WEBVTT

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The Congo is gifted with
enormous natural resources.

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It has diamonds, gold,

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vast amounts of water, coltan, cassiterite.

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It could and should be a
very, very rich country.

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But in fact what the reality
has been in the past years is

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that these natural resources
have been a curse.

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It\'s created a conflict,

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led by warlords

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that are trying to take
the natural resources

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from DRC for their own gains.

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The warlords have been
recruiting child soldiers

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and in the last 10 years

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more than 30,000 child soldiers

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have been recruited in Eastern Congo.

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Many of whom are still serving now.

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The local mining population
doesn\'t really know the value

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of what it is they\'re extracting.

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And so they rely on
intermediaries to tell them

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what the price of that gold is.

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And those intermediaries

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inevitably don\'t tell them the right price,

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and the increases in prices
on the international markets

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are never passed down to the people

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that are extracting that
gold from the gold fields.

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Many of the children that
were forced to fight

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to gain control of the mines,
they put down the Kalashnikov,

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that they were made to
carry 12 months earlier

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and they pick up a shovel

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and they are forced to work in the mines

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digging for gold for the warlords.

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And many hundreds of children have died

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being buried alive in the tunnels,

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in the gold fields of Eastern Congo.

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Joseph Kabila was elected President.

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And has been ruling the country ever since.

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His response to the elections
and his new found power was to

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eradicate the political opposition.

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He arrested many of the
opposition activists.

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And these billions of dollars
that have been spent

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on the Congolese election
have essentially been wasted

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because there is now no democracy in Congo.

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The Congolese have had
this history of being led

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by dictators who look out
for only themselves.

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They steal the vast natural
resources that DRC has

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and the Congolese people
receive no benefits.

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The Congolese people only
suffer as a result of

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the lack of social structure
that this pillaging creates.

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But this is not exactly a great
lesson for the Congolese people

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who see their leaders as thieves.

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That filters down through
every level of society.

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The military will use their
AK47, the Kalashnikoff\'s,

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to reap the benefits of war.

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They\'ll pillage, they\'ll rape, they\'ll
steal cattle, they\'ll steal goats,

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they\'ll take a chicken at gunpoint
just so that they can eat

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because they\'re essentially
not getting paid by anyone.

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When there\'s increased
military activity in,

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in certain areas to try and

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secure the natural resources,

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the population inevitably
starts to, to run.

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The displaced in Congo

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number in the millions.

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They have no access to any
medical care, any healthcare.

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Sometimes they have to walk for days

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before they arrive in safety.

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More than 90% of the
people who die in Congo

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are dying because of the lack
of access to medication.

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And this lack of access to medication

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is caused by the overall insecurity.

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Just the very smallest of
illnesses like diarrhea,

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the most basic of sicknesses like malaria,

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which warrant just a small series of pills,

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they have no access to
this sort of medication

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because they\'ve probably
been stolen by the military.

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As a result you have many millions dying

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because of the lack of access
to the most basic healthcare.

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Over the past years in DRC sexual violence

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has been an enormous problem.

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Just in 2007 alone there are
40,000 reported rape cases.

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It\'s happening in every
town, in every province.

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Anywhere there\'s military activity
sexual violence is prevalent

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and it is a daily fear for every woman.

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The government soldiers

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and the warlords are equally culpable.

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A military may be arrested. He
may spend 6 or 7 days in jail,

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but then he\'ll be out again.

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And he could find himself
passing the women that he raped

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just weeks after he was
found guilty of the crime.

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The women, they whisper to
you what happened to them

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because they\'re so ashamed of what it was

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that was committed against them.

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Center for Victims of Sexual Violence, Goma

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The enemies attacked my village.

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They forced us to go with them.

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I stayed with them for many months.

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I was as a wife to them.

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Anyone could sleep with me.

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When I became pregnant,

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I didn\'t know if the time I
gave birth was early or not.

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But there was no hospital in the bush,

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no clinic, no doctor.

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When the baby came out,

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they were using their hands
to pull it out from my womb.

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The baby was divided into pieces.

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They were using their fingers.

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In one province alone there were recorded

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40 women being raped every day.

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13% of those being raped
were under the age of 14.

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And 10 to 12% of those that
were raped contracted HIV.

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These problems and these
statistics are just horrific

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and so huge that we sometimes
can\'t even contemplate

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the severity of the problem there.

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But still, the international
community does nothing.

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The problems in Congo are vast

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and sometimes the whole problem

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feels just too huge to fix.

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This is the largest death toll in the world

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since the Second World War,

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but it\'s not a problem that is unsolvable.

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It is not a problem that we
can\'t do anything about.

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I think there\'s one thing
that we can do as consumers,

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and that is be aware of where our
natural resources come from.

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When you\'re buying gold,
when you\'re buying diamonds,

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ask the retailer if they know
where they\'re coming from.

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And that\'s one of the ways that we

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as consumers can maintain pressure

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on an industry that is sometimes
not as diligent as it can be.

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One of the main things

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that will bring Congo out of the situation

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that it\'s in at the moment is education.

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There are great organizations
that are working in DRC.

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Save the Children,

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UNICEF, Human Rights Watch

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is doing an enormous amount of work.

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And organizations such
as UNHCR are providing

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the stability and the infrastructure

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to allow the children to receive
some form of education.

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If we maintain a good level of

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education amongst the population,

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there is always a hope that
the future will be better.

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A better-educated population
leads to better questions,

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and a better questioning population

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leads to a better government.