A Safe Haven in the DRC: Getting away with Genocide
The Rwandan genocide in 1994 claimed the lives of an estimated 800,000 Rwandans with the majority of those killed belonging to the ethnic minority Tutsi group. The events in Rwanda have now become a stain on the record of humanitarian action for the international community, with many asking the question of how this atrocity was allowed to happen in a period that one author termed “One Hundred Days of Silence”. The resulting consequences of the genocide were far reaching. One such effect, has been its impact on the relatively ignored ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which remains relatively underreported despite being one of the deadliest conflicts in the world since WWII, claiming over 6 million lives.
Following the genocide, many armed Hutu fled Rwanda to the neighbouring eastern area of the DRC, forming the FDLR (Democratic forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), which have now become one of the most violent and prominent forces in the region. This group terrorises local populations, looting from poor mining communities, kidnapping, torturing and have been implicit in the widespread levels of sexual violence that has now become a characteristic of the civil war. Of course other rebel groups are also active in the region, and with the government in Kinshasa distant from the main areas of conflict it is difficult to make a targeted effort to repress them.
The root of much of the violence in the DRC arises from the prevalence of valuable minerals in the region, specifically the mineral Coltan of which the DRC produces the majority of the world’s supply. The appetite for this mineral in the West is due to its status as the key ingredient in the technology industry, including mobile phones, laptops and military drones. While some companies such as Apple have now gone purportedly conflict-free, unfortunately a further problem lies with the development of new military technology requiring these minerals, with the desire to have similar standards being low on these companies’ priorities. So while the demand increases for access to these minerals for military technology, the violent mineral trade will continue, even if pressure for consumer products to become conflict-free grows.
Armed groups in the eastern regions now battle to control access to these minerals, which are then transferred to the world economy via countries like Rwanda and Uganda, and then onto multinational companies who bring these conflict minerals into the market. The result is that poor mining communities remain poor, effectively in a situation of slave labour, while armed groups like the FDLR appropriate riches and status that further entrenches their dominant presence in the region. In effect, perpetrators of genocide have escaped retribution and instead have found a safe haven in the DRC where they are able to continue with their violent strategies.
Photo Credit: Vice
