So you heard about

Falling Whistles.

If you’re like us, you read the journal, the story of the whistleblowers, and you wanted to do more. You wanted to do something but didn’t know where to begin. Hearing about Congo for the first time, it all seems so … complicated.

Look, the conflict is confus-ing – something academics call a “complex emergency.”1 These problems have been going on for a long time and are continually becoming more convoluted. But we must educate ourselves about the particulars of the problem, so we can speak with intelli-gence, and work toward solutions together.!We want this to be a starting place. Learn from it, but don’t just stop here. Keep digging. You don’t have to be a genius to help someone, but the more you know, the more effective you will be.

We’re going to break it down, but don’t worry, we’ll put it back together at the end. So, sit back,

breathe deep, and dive in.!

CONGO IS HOME TO OUR WORLDS LARGEST WAR

The war in Congo is the deadliest war since World War II.2 Over 6 million people have died since 1996.3

!Let this bring it home: 6 million is twice the number of American students who will graduate from high school this year. And it’s still happening. Even now, 45,000 people are dying every month as a result of the conflict.3

So why is this happening?!

Let’s start at the very beginning.

The Europeans landed in Con-go centuries ago. Before their arrival, the Kingdom of Kongo and its surrounding territory enjoyed a society held together by the customs and laws of the various tribal groups living in the region.

Congo has abundant natural resources like: minerals, wood, water, and fertile land for farm-ing. Generally the traditional

systems worked reasonably well for the Congolese people to have enough food and safety to live in peace. Until King Leo-pold arrived. The King of the Belgians. In Congo, Leopold saw an opportunity to get rich. Like, real rich. Congo’s lush forests and extensive waterways held resources ready for export to the booming industrial societies in the West.

THE ROOTSRUN DEEP130 years of exploitation and colonialism.

But even Leopold did not fully grasp the vast natural wealth of Congo. It is estimated to be worth 27 trillion dollars – an amount far greater than the annual output of both the United States and the European Union combined. !In 1885, Belgium “gave” Congo to King Leopold as his own personal property. The United States was the first government to formally accept this unprecedented land grab. Joseph Conrad called this, “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the face of human conscience.”! By enslav-

ing the Congolese people on vast plantations, Leopold grew rich by exporting Congo’s ivory, timber and rubber.

The bicycle was becoming more popular in Europe and the auto-mobile had just been invented. In his pursuit of Congo’s rubber for car and bike tires, Leopold and his colonial army killed 10,000,000 people in 23 years. That’s right, 10 MILLION people. We couldn’t believe it when we heard it. We wondered – why have so many of us never heard about this?

The murders cut the Congolese population in half. And Mark Twain observed that the “horse-less carriage” of the automobile had brought the world closer together. !

It wasn’t long before news of the atrocities reached the eyes and ears of the world, and a move-ment to end Leopold’s tyranny gained momentum in the West.

Led by people like ED Morel, Roger Casement, William Shep-pard, Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle, small gatherings snowballed into mass meetings across America and Europe. Ordi-nary individuals of every color and creed demanded change.

This global movement stood in opposition to Leopold’s regime, and he was finally forced to relin-quish his personal ownership of the Congo to the Belgian govern-ment in 1908. It was the first great human rights movement in modern times. !

But the power transfer didn’t bring peace. The Belgians exploited Congo’s resources and oppressed the Congolese people for another 52 years.

After 8 decades of being ruled by foreigners, the Congolese people rallied together and demanded their freedom. Led by the young and ambitious professor Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese people won their independence in 1960.

INDEPENDENCEMOVEMENTDuring a speech he made on the day Congo was granted independence, Lumumba addressed the legacy of colonialism in Congo.

Like most other colonial powers in Africa, Belgium was taken by surprise by the demand for self-rule that swept across the continent in the 1950s, igniting mass demonstrations in Leopol-dville in 1959 that were bloodily suppressed by the Belgians. Until then, Leopold’s heirs thought independence might come, but decades hence. Some Africans were being trained for that distant day; but when pressure grew and independence came in 1960, in the entire territory there were fewer than 30 African university graduates. There were no Congo-lese army officers, engineers, agronomists, or physicians. The colony’s administration had made few steps toward a Congo run by it’s own people: of some five thou-sand management level positions in the civil service, only three were filled by Africans.

