THE

CONFLICT JOURNAL
ALL ABOUT THE DIFFERENT CONFLICTS AROUND US THE CONFLICT TODAY

Coltan Conflict
VIEW OF A REPORTER
Many mines in the Democratic
Republic of Congo are overruled by
strong rebel groups who illegally tax
the miners, including children, and
violate human rights. However, there
are some mines, such as The
Fungamwaka mine, which have been
deemed clean mines.
These clean mines are free of rebel
groups, human rights violations and Democratic Republic of
child labour and demonstrate how this
sector could be cleaned up under
Congo and its resources
effective regulation. This does come at
a cost, a cost too high to be passed The Democratic Republic of Congo is mineral rich,
onto the mine workers who are and people have sought to get access to coltan
struggling to make a decent living and outside of long-term contracts. This means that they
should really be passed onto the have winded up in the DRC due to the fact that weak,
companies who make huge profits state institutions are incapable of enforcing property
from these minerals being used in our rights or contracts, so many people have done
laptops, smartphones, and other anything they can to get their hands on this coltan,
electronic devices. leading to human rights violations, child labour etc.
etc.
Due to countries such as Australia, Brazil and Canada, supplying a Most of the worlds coltan
greater proportion of global coltan, the world still has lots of coltan and comes from modern large-scale
does not nedd to rely on the DRC for it, this could lead to less of the mines which abide by safety and
violence being fueled by minerals we all need in our daily life. environmental standards (such
Unfortunately, the conflict and violence in the DRC isnt only about as in Australia) but in the
coltan and natural resources and so wont be fully resolved by changes Democratic Republic of Congo,
in the international DRC coltan trade. A long history of factors, such as the situation is very different.
ethnicity, land ownership, citizenship, governance and regional politics
have all contributed to insecurity within and around the DRC.