Congo's coltan war: how the West can help...

As Simon Tisdall has pointed out on Comment is Free, the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo looks intractable – and there is little appetite, in Britain or elsewhere, to send more troops there. But while the fighting is not going to stop as long as militias control the region's natural resources, consumers in the west do have the power to limit their funds.

One of the precious metals mined in eastern Congo is coltan. It is used in many common products: mobiles, computers, digital cameras, GPS equipment, airbags, hearing aids and even pacemakers. While 80% of the world's known coltan reserves are in eastern Congo, only about 1% of the metal sold on the open market is Congolese. More...

See also:

1. DR Congo: activists slam global indifferance to world's biggest "rape mine..."
2. Congo: what is the war REALLY about? Ethnicity? Or the Congo's immense resources?
3. The Coltan War
4. Next time you want to buy some gold, you might want to look at this first...