Conflict Minerals, Rebels and Child Soldiers in Congo

SUROOSH ALVI: It's late. We're deep in the heart of it now. I don't know how much water we have. We haven't eaten in a really long time. And my glasses are fogging up because it's so hot. And I can't see. And I'm walking in the mud. I don't know, man. I think this might be the stupidest thing I've ever done. The Democratic Republic of Congo. It's one of the poorest countries in the world, and thanks to insanely complicated mix of politics, armed conflict, and corruption, it's also one of the most under-reported. It also happens to be home to a nondescript black rock known as coltan, a vital ingredient in the production of nearly every cell phone and computer on the planet. Without coltan, our technology-driven lives would come to a screeching halt. And Congo has 80% of the world's supply. Congo also has cassiterite, gold, and a slew of other minerals that make the world go round. Now, you'd think that having so much of the stuff would be good for Congo, but the reality is far from the case. There's a reason they're called conflict minerals. [SHOUTING] SUROOSH ALVI: Since the mid 1990s, armed groups have used these minerals to fund a series of fantastically complicated and horrifically violent wars. MALE SPEAKER: We have to kill them. We have to kill them. SUROOSH ALVI: And as the tech boom drove up the price of these minerals, violence skyrocketed. Slaves to technology that we are, we had see for ourselves where these minerals were coming from and what these rebels were fighting for. MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: So together with my cameraman Jake and producer Jason, we hopped on a plane and flew to Congo. Our first stop was Kinshasa. To say that Congo's natural resources have been more of a curse than a blessing would be an understatement. Conrad described this place as "the vilest scramble for loot that has ever disfigured the human conscience." That was written in the 1800s, right around the time that Belgian colonists were stripping the country of its rich supply of ivory and rubber, killing nearly half the population in the process. In the 1960s, it was the United States that was after Congo's cobalt for its Cold War fighter jets, leading to its support for a dictator who renamed the country Zaire and embezzled billions of dollars. MOBUTO SESE SEKO: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Today, it's the global demand for technology that is inadvertently fueling the conflict in Congo. The statistics we read are staggering. Five million people have died in the Congo because of this conflict since the mid '90s until about 2007. It's a huge number. The most since any war since World War II. The government in Kinshasa says that the war is over, but Kinshasa is a long way from the jungles of eastern Congo, where most of the rebel groups and the minerals that finance them are located. So we needed to go east to find out what was really going on. One thing that had been drilled into our heads before we came to Congo was that you do not fly on Congolese airlines. This is a country whose aircraft are banned from European airspace. Last year, a crash that killed 20 people was the result of a crocodile escaping from a passenger's carry on luggage. But with Goma being over 1,000 miles away, we didn't have much of a choice. And as it turned out, that flight would be the most comfortable experience of the days to come. One thing we've noticed since we came here is that there are fires burning everywhere in Congo. I guess they're just burning their garbage. But it kind of feels apocalyptic at times. Watch out. We're in Goma. It's in eastern Congo, right on the Rwandan border. This has been the epicenter of the conflict since 1994. It's also the center for humanitarian aid. There are 51 different international organizations based here. As you can see, there's UN guys everywhere around us. It's kind of chaotic. We're also pretty close to the mines where coltan is extracted from, and we're going to go check that out. When we got to Goma, we met up with Tim Freccia, a veteran crisis and conflict photographer who has worked in Congo for years. He told us that we were under-dressed for our trip to the cold mountain mining town of Numbi, so we went shopping. I've got a nice polo here. I got a Minnesota Golden Gophers hoodie. Jake got a great Carhartt. But I think this might be a strong look when I'm going to interview the militia. Some Wu wear. The only problem is it's *** disgusting. Is it pretty good? MALE SPEAKER: Yeah. SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah, you like it? MALE SPEAKER: I like it. SUROOSH ALVI: He likes it. We got our outfits. So we're going to visit the mines today, the Numbi mines. It's where they extract coltan from. HOREB BUJAMBO: And cassiterite and tourmaline, and some other precious stones. SUROOSH ALVI: This is Horeb. He's our new buddy. He's our new best friend. He knows everyone. He's a bit of a celebrity in these parts. HOREB BUJAMBO: [SPEAKING FRENCH] SUROOSH ALVI: He's got a TV show. What's your show called? HOREB BUJAMBO: Monusco Realites. It's a kind of Congo reality. SUROOSH ALVI: Is it safe to say that you're a Congolese reality TV star? HOREB BUJAMBO: I'm a celebrity for many Congolese, just because I tell them the stories which they-- SUROOSH ALVI: They don't know. HOREB BUJAMBO: They don't know. I tell stories about Congo. SUROOSH ALVI: I've driven a lot of treacherous roads before, but this one seems to be the worst. HOREB BUJAMBO: We are still going up. Up and up. SUROOSH