Since the beginning of the second civil war in 1998, over 5.4 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have died as different militias within the nation launched raids at one another. The coveted prize? Coltan, a mineral that is found in nearly all cellphones, laptops and other electronics, according to Dr. Peter Eichstaedt. Last Friday in the Mural Room of Paresky Commons, Eichstaedt, a wartime reporter and author of the book “Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the World’s Deadliest Place,” shared his insight with the Andover community on the role of coltan in Congo’s on-going civil war. The Congo is currently responsible for supplying 10 to 15 percent of the world’s coltan. The value of the mineral has increased tremendously since the 1996 Internet boom, causing strife within the nation for control of the market for the mineral, according to Eichstaedt. “This is not a conflict way over someplace strange that has no bearing at all on our lives. Each time any of you pick up a phone, you have a little piece of the Congo in your hands,” said Eichstaedt in his presentation. The fight between the militias has completely torn the nation apart, and millions of people have been killed or forced to fight, according to Eichstaedt. “Those who didn’t [run] were captured, were herded into this school and killed. One guy, one of the militia soldiers, dipped his finger in one of the victim’s blood and wrote this on the wall: ‘We’re just the first wave,’” said Eichstaedt, recounting one of the stories the raid-survivors once told him. “It is absolutely relevant that we as Americans become aware of these issues [of violence in Congo] and do something about them,” he continued. Through his presentation, Eichstaedt hoped to convey to the students the real story behind the ongoing war in Congo. “We [try to help] them write the story and tell their stories in their own words, instead of all the news coming into the United States being filtered through the eyes of Westerners. It’s a term we call ‘parachute journalism,’ where [journalists] parachute into a country, hang around for a week, get a bunch of juicy stories and then fly out…The whole purpose of what I’ve done, my work, is to try to get beyond that,” said Eichstaedt. Eichstaedt’s visit was organized by Andover’s Students Taking Action Now for Darfur Group (STAND), an anti-genocide student group. Kory Stuer ’15, Director of Events at STAND, said, “You get a very filtered, biased understanding of a lot of the instances that are going on [from the media].” Stuer will be succeeding Junius Williams ’14 and Farris Peale ’14 as Co-President of Andover’s chapter of STAND next year, along with Rhaime Kim ’15. “We wanted students in the community to get out of it [a] greater appreciation for the work of humanitarian groups, [a] greater appreciation for journalism [and] a greater understanding of the historical groups of the conflict,” said Williams.
