Editorials:

Would you still buy your cell phones, TVs and laptops knowing the blood, war and rape behind the parts that make up your technology? Every vibration, every sound, every light on your phone comes from a mineral that was mined in places with soil rich in minerals. Many times, these are conflict minerals.

Conflict minerals are minerals in your cell phones and computers that have been mined under war-like circumstances.

How does a mineral become so important that a country will do anything to profit from these commodities? The wealth is controlled by a small number of warlords and mineral traffickers. The warlords control the mines, forcing the miners to work for free and then sell the minerals. This is a continuous cycle.

Rape has become the main weapon to enforce power. The warlords and soldiers have instituted regulations that soldiers need to pillage villages and rape women. If the people in the village resist, the warlords continue to rape the women. In the face of this intimidation, the villagers agree to mine for little or no compensation to save the women from being brutally raped.

The FDRC are the militia in the Congo. These are the soldiers who work under the warlords and enforce the war rape.

Before the Rwandan genocide, the FDRC soldiers populated the country of Rwanda. However, once the displacement