 |
| (Photo: AFP) |
Last week's
tragedy at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in South Africa has drawn international
attention on the deplorable working conditions of miners in that country. But
was there any media coverage of the sixty people who died two weeks ago in a
gold mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)? Barely.
Stretching
into the depths of the mountain, a tunnel, carved by hand, is supported by a
wooden structure like that on a set of an old Western movie. It gets dark very
quickly as we move heads down into the tunnel. It’s hard to tell if our
shortness of breath comes from the slight but unavoidable claustrophobic
anxiety or the actual lack of oxygen down the well.
“With time,
we actually forget about the dangers, even though they are real,” says Bisima,
a 33-year-old miner working at the Nyabibwe pit in eastern DRC. “Mine collapse
remains the greatest danger,” he says.
While
Lonmin's Marikana mine carnage in South Africa got an incredible amount of
coverage last week, only two weeks ago, 60 people died following a mine
collapse in Pangoyi, in Ituri Province. However, there were barely any reports
about the incident.
No safety
measures
In the DRC,
no one protests for better living conditions. Between the constant conflicts
and extreme poverty, a human life does not hold much value.
“People
risk their lives. This is our daily reality here in the DRC. In Nyabibwe, no miner
wears a protective helmet or gloves,” says Fidel Bafilemba, a researcher for
the American NGO Enough Project in the DRC.
Conditions
are no better in the Ituri gold mine. “When we descend into the wells, there
are no safety measures. The mine can collapse at any moment. And we work very
hard, even at night. Those are not conditions for human beings to work in,”
complains Patrick, a 20-year-old miner from Mubi in the Walikale region.
Abundant
resources
Although
the DRC has mineral resources that would make any Western country pale with
envy, it remains one of the world's least developed countries. The nation is
Africa's leading tin exporter and the fifth one in the world. Congo's subsoil
holds 80% of the world’s coltan reserves. The metal is used in the manufacture
of almost all electronic devices. Gold and diamonds are also present in
abundance.
But miners
often dig using only pickaxes and shovels, without any motorised tools. A
number of mines have virtually no infrastructure whatsoever because they are
informal and don't belong to any large industrial corporation. The miners sell
the minerals to traders who take them to the cities of Goma or Bukavu, where
they are purchased in bulk by foreign companies.
Blood
minerals
Although
few human rights organisations tackle the issue of working conditions in
Congolese mines, many nevertheless campaign against the use of the infamous
“blood diamonds” which are believed to finance armed rebel groups in the
eastern part of the country.
In 2010, a
coalition of non-governmental organisations, including Enough Project and
Global Witness, successfully lobbied the US Congress to pass a law on blood
diamonds. However, with the enforcement of the law, the mineral trade in the
DRC has almost come to a standstill. Instead of investing in a system of
traceability that would guarantee the “cleanness” of the minerals they
purchased, American companies simply withdrew from the DRC.
As a
result, the sales of minerals like coltan and cassiterite has dropped by 90%,
and the living and working conditions of the miners have deteriorated further.
“We feel
forsaken. People say that this law will help our country and stop the war, but
we don’t see any difference. In fact, things are even worse today: there is
still insecurity and we have no income,” says Safari, a 50-year-old miner in
Nyabibwe.
"Cleaning"
In the last
two years, numerous projects to “clean” the Congolese mining sector and
guarantee the origin of the minerals have been launched by the United Nations,
the United States of America and the International Conference for the Great
Lakes Region. But these efforts were stumped by the M23 rebellion.
The
rebellion takes its name from a 2009 peace accord which the rebels say was
violated by Kinshasa. They were joined by hundreds of defectors from the
Congolese army who walked out into the bush in support of fugitive Congolese
General Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court on war
crimes charges.
In Katanga,
a province spared by the conflicts in southern DRC, a system of traceability
has been put in place, allowing the trade of minerals to continue
uninterrupted. However, working conditions in the Katanga mines have not
improved.
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.