5 million Congolese have died to make your cell phone work

Conflict minerals - read minerals to make your cell phone work. So all of us are providing the profit motive (greed) to drive the conflict. Got any idea on what to do about your/my responsibility for these deaths? Speak up, ask our government to take action that will save lives, instead of subsidizing drone makers and silent rocket assassins in Afghanistan.

clipped from blogs.state.gov Ending the Conflict Minerals Trade Posted by Robert D. Hormats on May 21, 2010 - 03:26 PM the world's deadliest conflict since World War II is still occurring -- in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is estimated that over the last 11 years this conflict has claimed more than five million lives. Secretary Clinton, who visited the region last year, has charged her team with doing whatever we can to help stop this conflict. armed groups and military units in some parts of the region have killed, raped, tortured, and abducted numerous civilians and burned and looted their villages in mineral rich areas, particularly near mines. They have also forced civilians, including children, to mine (or forced civilians to provide them with funding derived from the sale of) tin, tungsten, tantalum -- metals that are found in cell phones, laptops, digital cameras, and other popular electronics