ALVI: Oh my god, I can't even look right now. This is completely ***. HOREB BUJAMBO: Yeah, Yeah. I saw vehicles, they went down. SUROOSH ALVI: Fall down the hill? HOREB BUJAMBO: It's not a safe road, yeah. SUROOSH ALVI: We figured that out. HOREB BUJAMBO: Despite the beauty of this place. SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah, it's beautiful. HOREB BUJAMBO: Yeah. SUROOSH ALVI: What if we all just push him out? Straight out? Nothing's working this way. He's not getting anywhere. MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Where did all these people appear from? Like, we're in the middle of nowhere. I thought you were kidding when you said hiring local labor. They just conveniently had a shovel, as well. MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Like, as soon as we sank into the mud hole, the kids were all like, thumbs up, we got him. Now they're all here, and they're going to work until they get us out, and they're gonna get paid. MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Yes, yes. We finally got out. But before long, we got stuck again. And again. And again. Until one thing became very clear. We were not making it back to Goma anytime soon. It looks like we're probably going to end up sleeping at the mines tonight, which is a bit odd. I can't believe connecting two land cruisers with seatbelts worked. They're saying we have to hurry because it's going to rain again soon, and if we don't get past this patch of red earth, we're going to be stuck sleeping here. When we finally got to Numbi, we had to smooth talk the local officials into showing us the mines. So these are all the powerful dudes of the town. Yet another negotiation. Bonjour, Suroosh. MALE SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE]. SUROOSH ALVI: Nice to meet you. [FRENCH]. This way. In what would become a running theme for the rest of our trip, the locals said the mines were just over there around the bend. And then we would get over there and around the bend, they were just over there, and over the hill. Like a quick two kilometers. Holy ***. I'm about to pass out, Jake. Hey Jake, how many people are working? JAKE BURGHART: None. SUROOSH ALVI: Really? JAKE BURGHART: They've all gone home. We have to come back tomorrow. SUROOSH ALVI: The mine had no miners. It was completely empty. The locals told us that this mine in particular is owned by a member of Congo Senate who lives in Kinshasa, and that his miners pull 15 kilos of coltan out of it every day. At $30 a kilo, that's about $13,000 a month, a lot of money in a country where most of the people survive on less than $1 a day. And while the senator gets the big rocks, the bottom feeders get by on what washes down the stream. So we got totally set up. Basically when we pulled into town. MALE SPEAKER: Lower, lower, lower your voice. SUROOSH ALVI: Basically we got totally set up. When we pulled into town, alarm bells went off. And they said yeah, we'll show you a mine, and they took us on a trek far, far away from town to a mine where they sent in advance someone ahead of us to clear everyone out because there were kids working in the mine. Then we got there, and they're like, oh, yeah, everybody's just gone home for the day. They actually fessed up to that to Horeb, to our guy, so, I'm still pissed off. It's gonna be an interesting night. Probably about 5:30 in the morning here in the Numbi mining town. This is a town with no electricity, with no running water. We basically got stranded out here, which wasn't really part of the plan. They didn't take too kindly to us initially, but they were even worried about our safety, because we're in South Kivu, and they're not used to this kind of thing. A bunch of foreigners spending a night here. They gave us this little house to stay in. Then they offered us a couple soldiers to guard us all night long. You know, yesterday we experienced them trying to keep some secrets hidden. So today we have a plan. We're going to break free. We're going to go a couple kilometers, and we're going to set up and wait for the miners to show up so we can really see how these mines operate. This is the main street of the Numbi mining town. It's very muddy today, after raining all night. It reeks of urine. Here's my breakfast, along with two Advils and some kind of mega antibiotic cure all. When anything goes wrong in Africa, you take that pill. Plugs up your ***, reduces fever. Well, so much for getting a head start on everyone. Oh, ***. Jason, Jason, come here. I think it's like, quicksand. I just kept going down. This is not going to be fun. This is the main Numbi mine. Just got there. These houses are all miners who work right here. It took two days of trekking and looking. We're finally here in the heart of the mine. This is where all kinds of minerals are coming out of, everything from tantalum to coltan. MALE SPEAKER: This is what you call tourmaline. I can show you one that is the biggest one. [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. They say that this is the most expensive. This is where they get it. You can see that this man is fortunate, because he got this block of stone, which has everything. SUROOSH ALVI: A lot inside. MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, it has a lot inside. SUROOSH ALVI: It seems so primitive, with their bare hands, and with shovels. They're pulling it out, and a lot of it ends up in super high tech devices. And you never think when you're using those devices back home, that this is how it actually starts. And that without this