Shocking New Report; 321 Killed in Massacre

Dressed in military uniforms, rebels hacked villagers to death.

At least 321 Congolese villagers were hacked to death by fighters from the Lord's Resistance Army in December, the BBC reports. It's the worst massacre ever perpetrated by the rebel group, which says it is fighting to create a Christian theocracy in Uganda, but has spread its murderous rampage to Sudan, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Witnesses say the rebels, dressed in military uniforms and pretending to be Congolese soldiers, asked people in remote villages to carry food for them across a river and killed them with machetes if they refused. "As we marched, the LRA killed people—two at one village, three at the next, and then four at the next," a witness who escaped told the BBC. "They wanted to kill me, but the leader said I should be kept alive, as they needed strong soldiers." At least 80 children were kidnapped, the boys to be fighters and the girls to be sex slaves.
Nearly every cellphone—not to mention MP3 players, laptops, and videogame systems—contains minerals that were mined in the Congo. Known as the 3Ts, tin, tantalum, and tungsten are the main source of income for military groups and demand for them continues to fuel regional conflict.
Congress is working on legislation that would require companies to be transparent about where they obtain the 3Ts, but the electronics industry has spent $2 million to weaken the proposed rules. Those companies say their supply chains are too complex to make sure the materials are conflict-free, but the Enough Project says there are a mere six major steps in the chain from the mines to a cellphone in a customer's pocket.
The question is can we stop buying electronic devices, at least long enough to show the electronic industry that we care about ours and stop contributing to the murdering our people indirectly by the purchase of these products. I am not surprised if other folks don’t care about our people but we should give a big DAMN about ours…