[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11145-11146]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 CONGO

  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.

[[Page 11146]]

  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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