The civil war in the D.R. Congo (independent: 1960; main resources: copper, uranium) officially ended in 1999 with the Lusaka treaty. However, it still goes on in a more diffuse way.
In the war, Congo was backed by Angola and Zimbabwe, countries that still have troops in the Congo. On the other hand, troops from Uganda and Rwanda invaded Congo, and are still present in the East of Congo.
Uganda and Rwanda are both supported by the United States with arms and military training.
Weapons are also delivered to South Africa. Especially Rwanda spends a lot of money on weapons. There is no ban on weapon deliveries to Uganda of Rwanda, even though these countries are involved in war activities in DR Congo.

In Congo there are lots of (small) weapons available, originating still from the Cold War, other weapons come from China, Russia and Israel.

After the genocide in Rwanda, large numbers of hutu's (including members of death squads; interahamwe) fled to the eastern part of Congo. For this reason, Rwandese troops occupied east Congo.

The situation in eastern Congo is very worrying. Especially women suffer in this area, there are lots of rapes and the women that are raped are rejected from their communities. Human Rights Watch reports numerous violations of human rights. There is also hunger and malnutrition.

Concerning the export of resources to the west, specific attention was given to Tantalum. This is a rare metal which is used in chips of mobile phones. 60 % of this metal comes from the East of Congo. Children dig it up and are heavily underpaid for working hard to get this metal; western companies take huge profits selling this metal to chip plants in the north.

the workshop was organized by Congo-Ned:  http://www.congoned.dds.nl; info:  congoned@dds.nl

an interview with the speaker in English appears later on the website of PGA radio.