A human rights group has charged the United Kingdom with “breaching its international legal obligations” by failing to take action against British companies buying ‘conflict minerals’ from armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 
"It is a sad day when we have to sue the UK government,” said Gavin Hayman of the group Global Witness, “but we hope that this case will mark a turning point. The issues at stake have global significance for how wars are financed."
 

"Companies that have profited from a brutal conflict should face UN sanctions,” he said.
 
Last week, President Barack Obama signed legislation requiring US companies involved in Congo to certify they are not buying conflict minerals.
 
But not all Congolese are content with the anti-conflict minerals movement, suggests a professor at Morehouse College who blogs under the name TexasInAfrica, .
 
“The vexing problems that actually drive the violence - land tenure rights, citizenship rights, and the state's inability to establish a monopoly on violence - will continue to fester," he observed. "The land situation has to be sorted out and the status of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese - both in the Kivus and those who are refugees - has to be settled once and for all.

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