Curse.

This is coolbert:

Once more, as has been the subject of a prior blog entry, the Congo is again a battleground. The Tutsi militia of Laurent Nkunda, 5,500 fighters strong, has put to rout in an almost casual and leisurely fashion, the 30,000 man Congolese Army. And now only faces an apparently impotent and enfeebled U.N. force, 17,000 men strong, that has the appearance of a rag-tag mob!

In large measure, militia leaders such as Nkunda operate NOT out of altruism! Natch, we all figured that to be so! The Congo overflows with an abundance of mineral wealth of staggering proportions. Controlling, mining, and profiting from the sale of the essential earths and gems is a major motivating factor and cause for the endemic warfare in the eastern Congo. Fighting that lasted on-and-off for over a decade now.

Currently [?], the militias most desire to control the sources of a mineral called cassiterite?

"Fighting over Cassiterite deposits is a major cause of the conflict waged in eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo."

Just as it was with coltan, cassiterite was a new one on me. NOW being mined with abandon, the mineral being valuable as an important commodity used in electronics manufacture!

"Cassiterite is a tin oxide mineral, SnO2. It is generally opaque but is translucent in thin crystals. Its luster and multiple crystal faces produce a desirable gem. Cassiterite is the chief ore of tin today."



Read further of the manner with which this valuable mineral is extracted from deposits:

"The Cassiterite Crisis - How Tech Boom Fuels Human Rights Risk in Africa"

"cassiterite sourced through the use of child and slave labour has made it into the supply chains of global electronic goods manufacturers. Cassiterite is a derivative of tin ore necessarily used in [electronic] circuitry"

"Prices for tin ore have soared on the London Metal Exchange from around $5,000 per tonne in 2003 to more than $19,000 today driven by the demand for consumer electronics."

"The manner in which the artisanal miners in Bisie - some as young as twelve years old - are forced to work is a human rights disaster. Under the watch of the 85th brigade some are forced to spend up to 72 hours in narrow tunnels, some of which do not exceed 70cm in diameter."

Laborers, impressed workers, "slaves" for want of a better term, young children in some cases, forced to mine the valuable mineral in a manner that even a Pharaoh of ancient Egypt would have disapproved of.

This - - is the year 2008 - - right??!!

"Men who want to wage war without good reason, who seize other
people without prior warning and without any good cause and rob
and steal from them, wound and kill them ... who use arms
(dishonorably) behave like cowards and traitors ... Indeed all
such people who are thus doers or consenters or receivers in
relation to such deeds are not worthy to live or to be in the
company of men of worth ... Cursed be these persons who devote
their lives to committing such evil deeds in order to acquire such
dishonorable fame!" - - Geoffroi de Charny - - 14th century.

Cursed be these persons - - indeed!! I do so love that quote!!

coolbert.