I will be upfront: I’m partial to Ben Affleck. He was committed to Congo before it became a mainstream issue. In fact, his high-profile trips there played a pivotal role in Congo reaching a tipping point in the American media. That, and our joint appearance talking Congo on Oprah, along with Nick Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, and Secretary Clinton, lead to a record fundraising surge of 6 million dollars in a matter of weeks, doubling the size of Women for Women International’s Congo program. So yeah, I am biased.

But that is not why I love Eastern Congo Initiative’s first policy report.  Rumor has it Ben was a genius policy wonk in a former life. Today, we have the proof. ECI’s “white paper” proves when it comes to finding long term solutions to end the violence in Congo, they mean business. Urgent business.

I’ve been working on Congo full time for nearly 6 years, yet I learned so much reading this report. The report provides a rigorous review of US policy engagement with DRC, while providing a bold roadmap essential for the next phase of the movement, aimed at stabilizing Congo. The report calls on the US government to “radically refocus” our present efforts in Congo, which the report terms, “the status-quo of piecemeal efforts”. “The US cannot stand idly by or maintain its commitment to a minimalist mandate in the Congo.”

A Thousand Sisters core platform focuses on a coordinated, comprehensive security sector reform plan, conflict minerals regulations, and disarmament, starting with the FDLR. In Representative Wu’s recent Dear Colleague letter, we also called for a Great Lakes Special Envoy. This report calls for all of that…and more. That is a “radical refocusing” in and of itself.  ECI is dead right when they say the focus of US policy thus far has been piecemeal. I would argue by extension, the movement has also focused on breaking down the conflict into specific key levers and elements, which is key, but has wasted enormous energy in activist squabbling over whether point A or point B is “the real issue” or silver bullet. For anyone who maintains intellectual integrity, you’ve got to admit a real solution must be holistic, and include all of it.

As a movement, we’ve been operating on the assumption of scarcity. Our strategies assume US government focus, attention and political will is finite at best, non-existent at worst, forcing us to chose between priorities for stabilizing Congo. What if we’re wrong? ECI’s paper challenges our assumption. We have rare universal, bi-partisan support. Why on earth would we ask for anything less than a comprehensive strategy? Don’t the people of Congo deserve it all?

The stakes could not be higher.  The report fastidiously outlines the tremendous progress made on many fronts since the technical end to the conflict in 2003, particularly initiatives lead by the Congolese government that could provide a worthy framework for reform. It is encouraging to see real progress. Yet I am haunted by the reality of “relative security” on the ground in Congo.  No, people haven’t been murdered in batches of 700 for a while now.  But the rates of rape have gone up 2004-2008, according to a recently released Oxfam report. The International Rescue Committee’s mortality studies show an increase in conflict related deaths: 38,000 per month in 2004, up to 45,000 per month in 2007.  Let’s be clear: Moms, grandmas, small business owners just like us, gang raped in droves, like the sisters I met in Baraka. Half had been gang raped in their first six months home, following their return to newly “secure” Baraka. Babies dying while their families spend the night in the forest, hiding from militias, like my sister Xaverine’s five-year-old daughter, Nsemeru, who’s name meant, “I love you”. Whole communities murdered next door to mining sites, like the 29 beheaded like cattle next to a gold mine in Kaniola in 2009. This is the reality of “post conflict” Congo, which continues to scream for our attention as the worst of international crises.

Lucky for us, ECI has outlined a clear, comprehensive plan, one that treats Congo like the emergency it is. They offer timelines that reflect the urgency of the situation. Not in a couple of years. How about end of this month? Or next month, at the very, very latest. That just makes my grassroots heart sing.

The report identifies one of the core problems with ongoing assistance to Congo, not as lack of international interest, funding, or even modest success with some programs, but utter lack of cohesion and coordination between programs and donor governments.  We need a cohesive, comprehensive, coordinated plan. The US government can lead the charge in rallying international support for the Congolese government’s full leadership and engagement in building structures and frameworks for lasting stability.

Look, we give the DRC a lot of money. Specifically, the US gave the DRC 2 billion dollars from 2007-2010. We need to leverage that and “support” (read: insist) Congo’s government fully engage. We need to support Congo’s government in establishing transparency, deployment of administrative and judicial reforms to root out political interference, stop corruption, and restore law, order and justice at the provincial level.  We need to spearhead a coordinated international effort to support Security Sector Reform, using structures initiated by Congo’s government that have already shown modest successes: STAREC/ I-SSS framework.

The Congolese government must professionalize the Congolese Army, while dismantling armed groups. Soldiers need to be paid.  Congo needs a functioning justice system. We need to provide serious funding and technical assistance for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs & conflict minerals monitoring systems.

The report calls for a Special Advisor to be appointed immediately. A Thousand Sisters is calling for a Special Envoy. Again, why not ask for what Congo really needs?

Upcoming elections give us a hard-and-fast deadline, and along with other factors make this a rare, critical window of opportunity.

In other words, how about a comprehensive, coordinated long term strategy to stabilize Congo? How about now?

I will warn you, this report is written for policy wonks, not the grassroots. But don’t be scared off by the two page acronym guide. (My book had that too, remember?) Or lines like, “The multi-sectoral approach adopted by the United States should be articulated through an integrated strategy that ensures the chronological and geographical alignment of security, diplomatic, state-building and development interventions…” I don’t know what that means, either. I still got a ton out of the report.

