Congo

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I rise today to talk about what this Congress did to help one of the world's most forgotten yet most deadly conflicts--that in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Former Kansas Senator Sam Brownback invited me to eastern Congo almost 10 years ago and later I returned with Senator Sherrod Brown in 2010.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a nation of breathtaking natural beauty, rich in a vast array of resources. It is also a badly broken country, weak in governance and dominated by relentless poverty, warlords, pillaging soldiers, and horrific, almost incomprehensible, violence. A barbaric civil war spanning more than a decade in Congo is the most lethal conflict since World War II.

Eastern Congo is known as the ``Rape Capital of the World.'' In fact, according to the United Nations, regional war and rape leaves an estimated 1,000 or more women assaulted every day in the Congo. That is 12 percent of all Congolese women.

I will try to describe the city of Goma in eastern Congo to those who haven't been there. It is almost impossible. Imagine one of the poorest places on Earth, where people are literally starving, where they are facing the scourge of disease, where malaria and AIDS cut short the lives of far too many. Imagine a nearby active volcano. Then superimpose over that the misfortune of ongoing war and unrest that has ravaged the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo for years and resulted in millions of deaths and unspeakable sexual violence. Armed militias, some left over from the genocide in Rwanda, continue to operate in the region, terrorizing civilians and inflicting horrific brutality.

The United Nations has a 20,000-member peacekeeping force in the area with an impressive new mandate to bring stability, but it can only do so much. The area is still very fragile, awash in weapons, warlords, and competing regional interests. It is also rich in valuable minerals that are found in our every-day electronics, jewelry, and other products.

It has been said that the Congo war contains ``wars within wars''--and that is true. But fueling much of the violence is a bloody contest for control of these vast mineral resources.

Most people probably don't realize that many of the products we use and wear every day, from automobiles to our cell phones and even our wedding rings, may use one of these minerals--and that there is a possibility it was mined using forced labor from an area of great violence.

We can not begin to solve the problems of eastern Congo without tackling a key source of funding for armed groups, which is the mining of conflict minerals, including tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold. We as a nation and as consumers, as well as industries that use these minerals, have a responsibility to ensure that our economic activity does not support such violence.

NGOs like the Enough Project have led the way in informing the American people about what goes into the jewelry, electronics, and manufacturing equipment they wear and use.

That is why I joined with Senators Brownback and Feingold and Congressman Jim McDermott to support legislation that would help stem the flow of proceeds from illegally mined minerals into those perpetuating unspeakable violence. That law passed almost 4 years ago. Its requirement is simple: If a company registered in the United States uses any of a small list of key minerals from the Congo (tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold)--minerals known to be involved in the conflict areas--then such usage must be reported in that company's SEC disclosure. Companies can also include information showing steps taken to ensure the minerals are legitimately mined and sourced and that by responsibly sourcing these minerals, they are not contributing to the region's violence.

It is not a ban on using the materials or a requirement to source responsibly. Instead it was a reasonable step--a reporting requirement--to shed some light on the issue and to encourage companies using these minerals to source them responsibly.

It took some time for the Securities and Exchange Commission to thoughtfully craft the rule for this law. And disappointingly, as is increasingly too often the case with the rulemaking process, some tried to gut the law in court.

But the law was upheld repeatedly in court, moved forward as enacted by Congress. The first filing reports were submitted to the SEC early this month. This is a milestone.

A look at these filings shows us that some companies have been working for several years already to use their collective financial incentives to foster clean and legitimate supply chains out of eastern Congo. And I want to commend a few of these companies for taking such an early and responsible lead on this issue, including Apple, Intel, and electronics components manufacturer Kemet, which has a branch of its business in my home State of Illinois.

For example, Intel has created its first conflict-free computer chip, while still using responsibly sourced minerals from Congo, and took its reporting a step further by voluntarily submitting it to third-party audits. Under the Conflict-Free Smelter program, the number of international smelters operating free from conflict minerals continues to grow, with almost 90 smelters--40 percent of the world's total smelters--being certified as conflict-free and over 150 companies and industry associations participating in the program. After being refined, the origins of the material become difficult to track, as these smelters purchase materials from a variety of sources. The smelter or refiner therefore represents a critical point in the supply chain where we can look for assurances about whether or not the material has been purchased from conflict-free sources. Apple has confirmed that its entire tantalum supply chain is conflict free.

Another leader in the electronics industry has been Motorola Solutions, headquartered in Schaumberg, IL. Motorola Solutions emerged early as a company dedicated to cleaning up its supply chain, and to do so, it helped establish Solutions for Hope, dedicated to developing a ``closed-pipe'' supply chain. In the Rubaya region of the North Kivu province in the DRC, it has done just that. Tantalum mines in Rubaya were directly funding the leader of the vicious M23 rebel group, Bosco Ntaganda. Through persistent effort, diligent monitoring and the banding together of other likeminded corporations, those 17 mines are now certified conflict-free, and most importantly, M23 has laid down its arms and Bosco Ntaganda stands before the International Criminal Court to face charges for the atrocities he and his comrades committed.

According to the Enough Project's recent report on the impact of this legislation, armed groups and the Congolese army are no longer present at two-thirds of tin, tantalum and tungsten mines surveyed in eastern Congo. And as you may have seen recently, Dutch smart phone manufacturer Fairphone is making its products with conflict-free raw materials. Fairphone has already sold 35,000 units and is hoping to expand production as more consumers embrace conflict-free electronics. Fairphone and others are leading by example, and proving that conflict-free is not only possible, but it can be profitable too.

This was the whole point of the legislation. And consumers will finally have an option to invest in and purchase from those companies that are making a good-faith effort to source from this war stricken area responsibly.

I thank my many colleagues here in the Congress on both sides of the aisle who helped make this bill a reality and the many responsible companies that are taking steps to help ensure their sourcing of minerals does not contribute to the horrific violence in mineral-rich Congo. The Congolese people have suffered entirely too much, and I sincerely believe that these efforts will be part of the long-term solution to the quest for stability and peace in their country.

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