denny Ethnic & National book

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has issued an international arrest warrant against General Laurent Nkunda for war crimes, and human rights monitors like Refugees International say that his troops have killed and raped civilians and pillaged their villages. He denies the charges. "I'm not a warlord ... I'm a liberator of the people," he said. "The central reason for the nearly six million dead in the Congo since 1996 is not ethnic strife but rather the scramble for Congo's enormous treasure trove of diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt, coltan, tin, timber and more," says Maurice Carney of Friends of the Congo. Carney is not alone. Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Maathai has assessed these misconceptions and said "these wars when you look at them, they are all about resources and who is going to control them." DRC harbors the richest, purest minerals in the world, many of them vital to the US defense industry. There is not one person who is reading this who does not benefit by mineral extraction and exploitation in DRC. For example, Congo has from 64%-80% of the world's reserve of coltan. Oil may arguably be the non-renewable resource which is front and center in every American's mind, but coltan is found in cell phones, laptops, digital cameras, and video game consoles. Coltan is the engine behind our communications systems, and 1500 people a day are dying in this region while Americans profit from corporate greed, take Congolese resources, turn ...