In the first democratic national election the territory had ever had, Patrice Lumumba was made coalition-government prime minister. As a former postal clerk he was an unlikely leader for a nation, but he spoke with fiery conviction for the prosperity of his people. Lumumba’s intensity and strong will that exasperated his colleagues.

King Baudouin of Belgium arrived in Leopoldville to grant, officially and patronizingly, the Congo its freedom. He said, “It is now up to you, gentlemen, to show that you are worthy of our confidence.” An angry, impromptu speech in reply by Patrice Lumumba caught the world’s attention that day.

-excerpts from Adam Hochschild in King Leopold’s Ghost

“We are proud of this struggle,

of tears, of fire,

and of blood, to the depths of our being,

for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable

to put an end to the humiliating slavery

which was imposed upon usby force.

This was our fate for eighty years of a colonial regime; our wounds are too fresh and too painful still for us to drive them from our memory. We have known harass-ing work, exacted in exchange for salaries which did not permit us to eat enough to drive away hunger, or to clothe ourselves, or to house ourselves decently, or to raise our children as creatures dear to us.

We have seen our lands seized in the name of allegedly legal laws which in fact recognized only that might is right.

We have seen that the law was not the same for a white and for a black, accommodating for the first, cruel and inhuman for the other.

We have witnessed atrocious sufferings of those condemned for their political opinions or reli-gious beliefs; exiled in their own country, their fate truly worse than death itself.

Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our brothers perished, the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of oppression and exploi-

tation were thrown? [applause]

All that, my brothers, we have endured.

But we, whom the vote of your elected representatives have given the right to direct our dear country, we who have suffered in our body and in our heart from colonial oppression, we tell you very loud, all that is henceforth ended.

The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed, and our country is now in the hands of its own children.

Together, my brothers, my sisters, we are going to begin a new struggle, a sublime struggle, which will lead our country to peace, prosperity, and greatness.

Together, we are going to estab-lish social justice and make sure everyone has just remuneration for his labor. We are going to show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom, and we are going to make of the Congo the center of the sun’s radi-ance for all of Africa.

We are going to keep watch over

the lands of our country so that they truly profit her children. We are going to restore ancient laws and make new ones which will be just and noble.

We are going to put an end to suppression of free thought and see to it that all our citizens enjoy to the full the fundamental liber-ties foreseen in the Declaration of the Rights of Man [applause].

We are going to do away with all discrimination of every variety and assure for each and all the position to which human dignity, work, and dedication entitles him.

We are going to rule not by the peace of guns and bayonets but by a peace of the heart and the will.I ask all of you to forget your tribal quarrels. They exhaust us. I ask the parliamentary minority to help my Government through a constructive opposition and to limit themselves strictly to legal and democratic channels.

I ask all of you not to shrink before any sacrifice in order to achieve the success of our huge undertaking.

Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!”

Lumumba’s dreams of leading Congo to become a “rich, free, and prosperous” nation were short-lived. A secession move-ment in the South threatened Congo’s fragile unity. After the United States rebuffed his plea for help, Lumumba accepted Soviet assistance in addressing the crisis. This trapped him in the crossfire between the capitalist West and the communist Soviet Union and made him a target for assassination.

Only 10 weeks after indepen-dence, Lumumba was arrested, tortured, and assassinated in a coup d’état led by his enemies and backed by the governments of Belgium and the United States. Barely three months into independence, Congo was once again ruled by a dictator, Joseph Mobutu, Lumumba’s former secretary. Mobutu was loyal to the US and enjoyed warm relations with several American Presidents.

MOBUTU’SRULEIn the 1970 presidential election, Mobutu was the only candidate, and voters were offered two ballot choices; green for hope and red for chaos. Mobutu won with a vote of 10,131,699 to 157.

