tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post671565357236791214..comments2024-02-24T06:10:42.255-08:00Comments on Congo Siasa: Does the UN think Dodd-Frank has "backfired"?Jason Stearnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11454449854081540397noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-20654395575975155622012-10-25T23:33:19.703-07:002012-10-25T23:33:19.703-07:00I agree with you, it is really good!
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The REUTERS article is just another deliberate propaganda effort perpetrated in order to weaken the already toothless DODD-FRANK bill rules to be issued by SEC. The pious plea of "Conflict Minerals Crackdown Backfiring in the Congo," does not watch. It reminds us of the pyromaniac crying “Fire!!”. This is a clear testimony of the extent to which the BLOOD THIRSTY “canaille” would go to achieve for ever their spoliation and murderous traffic regardless of the 8 Million body count these conditions have visited upon the much abused Congolese people. This is the main reason that the “canaille’ would rather see the Kinshasa government puppet maintained while the pillaging continued unabated in the East, his silence handily bought!!!. <br /><br />-XeboAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-25339058829259333612012-01-10T06:53:27.072-08:002012-01-10T06:53:27.072-08:00Thanks for the article Jason. I'm in shock th...Thanks for the article Jason. I'm in shock that the report of NBA Dikembe Mutombo and oil billionaire Kase Lawal didn't make world news!!!?? Doesn't Mutombo usually advocate against conflict minerals in his country homeland?! Why isn't this talked about? He's suppose to be helpng his people but caught making deals w/Bosco Ngtanda and being funded by Nigerian Lawal is on the US Obama's advisory board and one of Nigeria's president Goodluck boards too! What a disgrace!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-59897586070413624872012-01-09T20:14:55.130-08:002012-01-09T20:14:55.130-08:00We represent Chiefs and their tribes trying to sel...We represent Chiefs and their tribes trying to sell coltan/tantalum from anywhere in the Congo. Not a single ounce of artisanal coltan has sold to a legitimate buyer in 16 months now. There are no buyers - none - for artisanal minerals. 400,000 miners and their families (app. 1,000,000 people) have been moved from abject poverty to utter destitution, not by Dodd-Frank, but by the simplistic "cell phones are evil" fundraising cry from Enough Project and Global Witness.<br /><br />Dodd-Frank could be in place today and no smelters will buy from any area where NGOs like Enough and Global have demonized the minerals instead of the criminals.<br /><br />Since Enough had denied this de facto embargo, we asked them to provide the name of just one smelter in the world who would buy artisanal tantalum, either from warehouses or as yet unmined. In a five-way conference call, they recommended we sell to the Chinese, some of the worst human rights violators on earth. Proof that Enough has lost its way entirely on this issue and is much more concerned about keeping their highly successful fundraising mantra going than actually protecting the human rights of the Congolese.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the militia are smuggling even more than ever (UN Panel of Experts).<br /><br />Dodd-Frank won't work because:<br /><br />a) it targets a symptom (ONE source of revenue), not the cause (the militia themselves<br />b) creates massive collateral damage in the hopes of catching a militia or two in its path (1 million Congolese starving as a result and the militia are doing as well as ever).<br /><br />Dodd-Frank is a nuclear option that burns down the entire central African mining industry to attempt (badly) to take care of a small region in the Congo. Five of the six mining regions in the Congo aren't even connected by road to the conflict area - they are all devastated by this, as are 10 surrounding countries.<br /><br />Dodd-Frank will not be implemented. It's impossible to administrate and even if perfectly executed, would not remove the militia. It is patterned after the Kimberley diamond process. Three years after Kimberley was implemented, the British army had to go in to Sierra Leon and clear out the militia who were still doing just fine. Dodd-Frank would have the same result.<br /><br />Demonize criminals, not minerals. Australia doesn't need Dodd-Frank to govern their massive tantalum mining because they don't have militia. The UN needs to grow a spine and go after the militia. If they don't, no amount of Dodd-Franking will solve this. It will only make it worse for those in the path of the nuclear bomb that Dodd-Frank is to central Africa.Chuck Blakemanhttp://chuckblakeman.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-28450970031882363412012-01-09T09:47:21.310-08:002012-01-09T09:47:21.310-08:00Interesting post. Thanks. I am growing more and mo...Interesting post. Thanks. I am growing more and more concerned about the potential for the Dodd-Frank debate to disunify DRC advocacy. I think it is centrally important to have a unified front when dealing with the US congress regarding DRC issues. I totally understand the necessity of the debate, I just hope that all parties involved establish points of agreement and go from there. From the outside looking in, it seems somewhat fractured. This is concerning, especially now.Anandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11428835613475519655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-59776770516960486012012-01-09T04:43:59.817-08:002012-01-09T04:43:59.817-08:00Dear Jason,
