Every day I
think about
the people I
met in the
war zones of
eastern
Congo when I
reported
from there.
The wards
were filled
with women
who had been
gang-raped
by the
militias and
shot in the
vagina. The
battalions
of child
soldiers –
drugged,
dazed
13-year-olds
who had been
made to kill
members of
their own
families so
they
couldn't try
to escape
and go home.
But oddly,
as I watch
the war
starting
again on
CNN, I find
myself
thinking
about a
woman I met
who had, by
Congolese
standards,
not suffered
in extremis.
The
more we
bought, the
more the
invaders
stole – and
slaughtered.
The rise of
mobile
phones
caused a
surge in
deaths,
because the
coltan they
contain is
found
primarily in
Congo.
The
UN named the
international
corporations
it believed
were
involved:
But instead
of stopping
these
corporations,
our
governments
demanded
that the UN
stop
criticising
them.
Congo is the
richest
country in
the world
for gold,
diamonds,
coltan,
cassiterite,
and more.
clipped from: www.informationclearinghouse.info