Dick Durbin: “It is not very often that Congress can make a policy change that has life-or-death consequences for millions of people…”

“It is not very often that Congress can make a policy change that has life-or-death consequences for millions of people, but in 2010 a law was enacted that is changing the money supply for warlords in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many may not realize that almost 5.5 million people have been killed during the long-running conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been the most deadly since World War II. Tragically, women and children have suffered the most, as we too often see in conflicts. Millions have been displaced from their homes, and the prevalence of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war is almost beyond belief. The U.N. reports that about 1,000 women are assaulted every day in Congo, which is roughly equivalent to 12 percent of all Congolese women. One of the drivers and funders of this conflict is paradoxically that which fills the DRC with such potential--its natural resources. Instead of paying for the nation's peace, education, roads and public health programs, the DRC's mineral wealth has been siphoned off to fund the armed groups that vie for local and regional control of vast areas far from Congo's capital, Kinshasa. Tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold are found in everyday electronics, jewelry, airplanes, and manufacturing equipment. But these minerals also have provided weapons and salaries to fighters, including conscripted child soldiers, who then visit unspeakable horrors on innocent civilians in return.…”