The DRC's 'tained gold

The Christian Science Monitor has a good article on mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its plethora of natural resources has been far more of a curse than a benefit for the people living DRC, which was the site of one of the worst mass atrocities in history when it was the Congo Free State under the personal control of Belgium's King Leopold II.

While the DRC may have its nominal political independence, life is still largely misery for its inhabitants and the quest for natural resources fuels war, violence and exploitation.

But now there are growing efforts to halt the region's resource-related troubles. A June report by the international group Human Rights Watch shed light on the role of local militias, which apparently have ties to neighboring Uganda and Rwanda. They were using proceeds from gold mining to buy weapons to further their battle over control of the most productive mining areas, the report said. In the process, they killed thousands of civilians and extorted many poor local miners, reports the CSM. A major force preventing a breakdown - and allowing miners like Eric to make money for themselves - is the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo, which now has a battalion in Mongbwalu, in northeastern DRC.

Nevertheless, the digging continues. The war destroyed most other employment options, so many locals go to "the holes." Many diggers are ex-militia members, including young men and boys, who use picks and shovels now. At one mine near Mongbwalu, roughly 40 percent of the workers are under 18. About 25 percent are 12 to 14 years old.
Each miner gets paid in mine muck, usually three buckets for a full day's work, and all the gold that may or may not be in it.

One 12-year-old, who didn't give his name, says he works only for himself. "Both my parents were killed in the war," he says, walking along with a bucket of mud balanced on his head.