everyday, Americans use products that have been manufactured using inhumanely mined minerals. The legislation introduced by Senator Durbin and I will bring accountability and transparency to the supply chain of minerals used in the manufacturing of many electronic devices.”
Every day in Congo, 1,500 people die as a direct or indirect result of the conflict over the mining of minerals like cassiterite and coltan; to date, the conflict has displaced more than 1.3 million Congolese and has resulted in over 5.4 million deaths.
“Without knowing it, tens of millions of people in the United States may be putting money in the pockets of some of the worst human rights violators in the world, simply by using a cell phone or laptop computer,” Durbin said. “We ought to do all we can to make sure that the products we use and the minerals we import, in no way support those who violate human rights abroad.”
The Conflict Coltan and Cassiterite Act requires the President to compile a list of armed groups in the DRC committing serious human rights violations, and prohibits the importation into the U.S. of any product containing columbite-tantalite (“coltan”) or cassiterite (tin ore) from the DRC if groups on the list would financially benefit.
Approximately 65% of the world’s coltan reserves are located in Congo. Congolese civilians are terrorized and brutalized by warring rebel groups seeking to capitalize on the mining of these minerals. Coltan is commonly used in electronic devices like cell phones, computers, and DVD players.
April 27, 2009 at 10:31 pm
We are a collective of congolese women living in Belgium engaged in the lobbying of political leaders to let them hear the chained voices of devastaded women in DRC
here followed our address to the european parliament and our recommandations pointed out the necessity to control the origin of minerals like KIMBERLEY , we are happy to sea that senators are engaged in this way and would like to be in touch with those senators
Plea of the Collective of the Congolese Women for Peace and Justice – March 31th 2009
Mr. President ,
Ladies, Sirs Members of the Commission of Development of the European Parliament,
With the name of the women of the Congolese diaspora of Belgium and Europe and in the name of the Congolese people, let us make a point of expressing all our appreciations at your Commission like with all its members to have agreed to accomodate us at your assembly to expose you our reading of situation of our country, in particular, of atrocious exactions who are made there daily, worsened by violations massive of the human rights, in all impunity, imposing with the Congolese people an inexpressible desolation.
It is not any more one secrecy for anybody that the causes of the war inflicted with the RD Congo for more than 15 years have found their origin, on the one hand, in the attempt at control and/or of plunderings of the strategic natural resources in which the country abounds and which the Occident needs highly for its development, and on the other hand, in the monopolization of the grounds by neighbors with the expansionist aimings. Different reports/ratios put forward the illegal exploitation and the plundering of the natural resources and other richnesses of Congo, and, the traffic of weapons. Two more recent written by the Groups of experts of the World Bank and the O.N.U., clearly these offences elucidated, but much more, they also have some identified the authors (countries, national and multinational companies).
Rapes and sexual violences used as arms with war, slaughters on a large scale of the civil populations, in particular of the women, the girls and the children, extermination of the villages, impoverishment of our country and the mortgage of our youth is the disastrous corollaries of this insupportable war. Indeed the rapes inflicted to the women and to the girls expose them to the sexually transmitted diseases whose AIDS and seriously compromise our demography with the consequences that one can imagine on the economic development socio of our country.
We greet the work of sensitizing which was carried out effectively by various Member States of the EU as well at the national level as international. However, in our opinion, the question did not receive suitable treatment to date yet. Like all the other victims, these women forced and mutilated will be able exorciser their pain only if the right and dignity are returned to them.
At the end of each negotiation which led to the suspensions of the hostilities, the Congolese government conceded immunities, making thus null and void all the judicial actions introduced on the level so much room that national. The launched warrants for arrest were suspended; rights of the victims were thus each time ridiculed.
The reports/ratios of various Groups of Experts were accompanied by recommendations and relevant sanctions addressed to the Security Council of the United Nations. It is with a great regret that we note today in front of you that all these recommendations and sanctions remained dead letter.
Mr. President, Ladies and Sirs,
It was promised with the Congolese people that the elections were going to bring to our country peace, safety and stability. Three years have been just passed since 2006, and the peace and the respect of the human rights are always made wait. On the other hand during its three years, the DRC was the theatre of wars without end supported by its neighbours.
In the name of “peace at any price”, in January 2009, the government concluded an agreement with Rwanda in order to carry out joint military operations.
“Peace at any price”!!!
In a country which during 15 years knew violations of the human rights of such an atrocity and imprescriptible war crimes.
“Peace at any price”!!!
Negotiated and founded by these same which committed these crimes?
“Peace at any price”!!!
By being unaware of the exactions and devoting their authors and/or sleeping partners by integrating them without understanding nor judgement into the FARDC, with higher headquarters, making them thus inaccessible for any legal proceeding!