The self-titled “Lion Warrior”, “Savior of the Nation” and “Supreme Combatant” had a history of massive inflation, ruth-less action against dissenters, and megalomania. As a “return to African values” he renamed the country Zaire about the same time he dawned a new name for himself: “The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leav-ing fire in his wake.”

Known for his leopard skin hat, President Mobutu embezzled 5 billion dollars over the next 32-years of his autocratic reign, leaving Congo deeply indebted to Western governments and killing tens of thousands along the way.

Mobutu’s rule left the country in shambles. In eastern Congo, fights began breaking out between tribal groups over who was “really” Congolese, and who had a right to citizenship and land in the country.

“Ronald Regan received him at the White House several times, praising him as “a voice of good sense and good will.” George H. W. Bush greeted him as “one of our most valued friends.” He added, “I was honored to invite President Mobutu to be the first African head of state to come to the United States for an official visit during my presidency.”

- Adam Hochschild King Leopolds Ghost

“Some countries go to war to get their names out there, and wars cost a lot more than $10,000,000.” - Muhammad Ali

Mobutu also was one of the men who was instrumental to bringing the famous Rumble In The Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to Zaire on October 30, 1974. According to the documentary When We Were Kings, promoter Don King promised both fighters $5,000,000 USD for the fight, and no other group would put up that kind of money for the fight. Mobutu, wanting to expand the image of the nation of Zaire, put up the nation’s money to do so.

BY THE EARLY1990S CONGO HAD BECOME ATINDERBOX.

“Mobutu and his entourage helped themselves to state revenue so freely that the Congolese government ceased to function. When he ran out of money to pay the army and other state workers in 1993, he printed up a new kind of currency. Because shopkeepers would not accept it, soldiers rioted, looting shops, government buildings, and private homes. Hundreds of people were killed. For years, garbage piled up in heaps, uncollected. A few foreign airlines continued to stop in the country, but they avoided leaving their planes overnight; insur-ance would not cover it. Government support of schools and hospitals dwindled to almost nothing.”

- Adam Hochschild King Leopolds Ghost

Tensions grew between the Congolese and the refugees, and soon anyone who spoke the Rwandan language was seen as an outsider looking to steal Congo’s resources. Even those whose families had lived in Congo for centuries were looked on with suspicion.

Mobutu further inflamed the situation by siding with the FDLR and ordering all Tutsi people to leave the Congo or be killed. In response, in 1997, the Tutsis rebelled against Mobutu and were backed in the coup by the invad-ing armies of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi. Civilians and refugees were killed in staggering numbers as the armies marched toward the capital of Kinshasa to oust Mobutu.

After the coup, the invading forc-es installed Laurent Desire Kabila as the new president. However, he quickly attempted to throw off his puppet masters in order to gain popular support among the Congolese people by ordering the remaining foreign forces out. In response, Rwanda, Uganda, Bu-rundi, Chad, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia invaded Congo in 1998.

AFRICASWORLD WAR

The environment of violence led to the emergence of other reb-el groups, specifically the Rwan-da-backed National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and the Mai-Mai, in order to resist the FDLR, the foreign armies, and each other. The corruption that plagued the ranks of the Congo-lese National Army (FARDC) fur-ther contributed to the instability and the violence against civilians.

In 1999, a ceasefire agreement was signed, and the United Na-tions Security Council estab-lished a peacekeeping mission to Congo known as MONUC. It was initially tasked with monitoring the ceasefire, reporting the ac-tions of the warring parties, and giving technical assistance to the Congolese government in prepa-ration for the UN’s deployment of peacekeeping troops.

One year later, the UN deployed peacekeeping troops to the re-gion, and the force grew steadily to over 20,000 uniformed person-nel in 2010. It is now the largest peacekeeping force in the world, but its changing mandate has left MONUC little more than a specta-tor in Congo’s ongoing war.

Following the assassination of his father, Joseph Kabila be-came the new President of Congo in 2001. He was legitimate-ly elected in 2006 with prom-ises of peace and stability for the eastern provinces, but those promises have largely gone unful-filled as the violence continues.

