A salutary lesson for those inclined to meddle in complex conflicts. Sudarsan Raghavan writing in the Guardian:
More hereLoi Obama – Obama’s law.
Photograph courtesy of Sudarsan Raghavan/Washington Post
The legislation compels US companies to audit their supply chains to ensure they are not using “conflict minerals” – particularly gold, coltan, tin and tungsten from artisanal mines controlled by Congo’s murderous militias. It was championed by influential activists and lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, and tucked into the massive Wall Street reform law known as the Dodd-Frank Act.
The law’s supporters said it would weaken the militias by cutting off their mining profits. But the legislation, signed by President Obama four years ago, set off a chain of events that has propelled millions of miners and their families deeper into poverty, according to interviews with miners, community leaders, activists and Congolese and western officials, as well as recent visits to four large mining areas.