process, it wouldn't exist, or it wouldn't work. The mine that we finally saw was so different from the horror stories that we had heard. We were expecting to see forced child labor, inhumane conditions, and rebels everywhere. Maybe things were changing in eastern Congo, or at least that's how this mine made it seem. In recent years, activist organizations in the US and Europe have been pressuring electronics companies into taking greater responsibility for keeping rebels out of their supply chain. And in 2010, the US Congress passed legislation forcing companies to declare their use of conflict minerals. MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: And who gets the credit for this change? Is it the government in Kinshasha? [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Why did the government want to make these changes? Was it because of the pressure of western corporations and governments? MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Things seemed so peaceful that it was hard to imagine that there was ever a war here. Everything that we've been walking on, during the like, second Congolese war, this was like a battlefield. The mine was an almost picture perfect symbol of progress, but I couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before a bunch of guys showed up with guns and screwed it all up. TIM FRECCIA: That's the whole point with conflict minerals is it's in every businessman's interest to keep conflict going. Then there's no control, there's no government. There's nobody watching whether or not children are working. SUROOSH ALVI: Our last stop in Numbi was the coltan storage facility. And not surprisingly, it was the nicest building in town. MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Let me see? Wow. This is coltan. This is what it's all about. 80% of the world's supply comes from here in Congo. Thank you, Congo, for providing this for us. MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: And that's cassarite. Is it pure, solid cassarite? MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: And this is basically what tin, tin ore comes from. MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, it's heavy. SUROOSH ALVI: It's heavy. We struggled for two days to find the mines, and eventually we got there. We are going back to Goma on motorcycles because roads are so bad now, and so dangerous that they're saying that a Land Cruiser almost fell off a cliff last night. We'd seen one of the mines where coltan comes from. We're happy that the conditions there seem to be improving, but with so many armed groups operating in eastern Congo, that could change in an instant. But where did all these rebels come from in the first place? Most people know about the Rwandan genocide. Hutus killing Tutsis. But few understand how it led to a war in neighboring Congo. Here's the short version. Millions of Rwandan refugees streaming across the border. Among them, many of the Hutu soldiers involved in the genocide. Soldiers that the new Tutsi leadership in Rwanda wanted dead. Before long, eastern Congo became home to a litany of armed militias supported by foreign countries. We're on our way to meet the Mai Mai. They are a witch doctor militia and self-proclaimed protectors of Congolese soil. They are the most feared militia in the country. It is believed they have special powers. They can fly, they can disappear. And bullets pass through them like water. And we're going to go camping with them. Most of the groups who have been using minerals to fuel their military operations have been from the countries surrounding Congo. The Mai Mai are a sort of patriotic response to this influx of foreigners, and they are the all too often overlooked link in the vicious circle that is conflict in eastern Congo. As long as they're convinced that Congo is being corrupted by outsiders, they will keep fighting. [CAR HONKING] MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: So we left Goma three hours ago, and on our drive here, again, beautiful. Eastern Congo is stunning. But as we approached Masisi territory in this town that we're in now, things were getting worse. More humanitarian aid vehicles everywhere. Everybody here needs help. The locals, they're dirt poor, and they're hungry. Horeb is going to talk to people to sort *** out. Make sure we don't get into any trouble as we proceed. The Mai Mai agreed to let us into their world, which we're really excited to see. MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris. JAKE BURGHART: This is the second time people have thought I was Chuck Norris. MALE SPEAKER: Yeah? JAKE BURGHART: I didn't even have a headband on. SUROOSH ALVI: So what's happening? We're waiting for the motorcycles? HOREB BUJAMBO: We are still bargaining about the price for the motorcycles. Going to that area is not easy. It's something like going to a war zone. People here are saying that the last time when they went there, they were beaten by Mai Mai when they took some people there. Then they're asking us to guarantee that when they spend the night there, if we shall assure that nobody will beat them, and nobody will traumatize them. SUROOSH ALVI: The further we got from Masisi, the reality of the situation we were heading into began to sink in. The various rebel groups that still occupy much of the bush are packs of battle-hardened, murderous thugs, whose names have become synonymous with the word ***. FEMALE SPEAKER 1: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: And the most notorious rebel group operating in Congo today is