“This peace at any price” while institutionalizing impunity, constitutes from now on a threat for the democracy!
This peace at all costs being unaware of the human rights most legitimate of the civil populations and the refugees is inadmissible.
In the name of “PEACE at all costs”, the Ugandan and Rwandan armies were invited to track, at the sides of the FARDC, the militia which threaten, according to remarks’ of the presidents of the countries concerned, the safety of their countries. In spite of posted international optimism, testimonies of ground inform us that only a small number of the militia of the LRA and FDLR were neutralized and/or repatriated but that the remainder of the troops took refuge in the deep campaigns Congolese and continuous to sow death and desolation among the civil populations without defence. In other words, the safety of the modes of Rwanda and Uganda is made with the detriment protection Congolese civil populations.
In the name of “PEACE at all costs”, agreements of Ihussi were signed, March 23, 2009 between the government of the DRC and the CNDP. Agreements which in substance devote impunity by requiring the amnesty of the authors of the imprescriptible war crimes, impose the territorial cutting of the Province of North-Kivu on a Community basis and encourage with the violation of the Constitution by the entry in the institutions of RDCongo of the ex chiefs of war without in inférer with the results of the ballot boxes. What constitutes a threat for the democracy?
This “Peace” imposed at all costs, in an arbitrary way and without justice, carries in itself the germs of its own destruction. In effect, as long as basic problems such as: the plundering of the natural resources, the spoliation of the grounds, the colonization of settlement and the law-suit of the authors of the imprescriptible war crimes will not have been emptied, it will never have lasting peace there!
We are spirit to write the history and we take to you with witnesses. If these basic problems are not solved, that will start again.
Concerned of the rule of the law on the acts, We Congolese women of the Collective for Peace and Justice, let us seize the occasion which your Commission offers to us to announce our legitimate concern to you .
We hope sincerely that you accompany us and supported us in the combat of the reconquest of our violated and ridiculed human rights.
We women of the Collective of the Congolese Women for Peace and Justice, denounce this “Peace at all costs”. Impunity zero is an element essential of any driving process with a lasting peace and a real reconciliation based on a reciprocal confidence. These two preconditions are impossible to circumvent to launch out initially in the national rebuilding and later in a regional co-operation.
Count held of all that preceds,
In the name of justice and respect of the human rights we recommend
– To apply impunity zero with regard to the direct or indirect authors of the damages caused to the Congolese people as envisaged in recommendations and sanctions suggested to the Security Council of The United Nations by the Groups of Experts;
– The creation of funds for the victims supplied with an exceptional tax on the despoiled resources DRC and seizure of the bank accounts of predatory indicated by the Dallemagne report/ratio, and the report/ratio of the Panel of Experts of the United Nations ;
– The installation of an observatory of impunity zero controlled firstly by the Congolese women; for this purpose we request your support and your accompaniment ;
– The establishment of a special penal tribunal for Congo, and, we count resolutely on your support and your accompaniment.
From the economic point of view we recommend
– To force the companies exploiting the richnesses of the DRC to be invested in infrastructures to be social well;
– Not to impose on RDCongo unsuited solutions, sometimes copied from the European model, as for example actualization with the forceps of the CEPGL (the Economic Community of the Countries of the Large Lakes) as long as the populations concerned are neither ready, neither consulted, nor reconciled ;
– To found a moratorium on the exploitation of the mines, and to set up a process of control of the Kimberley type.
To the name of structural Regional stability we recommend to the international Community
– To contribute with the disarmament and the repatriation of ALL the foreign groups armed operating on the ground with the DRC ;
– To on the matter treat the question of the refugees in accordance with the relative international treaties ;
– To force in the name of the tolerance, Rwanda and Uganda to organize a dialogue inter Rwandan and Ugandan ;
To the name of an advantageous UE-RDCongo partnership egalitairy to the two parts we recommend
– To help the RD Congo to make a census of its population before the next electoral expiry ;
– To make safe the populations while resorting to a neutral army, while waiting for that the Congolese government is indeed able to ensure the safety of its populations ;
– To support and accompany effectively the RD Congo in the formation by a new dissuasive Congolese army, worthy and truly with the service of the population and country ;
Also, Mr. President, Ladies and Sirs, Members of the Commission of Development of the European Parliament, knowing the high degree of your fight for triumph and the maintenance of the democracy, for the respect of the human rights in the World, like for a balanced partnership, we request your support highly, your accompaniment and your support for the result of the plea which we have just made in front of your Parliament and, through you, near other institutions of the European Union, the Council of Europe, of the General meeting of the United Nations like of your national parliaments.
We thank you for your listening,
BEATRICE LEONARD LOMAMI MD
MEDICUS ET PATHOLOGICA (KUL1987)
MPH (KUL 2007)
32 474190171
English and Deutch speaker