War in the Congo has served as a huge distraction in the region providing a convoluted depiction of what is truly taking place within the country. Disabling many international spectators from easily recognizing the active roles their nations have within the conflict. It has now been documented that throughout Congo's genocide the United States covertly provided arms, training, as well as military aide that facilitated this genocide. The U.S. Department of State's Fact Sheet released by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research claims that:
Small arms, ammunition, and other military supplies made within the continent also have played a significant role in these troubled areas. The government-owned Zimbabwe Defense Industries (ZDI) has profited considerably from the DROC conflict. ZDI provided about $250 million worth of arms to the ADFL (the Kabila-led armed force) during its 1996-97 campaign against Mobutu. Within the first few months of the current round of fighting, which began in August 1998, ZDI supplied Kabila with more than $90 million in arms. The DROC reportedly will repay ZDI with revenues from future mineral production.
Mobutu was President, known to some as a dictator, of Zaire before it become D.R. of Congo since 1965 till his death in 1997. After, his death President Kabila came into power. They both seem to have amicable relations with the U.S. Presidents during their terms. Former Presidents George Bush Sr. and William Clinton received the "Freedom Award" for their "humanitarian" efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, it was during their terms as Presidents, the violence in Congo not only began but was the most violent.
Meanwhile, The World Policy Institute reported:
Major Findings
* Finding 1 – Due to the continuing legacies of its Cold War policies toward Africa, the U.S. bears some responsibility for the cycles of violence and economic problems plaguing the continent. Throughout the Cold War (1950-1989), the U.S. delivered over $1.5 billion worth of weaponry to Africa. Many of the top U.S. arms clients – Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC) – have turned out to be the top basket cases of the 1990s in terms of violence, instability, and economic collapse.
* Finding 2 – The ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) is a prime example of the devastating legacy of U.S. arms sales policy on Africa. The U.S. prolonged the rule of Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Soko by providing more than $300 million in weapons and $100 million in military training. Mobutu used his U.S.-supplied arsenal to repress his own people and plunder his nation’s economy for three decades, until his brutal regime was overthrown by Laurent Kabila’s forces in 1997. When Kabila took power, the Clinton administration quickly offered military support by developing a plan for new training operations with the armed forces.
This kind of action has been taking place throughout the current conflict, as well as prior to Congo's independence from Belgium in 1968. The United States provided all the tools necessary to protect its interests in Congo, which included large shares of the minerals being extracted. The incredible violence occurring in the region and the skeleton of an infrastructure Congo has for a government. This all seems to provide sufficient justification for why the region is suffering. Many do not take the time to wonder past the obvious and seek answers on why this genocide is occurring? Because of this, they fail to see how involved their nations are in providing the very tools being used to kill millions. The technological advances taking place in countries such as the U.S. have increased the value of D.R. Congo to other Western powers, due to the obvious advantageous of the mineral wealthy nation. Various minerals we use every day such as one of the most significant: Coltan. Coltan is essential to the production of cell phones and other high-tech electronics.
Coltan, is found in three-billion-year-old soils, like those in the Rift Valley region of Africa. The tantalum extracted from the coltan ore is used to make tantalum capacitors, tiny components that are essential in managing the flow of current in electronic devices. Eighty percent of the world’s coltan reserves are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Major multinational corporations have been linked to the atrocities in Congo. Many of these companies realized what was at stake when Congo received its freedom. Congo’s lack of infrastructure at the time facilitated these companies and their nations in seizing control of Congo’s natural resources by sponsoring the conflict that kept Congo too occupied to recognize as well as act upon the exploitation taking place within the nation.
Sources:
http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/congo.htm
http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/congo.htm
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/5-high-tech-genocide-in-congo/
http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/02/over-five-million-dead-in-congo-fifteen-hundred-people-daily/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7957
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