the FDLR, a Hutu power group tied to the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. FEMALE SPEAKER 2: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: So this is where the road ends. Now we wait for some motorcycles. We sat around waiting at a nearby UN post for the motorcycle guys we hired to arrive. Yeah, the same guys that were harassing us when we arrived in Masisi. We got six kilometers from the point where the road ends for the car, and we're waiting for the motorcycles. Our motorcycles aren't coming, or they're not here yet. And this is the UN base in the area. We had to register with them, which kind of makes me a bit nervous. They say it's just a formality in case something happens. The Congolese government doesn't really have any jurisdiction where we're going. So you turn the phone on for 15 minutes. UN OFFICER: Only 15. SUROOSH ALVI: OK. UN OFFICER: That is only for you. SUROOSH ALVI: In the evening, and in the morning. 6:00 and 6:00. UN OFFICER: No. Only-- SUROOSH ALVI: Only once. UN OFFICER: Only 15 minutes. SUROOSH ALVI: In 24 hours. OK. I understand. Thank you. JAKE BURGHART: Thank you. UN OFFICER: We are not using this line. We have radio sets. We are specially open for you. SUROOSH ALVI: OK. UN OFFICER: For 15 minutes. If you have some mess, you can talk. SUROOSH ALVI: OK. Thank you. And then we were standing there, and I just thought, we should just ask them if we can sleep here, because I don't like the idea of if our motorcycle guys show up, we go six kilometers with them, and then it's going to get dark, it's going to rain, and we're gong to be wandering through the Congolese jungle in the dark, trying to find the Mai Mai. Sounds a bit sketchy to me. Just as I was getting comfortable, the motorcycles guys arrived, and we were off, racing to get to the Mai Mai camp before dark. As we were riding deeper into the jungle, we got stopped by a bunch of young guys with guns. We'd been told that the Congolese military, the FARDC, were a little rough around the edges. But there was something about these guys that made us nervous. MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: And that's when Horeb whispered to us that these guys were the dreaded Rwandan Hutu rebels, the FDLR. Basically, the last people in the world we wanted to run into. HOREB BUJAMBO: I knew that these people we met on the way were Rwandans and not Mai Mai just because they were speaking in Kinyarwandan, and this is what the Mai Mai don't do. [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HOREB BUJAMBO: This is what people know about the FDLR. If you don't cooperate or so, you can pay your life. SUROOSH ALVI: We'd heard rumors that for some reason, the Mai Mai and the FDLR were working together, but it wasn't until the creepy commander of their outpost gave us four of his armed guards to take us to the Mai Mai camp that we actually believed it. So we continued our journey through the jungle at night. You see anything? I don't know how far we are from the final destination, the Mai Mai camp, but it's late. We're deep in the heart of it now. I don't know, man. I think this might be the stupidest thing I've ever done. How far are we? We arrived here 14 hours after we left Vilma this morning. The last three hours of which was walking through the jungle in the dark, which is a first for me. I'm not afraid to say it, I am soft, living in New York City, sitting at my desk 12 hours a day. I'm a professional emailer, just [TYPING SOUNDS]. I wanted to stay with the Indian UN guys, because their place was great. Because I knew there was no way we were going to get there in 90 minutes, and I knew we were going to end up walking through a Congolese jungle at night. And it sucked, but we're here. MALE SPEAKERS: [SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: We're in the Mai Mai camp right now. We are way off the grid, deep in the bush. We're so far out here that the UN jurisdiction ended, and then the Congolese government troops, the FARDC, their jurisdiction ended. We encountered some Rwandan rebels going through that area. And after that, it's just bush. But hopefully we're gonna meet the general now. We want to interview him and get an understanding of why they're the most political and feared militia in this country. It would be great if we could see the special powers that they have. I want to see them turn themselves into animals. I think that would be pretty cool. All right. I need Imodium. MALE SPEAKERS: [SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: The term Mai Mai is shorthand for the wide assortment of local militias in Eastern Congo. General Janvier is the leader of a group known as the Patriotic Alliance for a Free and Sovereign Congo, also known as the APCLS. The thing about rebel leaders is that much of their power lies in their mystique. They don't want to seem overeager to meet the press. So we had a wait around until the general could carve some time out of his busy schedule to meet with us. MALE SPEAKER: He looks like Chuck Norris. SUROOSH ALVI: In the meantime, we hung out with some of his soldiers. Horeb, how many times has he been shot? HOREB BUJAMBO: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] APCLS SOLDIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Who was he fighting when he was shot? APCLS SOLDIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HOREB BUJAMBO: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] APCLS SOLDIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HOREB BUJAMBO: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] APCLS SOLDIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: When they say Tutsis, it's shorthand for the Rwandan government, who they blame for most of Congo's problems. HOREB BUJAMBO: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] APCLS SOLDIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Does he have a name, the dog? HOREB BUJAMBO: Bobby. SUROOSH ALVI: Bobby. HOREB BUJAMBO: They say that Bobby has also battled and contributed to many fighting. SUROOSH ALVI: Really? But he looks so nice. He just winked at me. MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Just as our friend was ordered to stop speaking, we received word that the general was finally ready to see us. But in order to do so, we had to cross one of the sketchiest Lord of the Flies- esque bridges imaginable. Then we were led to an even more remote encampment. Then, after being surrounded by heavily armed guards, we met with the general's secretary, who meticulously transcribed our every word. The general finally granted us an audience. We can start? HOREB BUJAMBO: Yeah. SUROOSH ALVI: OK, monsieur le general, thank you for your time. My first question is, since the time of Belgian colonization, the natural resources of this country have been taken from the Congolese people. As the protectors of Congolese soil, what is your view on the mining that's taken place in the country and the way foreign corporations and governments are involved with that? GENERAL JANVIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: It seemed like Janvier's beef was not with foreigners in general, but with the current government of Rwanda. So I was starting to understand why they'd team up with the FDLR. It seems to me that you have a common enemy with the FDLR, and I'm wondering, are you friends with them? And also, do you think that they should leave this country, along with the rest of the Rwandans? GENERAL JANVIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Now I was totally confused. Were they or weren't they allied with the FDLR? The UN group of experts report that you and your group have been working with FDLR, and it's very important for us to get clarity on this from you, so we communicate this report correctly. GENERAL JANVIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Even though I knew this was total ***, because it was the FDLR who escorted us to the Mai Mai camp, I didn't want to *** off our new friends, so I decided to change topics. Could you explain to me what some of these special powers are that the Mai Mai have? GENERAL JANVIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: I am a Muzungu, but I am not white. And I believe in God. GENERAL JANVIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: So the general wouldn't show off his magical powers, but what he did insist on showing us were his prisoners, two FARDC soldiers they kidnapped two months ago while patrolling the area. This was a remarkably weird, unsettling, and Heart of Darkness moment. It seems that they're pretty healthy, and haven't been abused or beaten. So why are you being nice to them? GENERAL JANVIER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: After the general served up his propaganda, he fed us a nice, hot meal of Congolese rice and beans. It's the first meal we've had in a few days. We're about to trek through the jungle. This time in the middle of the afternoon, so I expect it will be hot. Took us 14 hours to get here. Hopefully it won't take that long to get back. He was a nice guy, the general. On our trek back, we managed to *** off the creepy FDLR commander. FDLR COMMANDER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SUROOSH ALVI: Got extorted by our motorcycle guys. What happened? JASON MOJICA: Well, they're holding out for like, a whole lot more money. SUROOSH ALVI: The UN guys are gonna get involved. And had our lives threatened by a bunch of locals drunk on 12% beer. But the strangest part of it all was that by this point, after just one week in the Congo, all this lunacy seemed completely normal. Leaving tomorrow. The trip has come to an end. It was good vibes, it was scary at times. We learned a lot. We had to work hard to get to the story. Whether we were going to the mines in Numbi, or whether we were trying to meet with General Janvier. It's an incredibly complicated situation in place. There are no easy answers. But we-- well, how do I end that? There are no easy answers. It's easy to pin the country's problems on the past. On the legacy of brutality by Belgian colonialists and kleptocratic rulers, the practices of Western corporations, or wars with neighboring nations. But that doesn't make any of them go away. If we demanded conflict-free electronics, maybe the rebel groups would simply melt away into the jungle. Or maybe it would lead to businesses avoiding coltan from Congo altogether, making one of the poorest countries in the world even poorer, which is kind of what seems to be happening. Congo is one of the most under-reported stories in the world, and now we understand why. It's so insanely complicated that's it's hard to know where to start. We did, however, see some signs of hope and progress. But it's a fragile progress in a place where anyone with a gun and an agenda can basically have his own little kingdom. So until the government in Kinshasa takes control of its territory and ensures that its army is the only one operating in the jungle, Congo will continue to be a war zone. And instead of being a blessing, the minerals that fuel this conflict will continue to be a curse.