Thanks a million for this posting! I&#...Dear Jason,<br />Thanks a million for this posting! I'm always grateful for your passion about day-to-day affairs of this great country which has unfortunately been conspired against by so many saboteurs. Here are my reflections in relation to this posting:<br />First and foremost, the complexities of the geographical and historical backgrounds of the DR Congo and the Great Lakes region of Africa surely bring a new focus to the peace-building framework. The realities on the ground are so complex that they cannot be made to agree with traditional ways of peace-building and conflict-resolution, for they contain both historical and geographical features.<br /><br />However, although historical background constitutes a significant resource to achieving stable structures in the region, any peace arrangement to this end, should not ignore or overlook the geographic, physical and geological features that characterizes the region: presence of lakes serving for natural borders and with interposed islands, cross-flowing rivers, expanded forests, extensive mountain ranges, and above all the presence of a geological scandal!<br /><br />In January 2008, a peace conference, Programme AMANI was held in the town of Goma, the North Kivu capital, chaired by Father Apollinaire Malu Malu-- the then president of the electoral commission-- where all the different existing political parties and militias in the eastern region, mainly in both North and South Kivu gathered together to iron out their differences and then find a new way forward to a peaceful coexistence in the region. The conference ended with the signing of the Goma Peace Act on 23 January 2008 by all the armed groups. But, later in August of the same year, the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP)-- the party that was led by Laurent Nkunda and which among all others signed the Act-- unilaterally broke the ceasefire and launched an all-out offensive that has, so far provoked the displacement of more than 250,000 people. <br /><br />The Mission d’Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo (MONUC) now MONUSCO, despite being according to Carlos Rodriguez Soto(2009), the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world, has been unable or unwilling to protect the population, who have demonstrated angrily against it. Little wonder that its sometime-appointed commander, Spanish General Diaz de Villegas, resigned from the post in a space of two weeks of the appointment. Other MONUC commanders have complained that their mandate and rule of engagement deny them any possibility to launch surprise attacks. However, one may again critically look at this outbreak in economic terms: first, as Rodriguez (2009) points it across, it is not a coincidence that the war broke out at the beginning of August, just when the government of Joseph Kabila has signed a US$ 9 billion contract with China. Secondly, this region is known of holding 80 percent of the world reserves of coltan (combination of columbio and tantalo that which, if combined, produces a mineral indispensable in the manufacture of cell phones, laptops and latest-generation military equipment); its mines in Kivu are almost at ground level and for the last few years the mineral has been extracted by mostly children and youth exploited by armed militias, who later on ferry the coltan by lorries or helicopters to airports of some neighbouring countries, from where it is flown to destinations in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands. Shockingly enough, Rwanda, a country which does not have this mineral in its own, appeared as one of the world’s leading exporters of coltan. <br /><br />Indeed much more homework needs to be done for the liberation of the DR Congo. Any personal feedback is welcome on my ngendodav@yahoo.fr<br />DavidAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-69178771484698390342012-01-09T04:32:23.775-08:002012-01-09T04:32:23.775-08:00I don't think anything meaningful will be done...I don't think anything meaningful will be done as long there is a democrat president in the white house. It seems to me that republicans are more business oriented while democrats are more social oriented. They apply their different logic when approaching the situation in Congo. We had more result with Bush the second than with Clinton.<br />Don't forget Albright and Rice who vows to protect Rwanda interests.blaisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10271081481475980902noreply@blogger.com