Organizers of Congo Awareness Week are hoping to raise students' awareness of how the electronics industry, and specifically the cellular phone industry, is stimulating violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to Christy Lazicky '11, co-founder of the genocide awareness group STAND at the College. STAND, Students for Africa and the Carribean, the Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health and Amnesty International are urging students to understand the conflict instigated by the minerals in their cell phones and other electronics, she said.
"The electronic industry is fueling the violence in the Congo," Lazicky said. "Militant groups in the Congo are trying to take control of these mining areas by controlling the minerals that go into our cell phones."
The conflict is centered around tungsten, tin, tantalum and coltan which are all used in cell phones as well as gold and diamonds, according to Lazicky.
Companies that produce cell phones and other electronics buy these minerals from the Congo because they are generally inexpensive there, Sharon Muhwezi '11, STAND's Democratic Republic of the Congo education coordinator, said.
These minerals "fuel the conflict" because the mines are owned by militant rebel groups, Muhwezi said.
"Now they have money to recruit people, to buy arms," Muhwezi said. "Sometimes [the soldiers'] payments are arms or cocaine."
These militant groups in eastern Congo use rape to gain control of the people in the area, according to Muhwezi.
"Sometimes women are raped with guns," Muhwezi said. "When we couple that with the fact that women who are raped are stigmatized in society, and there is no adequate health care, [rape] is as good a weapon as shooting."
Muhwezi called rape a "strategic grassroots way of disorganizing the communities."
Lazicky said she hopes students will take "small, positive steps" toward ending the violence in the Congo. For example, they can urge their legislators to support the Minerals Trade Act of 2009, a bill that would stop companies from importing conflict materials into the United States, Lazicky said.
"It's important to question where [materials come] from, and I think consumers have the biggest influence on the market to pressure companies," Muhwezi said. "People have to be more conscious of what they consume."
Organizers of the effort are holding a Cell Out today as part of Congo Awareness Week, Lazicky said.
"We're asking students to turn off their cell phones from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to signify that they understand the connection between the cell phone industry and the use of cell phones and the violence in the Congo, and to create a movement to raise awareness for people who don't know about the connection," she said.
Students who pledged to participate in the Cell Out received free t-shirts to increase the visibility of the effort, Lazicky said.
There will be a student-facilitated discussion and luncheon with government professor and expert on the Congo William Wohlforth on Thursday, Lazicky said.
Organizers have also planned an outdoor screening on Friday of "The Greatest Silence," a documentary about the women who are the victims of rape in the Congo, Lazicky said. The screening will be followed by a barbecue.
