11 03 14 – Sit-in & press conference in Brussels
MARCH 18 & 19
CONDEMN THE GENOCIDE OF THE PEOPLE OF CONGO BECAUSE OF THE CONFLICT MINERALS
Thursday, March 20, 2014 at the Sheraton Hotel (near Zaventem, Brussels
National Airport) 89 multinational companies operating in the sector of the IT
industry and telecommunications, the Congolese diaspora will organise:
– A press conference on the role and responsibility of
multinational companies in the tragedy of the Democratic Republic of Congo for
nearly two decades. Tuesday, March 18 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the IBIS
Hotel / near "Gare du Midi" in Brussels.
– A large scale Sit-in opposite the Sheraton Hotel in the
Zaventem area on Wednesday, March 19, 2014 from 8:30 local time.
Mobilised around the theme "NO BLOOD FOR
MINERALS," the Congolese Diaspora takes this opportunity to publicly
condemn, through these actions, the mass killing of millions of Congolese for
the sole purpose, of getting access to strategic minerals such as tin, tungsten
and coltan (from which niobium and tantalum are extracted) that are used in the
main components of advanced products they sell on the market.
Indeed, several studies and countless investigations made in
recent years by experts from the United Nations (UN) and some international
NGOs operating in eastern DRC have shown that these Western multinationals
whose subsidiaries operate from Rwanda and Uganda are not only the main
beneficiaries of stolen and looted minerals in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, but they are especially sponsors of wars and armed conflicts that are
ongoing in this affected part of the DR Congo.
According to these sources, wars and armed conflicts in the
eastern part of the DRC have caused directly or indirectly more than 8 million
deaths, more than 2 million internally displaced people away from their native
lands and on average more than 1000 rapes per day of women and little girls
aged just a few months! Therefore, with regard to their death toll, these wars
and conflicts imposed on the Congolese people, exceed in terms of cruelty and
loss of life, the well-known Holocaust with its 6 million people and the 1994
Rwandese genocide with 800,000 victims.
This sit-in also aims at denouncing the flagrant impunity of
Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and Joseph Kabila of
DRC, the infamous henchmen and accomplices of the sponsors of these crimes.
Initiated by APARECO (Alliance of Patriots for the
Rebuilding of the Congo), Front Commun des Resistants Congolais (Common Front
of Congolese Resistants) and all activists groups of the Congolese diaspora in
Europe, these actions are in the continuity of others such as the great public
demonstration, which lastly took place in Paris on February 1st 2014. Departed
from Château Rouge tube station and bound for the Apple Stores "Opera
", one of the outlets of the Apple Company, this public rally was attended
by lots of Congolese and people of different nationalities who strive for peace
and justice in the world.
Through these two actions, APARECO, the Common Front of
Congolese Resistants and Congolese community in Europe would like to draw the
attention of international public opinion on the leading role of Western
multinationals in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the DRC.
These actions are also intended to remind all investors who are interested in
the DRC that for the safety and the sustainability of their endeavours in this
country they should be true and genuine partners for the Congolese people; and
it is high time they stop their criminal dealings in complicity with the rogue
states and proxies such as Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda or the most unpopular regime
of occupation installed in Kinshasa.
In addition to the Congolese and on the grounds of justice,
peace and human solidarity against this unknown human catastrophe that is
ongoing right in the heart of Africa, any person irrespective of their
nationality and the media are warmly invited to take part in the press
conference on Tuesday 18 March and the sit-in on Wednesday, March 19, 2014.
Paris, March 8, 2014
Guillaume AMISI KILOSHO
Spokesperson and Deputy Secretary General of the
APARECO"