In the past week UK prime minister Gordon Brown has been calling on the international community to ensure that we do “not allow Congo to become another Rwanda”. He does not seem to realise that, since the “end” of the genocide in Rwanda, the Hutu-Tutsi conflict has been continuing unabated over the border in Congo, and the Congo conflict has already resulted in between five and ten times as many deaths as the Rwandan genocide.
The wars in the Congo over the past 14 years appear to have been supported by the Rwandan government. The leader of the current insurgency, General Laurent Nkunda, has strong links with Rwanda, and his rebel group operates a website which is based in Rwanda. The fighting has been largely funded by Rwandan-controlled mining – often using child labour – of a metallic ore known colloquially in Africa as coltan, which contains niobium and tantalum.
Tantalum is a rare metal used extensively in electronic components, particularly capacitors, which are used in mobile phones, pagers, personal computers and automotive electronics. A substantial proportion of consumer electronics devices sold throughout the world contain tantalum originating from Congo. Hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from the sale of coltan mined in the Congo have been used to finance rebel activities in the country.