Eastern Congo

BUKAVU, Congo, June 16 (Reuters) - Tin exports from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are back up despite the threat of United Nations sanctions and pressure from rights campaigners linking the trade to local conflicts, mining officials said.

Some mineral buyers in the eastern Kivu provinces halted purchases of the tin ore cassiterite in January after a U.N. report linked traders there to the Rwandan Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels.

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In a new column for Foreign Policy's The Argument, Enough policy experts Colin Thomas-Jensen and Rebecca Feeley challenge a growing trend of thought suggesting that nothing can be done to end violence in the Congo.

From the column:

"This winter, the militaries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda -- much to our surprise, given their historical antipathy -- joined forces in an offensive against a rebel group based in eastern Congo: the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or the FDLR. Led by the architects of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the FDLR has terrorized Congolese civilians for nearly 15 years. The group's presence has also served as a pretext for Rwandan intervention that has frequently worsened an already grim humanitarian situation in eastern Congo."

Keep reading the full piece here.

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