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A new report titled "Supporting the War Economy in the DRC: European Companies and the Coltan Trade - Five Case Studies" will be presented on Monday at the International Press Centre in Brussels, Belgium.
Organised by the International Peace Information Service (IPIS), an independent research institute that prepared the report, and a coalition of European NGOs, the conference will discuss the results of an investigation into the commercial activities of European companies involved in the coltan trade and named in the reports of the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal
Exploitation of Natural Resources of the DRC. Representatives of DRC civil society will present their views on the issue of trade in natural resources and war in their country.
"Since the outbreak of the second Congolese war in August 1998, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been caught up in a fight over their country's vast natural resources - a forgotten war which has cost over two million lives so far," IPIS and the European NGO coalition stated. "Recent information from Congo is alarming: the humanitarian situation is deteriorating and there is renewed fighting in the northeast of the country."
"Coltan, an ore containing the rare tantalum metal, was singled out because it is an essential element in the production of mobile phones and computers, symbols par excellence of modern European lifestyle," the statement added.
The report will be available at the conference, which will be held in English and French, with no translation.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
