Pick up any electronic device – a mobile phone, laptop, mp3 player or tablet – and you might unknowingly be contributing to a war on the other side of the world.

Rare minerals used in the construction of new-age electronic devices have become the latest ‘fuel’ in the deadliest conflict since World War II.

Claiming over five million casualties in two decades, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) unrest, which originated from issues such as politics and ethnicity, has become a war of profit, with armed groups fighting for control over mining areas.

The resources coming from these mines – gold, tin, tungsten, and tantalum – are used in many electronics products, directly connecting people all over the world to the conflict.

Raising awareness amongst the international community, a man by the name of Delly Mawazo Sesete formed a petition - ‘Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc: Make a conflict-free product that includes minerals from Eastern Congo’ - that has gathered 61,000 signatures to date.

With support for the petition including celebrities such as Emile Hirsch, Ryan Gosling, Emmanuelle Chriqui and many more,it appears the demand for conflict-free electronics is rapidly becoming a new consumer movement.

Speaking to Our World Today Enough Projects’ Raise Hope for Congo campaign manager JD Stier says while ‘conflict-free’ is not yet an internationally recognised certification scheme, it is well on its way to becoming one.

“I really believe that the trade in conflict minerals in Eastern Congo will be the next blood diamonds movement,” Stier said.

Enough Projects believes that if the international community and the Congolese people unite to create an internationally agreed upon set of certification standards for a ‘conflict-free’ logo, peace can be brought to the region.

“Currently armed groups have consolidated control of the mining sector in Eastern Congo and by cleaning up the trade in conflict minerals; we make possible greater advances,” Stier said.

He says the most urgent advances beyond minerals trade are to address security sector reform and justice efforts.

“Valued efforts by the international community and the United Nations’ largest peace-keeping operation based right there in Eastern Congo put significant money into security sector reform and justice efforts, and quite frankly, there are many people that think those efforts have fallen flat on their face.”

“So the consumer movement has attached itself to the main economic driver of the conflict and by raising awareness around armed minerals and the connection we have to the conflict, we dry up that revenue source to the armed groups and make it possible for the United Nations and other entities to move in and make much greater strides in those two arenas – security sector reform and justice efforts.”

As the conflict in Congo has been grossly under-reported, many believe the Enough Projects’ Raise Hope for Congo campaign as well as the UN and other affiliates are starting ‘from scratch’, but Stier says this is incorrect.

“There are a few companies that are going into Eastern Congo and are setting up good examples - good models of clean mines and we want to support those efforts on the ground.”

Motorola Solutions is already mining ethically in Eastern Congo, which is encouraged by organisations like the Enough Project, but they are determined to get Apple on board.

“Without any disagreement, Apple is the industry leader in consumer electronics… the brand is amazing,” Stier said.

“Young people around the world, including in Eastern Congo, love and cherish Apple products… I mean getting an Apple product is an amazing thing for any young person and with that brand and level of unparalleled profit comes the responsibility, as Apple itself said, to ‘think differently’.”

“Apple being the leader has done a better job than most in getting a master hold of its supply chain, understanding where it gets its minerals from, and so it is expertly positioned because of the amount of resources it has.”

“(Apple) can be the company that goes into Eastern Congo and shows other businesses how it’s done, become the leader in the region; where Apple goes, everyone else will follow.”

Stier says that if Apple made the commitment to mine ethically, development in Eastern Congo would increase, immediately benefiting the Congolese people.

“It would mean economic diversification through a legitimized mining sector that bring with it increased capacity building and job training, and these are some of the most urgent needs,” said Stier while speaking exclusively with OWT.

“Most people in Eastern Congo lack the most basic of services and the most basic of opportunities like education and health, so this commitment really would spur new opportunity and would immediately increase development and that diversification that is so urgently needed.”

As the Enough Projects’ Raise Hope for Congo campaign works with Congolese faith leaders, businesses, civil society and both sides of government, they strongly maintain that they will do whatever it takes to make Congo a more peaceful country.

“I believe that stakeholders on this issue are working to put into place practices that will benefit the people of Congo instead of the armed groups currently controlling much of the mining sector,” Stier said.

Stier says he is trying to clean up the mess that has been created through history and the government’s neglect in an effort to “make sure that the people of Congo get every benefit that they can from their own natural resources”.

The strong public support for conflict-free electronics has escalated in the last couple of years through celebrity endorsement, the growing global movement of Change.org, faith movements and even an explosion of student activism on university campuses.

“We’re seeing such a rapidly growing movement that there’s no chance that this is going anywhere but up,” Stier said.

He is urging people from around the world to subscribe to www.raisehopeforcongo.org to spread awareness for the plight of the Congolese people.

“It’s for people today, right now to join this movement…the more names and the more diversity and the broader the foundation of support, the more rapidly we’re going to bring peace to Eastern Congo.

OWT has made several efforts to contact Apple, but is yet to receive a response.  We will continue to provide updates on this story as information is made available.

Image sourced from http://levantium.com