Can you imagine a world without mobile phones? Perhaps now you are thinking about all the daily actions that you solve with your phone. But there is more. In some countries, they are a window – the only one – to freedom; thus, they were the essential support of the so-called revolutions of the Arab world. In others, like ours, they have made possible events such as March 15 or the demonstrations after the March 11, 2004 attacks in Madrid.
That device that we look at 150 times a day, of which seventeen units are sold per second around the world, has revolutionized the way we communicate and relate, how we live, how we demand our politicians, how we denounce. And it is paradoxical that this instrument of freedom, in the broadest sense, can also be, in some cases, an instrument of oppression, violation of human rights , death, slavery.
Many of the electronic devices that we buy, and use so much, have been linked to the financing of armed conflicts around the world, such as those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic or Rwanda . These countries are very rich in some minerals and metals such as gold, tungsten, tantalum and tin, essential for our smartphone, tablet or any electronic device to turn on, recharge the battery, vibrate.
“They are known as conflict minerals and are those that, in one way or another, are related to crimes against humanity and armed groups in those countries where they are obtained , which are usually poor, developing”, defines Michael Gibb, of Global Witness, an international NGO that investigates and denounces since 1993 the links between the exploitation of natural resources and armed conflict, poverty, corruption and human rights abuses.
Blood minerals
Although they are not the reason these armed groups fight, they allow them to obtain money with which to buy weapons, pay their soldiers, attract more members and thus prolong the fight. To obtain these so-called blood minerals, they rape, kill, threaten, steal, kidnap and force people to work in inhumane conditions, as documented by both Global Witness and the UN.
“People are more familiar with this same situation around diamonds, the cause of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone or Liberia. And yet less is known about coltan, present in the products we use every day and also stained blood, “ says Gibb. And he laments that “the existence of natural resources in these poor countries, instead of helping the population, generating employment and development opportunities, becomes a kind of curse.”
Although it is difficult to estimate a figure, in 2013 alone, according to a report by the international non-profit organization Enough Project, Congolese rebel groups generated almost $ 1 billion (about 897 million euros) from mined minerals. illicitly .
Danish filmmaker Frank Poulsen was perhaps the first to show us what happened to these conflict minerals. In 2010 he released the documentary Blood in the Mobile , with which he managed to put the issue on the social, political and business agenda.
Poulsen and his team shot in the DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world despite the fact that, paradoxically, the UN estimates that it has untapped mineral reserves worth 24 trillion dollars (about 21.5 trillion euros). ).
Most of the mines from which these precious substances are extracted are located mainly in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, bordering Rwanda, in the middle of dense forests that can only be crossed on foot. One of the largest seams is that of Bisie, in the Walikale territory, from whose labyrinthine entrails some 20,000 people extract cassiterite, bauxite and coltan, basic minerals in electronics every day.
“Porters leave the mine every day and cross the jungle for two days with more than thirty tons of minerals behind them. Many are children under the age of fourteen ”, Poulsen denounces. Around the sites there are shanty towns made of shabby plastic. “Many people come here to try to earn a living, but they have to pay money to be able to go down to the mines or give part of the ore they manage to extract to the armed groups that guard them , or to corrupt army soldiers. Sometimes they have to pay so much that they get caught. “
The tunnels are usually even a hundred meters deep. It takes so long to get in and out that galleries sometimes collapse and many die asphyxiated or crushed . According to Poulsen, the Bisie mine alone is estimated to generate, according to 2010 data, about $ 70 million a year (€ 62.8 million).
The armed conflict in the DRC has been going on since 1996 and has caused more than 2.6 million displaced people and the death of more than five million people . It is, in fact, the war that has caused the most casualties since World War II.
Children in the mine
Bandi Mbubi is one of the many Congolese who were able to flee their country for their lives. He obtained political asylum in the United Kingdom, where he resides, and founded Congo Calling, a non-profit organization from which he tries to publicize, raise awareness and put the situation in his country on the political agenda.
This activist relates that armed groups, as well as corrupt factions of the army, control all phases of obtaining minerals. “ There are children up to eight years old down there . They are forced in because the holes are small and narrow. They spend days underground scratching minerals. They do not go to school and the conditions for their health are dire ”, he denounces.
The minerals often leave the country through illegal trade , usually across the border with Rwanda, where the tantalum masquerades as Rwandan. It is estimated that 75% of the funds that sustain the Congolese armed conflict comes precisely from the proceeds of these sales.
The materials that are extracted from these mines are essential to manufacture communication technologies. The main one is perhaps coltan, which is not a mineral in itself, but the way to name tantalum and columbite , both with many industrial applications; especially the first, which is used to manufacture capacitors, responsible for storing energy in mobile phones, consoles or laptops.
Tungsten is another one of these prized materials . It is very dense and allows the manufacture of very small and heavy parts, which makes it especially useful in obtaining, for example, mobile vibrators. Gold is a very noble metal that does not rust , which is why it is applied in high-quality microchips that require high performance.
In 2013, according to data from Global Witness, the European Union imported minerals from the DRC and its neighboring countries worth about 19 million euros . However, these minerals also enter indirectly as part of a wide variety of products, such as computers, consoles, tablets or mobile phones. Two years ago, in the Old Continent we bought 240 million telephones and about 100 million laptops.
Manufacturing and importing companies are aware of the link between raw materials and conflicts . “At first, when the issue of these minerals came to light in the late 1990s and their relationship to violence and war in the DRC, they were quick to say that they were not responsible because they could not control the production chain or they weren’t the ones negotiating with the mines either, “explains Mbubi. Fortunately, something has rained down since then.
In this decade, both the UN and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have published reports warning about this relationship, as well as a very complete guide for companies that use them, with recommendations to ensure that the Minerals you buy have been sourced ethically . And, recently, twelve African countries, including the DRC and Rwanda, have legislation that requires companies to check the supply chain.
“It is not a question of the large companies not buying minerals in these countries, but of encouraging them to do so by first ensuring the conditions in which these resources have been obtained. That they take extra precautions, because they are extremely fragile countries . They are transparent and inform at all times about their supply chain. The idea is to try to contribute positively to the development of these countries “, Gibb emphasizes.
First legal initiatives
However, all those regulations and recommendations are of little use if the main buyers do not take action. In this sense, in 2010 the Government of the United States took a great first step. It passed a law, known as Dodd-Frank, by which companies in this country have to determine if their products contain one or more of the four main conflict minerals – tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold – and if they have been mined from the DRC or one of its nine neighboring countries. For the first time, Western legislation sought to break the ties between the Congolese mineral business and the financing of armed groups.
And on May 22, 2015, the European Parliament voted a law with a similar will. The approved proposal seeks to oblige companies, both manufacturers and suppliers of electronic materials, to control the processes of extraction and purchase of minerals. This regulation will oblige the auditing of 880,000 companies in the European Union that supply electronic material . The main problem is the chain of suppliers that carries this mineral from when it is extracted from the mine until it reaches the consumer, which is extremely complex and branched. It is not that it is very different from other sectors, such as textiles, food or finance, but it is extremely opaque.
“Scandals in Europe related to food – do you remember that issue of horse meat? – social pressure on companies caused them to give information about the origin of the food, under what conditions it was manufactured, in what place, in what conditions were the workers. We want to extend this approach to the minerals sector “ , indicates Gibb.
There are already some companies that have taken steps in this direction. And it can certainly already be seen that “the commitment of these companies to human rights increases the value of their brands. Right now there are two parallel markets: one that is taking steps to be increasingly transparent and the other very opaque,” he says. Mbubi.
Photos: courtesy of Fairphone.