I have a sneaking feeling the contents of this report will be under serious consideration for legislation in 2011. That alone makes it a must read.

ECI’s White Paper. Read it. Love it. Live it. Pass it on.

Link here: http://bit.ly/eP9z2b

We applaud your visit to Congo last year. As American women, business owners, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, runners, and others deeply concerned with Congo, we are proud of your interest and commitment to Eastern Congo.

However, if the IRC mortality study statistics have held, more than 500,000 Congolese people have died since your visit. Tens of thousands of women, children, and even infants have been raped, including the recent incident of close to 200 women and infants, within 10 miles of a UN compound. This is our shame.

The USA has taken precious little action. That needs to change today. You are the leader to make it happen.

1. You promised Congo 17 million dollars. Why is it still sitting in a US Government account, buried in red tape? Unacceptable. Please do what you must to get this critically needed aid to Congolese women today.
2. The culture of impunity in Congo must end. Congo needs a justice system. The Congolese army must be professionalized, so soldiers “protect and serve” rather than “steal and rape”.   We urge you to coordinate with donor governments and the Congolese government to spearhead a comprehensive national security sector reform plan for Congo.

Congolese women and children need your immediate action. We look forward to celebrating your bold, immediate leadership on this critical issue.

Sincerely,

A Thousand Sisters

{Please add YOUR name and personal note to Secretary Clinton here. I’ll pass it on!}

Lisa Shannon, Founder, Run for Congo Women, Author A Thousand Sisters, Sister to Generose & Thousands of other Congolese women.

Several months ago, I had the great pleasure of meeting with the brilliant Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and Bury the Chains, and expert on building social movements.  He explained that every successful social movement has no more than 3 or 4 key “asks”/ levers to address the issue. Think “Ban Apartheid” or “Abolish Slavery”.

I have some solid ideas, but no easy answers. So I ask you- I’d love your thoughts: What are the top 3 actionable “asks” or levers the grassroots should push for to solve the crisis in Congo?

Anyone? Anyone?

I’ll post my thoughts after others have a chance to share!

Ding, ding, ding, ding! It’s the hundred million dollar question.

The DR Congo is among the most mineral rich countries on the planet, with stores of more than 1,100 minerals, including diamonds, gold, copper, tin, cobalt, tungsten, and 15-20% of the world’s tantalum, otherwise known as coltan, an essential semi-conductor in electronics like cell phones, laptops, video games, and digital cameras. You likely have a chunk of Congo in your pocket.

The United Nations has accused all nations involved in the conflict as using the war as a cover for looting. How does it work?  Militias control territories that contain mines. The militias mine and export themselves, or “tax” locals who do the work for them. Everyone seems to be in on the action: Corrupt government officials who line their pockets through shady contracts; foreign militias; foreign governments who back militias; the Congolese government army; the Mai Mai and other home-grown militias; and of course, the Interahamwe, who control the majority of mines in South Kivu. In a few cases, even UN soldiers. The New York Times ran a report by Lydia Polgreen in December 2008, outlining such an operation, run by a renegade Congolese army brigade, who control a remote, mineral rich area, “master of every hilltop as far as the eye can see.” Unchallenged, they employ locals at ultra-low wages to mine, block all paths, and lug loads of ore via remote forest trails- as far as 30 miles- to the nearest road, where the goods are trucked to a stretch of road that serves as a landing strip for Soviet-era cargo planes, who fly them to Goma or out of Congo.  How much does a guy make carving out his own slice of this pie? One official estimates $300,000 to $600,000 in “taxes” alone.  This operation is estimated to be worth as much as $80 million a year.

The goods are illegally exported to countries like Rwanda or Uganda, who in turn ship them to processing plants, primarily in Asia. Eventually, large corporations buy them and distribute these conflict riches around the world in the form of our favorite consumer goods: diamond engagement rings, Sony Playstations waiting under the Christmas tree, that sleek, new MacBook Air, or our ever-precious Crack-berries.

According to The Enough Project, in 2008 alone, armed groups will have made $185 million from illegal trade of Congo’s minerals. Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi, as well as Congolese government officials, have made hundreds of millions of dollars off of the Congo plunder. For instance, in the first half of 2008, Rwanda’s primary tin mine will produce about five tons per month.  Yet, in the same period Rwanda will report 2,679 tons in tin exports.  According to UN reports, when Rwanda seized control of eastern Congo in the late 1990’s, they smuggled hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coltan, cassiterite, and diamonds to Rwanda.  The New York Times quotes one Rwandan government official, “I used to see generals at the airport coming back from Congo with suitcases full of cash.”

But rebel groups can only control the minerals if they control the territory. And they can only control the territory if they control the people. And there is one age-old way to control the people: terror.  As one Harvard researcher puts it, there seems to be a “competition among armed groups to be the most brutal.”

We can stop the atrocities in Congo if we stop the gravy train fueling the conflict. Log onto the Enough Project website and send a message to 21 of the top electronics companies letting them know you support Conflict free electronics. It takes about a minute. Then reach out to your friends and ask them to do the same.

http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6265