In January 2008, the CNDP and Congolese government signed a ceasefire agreement that led to the integration of the CNDP with the national army. This agree-ment has been criticized by humanitarian groups and civil society leaders for two reasons. First, it increased the resources and firepower available to CNDP rebels without a correspond-ing increase in accountability for abuse. Second, it also lacked value because both Rwanda and the FDLR, two major players in the conflict, were absent from the peace negotiations.

The Congolese in the east have become caught in a war zone, and many are forced to flee their homes and land as militia groups sweep through to control new territory. Because many of the Congolese are subsistence farm-ers, they lose their only source of food. They are then forced to pay inflated taxes to militia groups in order to work in horrid mining conditions.

The central government is largely ineffective, and, with President Kabila attempting to push out western observers with the ap-proaching 2011 presidential elec-tions, there is little hope that peace will come from officials in Kinshasa. Human rights activists and lawyers are becoming targets across the country, leading to sev-eral murders without follow up investigations.

TODAY

RESOURCEWARS

Under the forest floor lie coltan, tin, tungsten, cobalt, and gold; minerals needed for the produc-tion of cell phones, computers, digital cameras, mp3 players, jewelry, and airplanes. These products are all vital to our modern, hyper-connected, global-ized lives.

The resources in the region are both a blessing and a curse, providing incredible economic potential while also inviting exploitation. In 2009, armed groups took in over $200 million in this illegal mineral trade.5

http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/19111.html

Militias sell the minerals to deal-ers in neighboring countries, who stamp the minerals as native to their country. From there, the minerals enter into the supply chains for major electronics man-ufacturers, and are used in many of our retail electronics.

From the militias, to the smelters, the electronics companies, and ultimately the consumer! - every person along the supply chain gains from the original low price. Everyone except the Congolese people.

Our cell phones and computers are helping fund this holocaust, and many groups profiting have a vested interest in continuing the violence and the chaos.

With chaos there are no taxes, no regulations, and no rules decreas-ing profit ratios. There is just an endless supply of human beings looking for work. Bring them to the brink of death and then re-place them. Now repeat.

The Congolese people bear the brunt of this confusing and com-plex situation. The war has been called the “Silent Holocaust” with OVER six million deaths and over two million people having been displaced from their homes and communities.

Though we do not know how! many young whistleblowers are sent directly into battle, the International Rescue Commit-tee estimates that “30,000 chil-dren [are] attached to the armed

forces in the conflict zones of eastern Congo, constituting up to 40% of some forces. Girls were estimated to represent up to 40% of these children.”!

And if things were not already bad enough, the region is internation-ally regarded as a center of sexual violence primarily toward wom-en, with an estimated 1,100 rapes per month.7 This makes up about 70% of the world’s rapes.

THE VICTIMS

Thousands of Congolese women face the destructive effects of sex-ual violence and have no easy ac-cess to medical care. Some wom-en develop fistulas, are left unable to bear children, or lose the sup-port of their communities. Unable to support themselves and their families, they fall into a cycle of extreme poverty and pain.

The majority of deaths related to the conflict in Congo are at-tributed to the internal displace-ment of families. Malnutrition is the number one killer in eastern Congo. When militias take over a village, people can’t stay in their homes, and they can’t cultivate their fields, which means they can’t eat. Furthermore, defores-

tation has gone on unchecked as refugees began to cut down trees to try to cultivate new farms.

The cycles of violence tear at the social fabric of the region as Congo’s next generation is forced to fight in a war that is not their own. Taken out of school at an early age by the! warring armies,

these children never have the opportunity to grow and learn; thus creating one of the greatest tragedies of the conflict in Congo – the massive waste of human po-tential.

SO WHY IS THISINFORMATIONSO IMPORTANT?For us, this journey began with a small journal that was written with as much ignorance as ur-gency. We had heard there was a problem, but it took tortured chil-dren to shake us into paying at-tention. What we’ve learned since that day has changed us forever. We all begin in ignorance, but it is where we go from there that de-termines our destiny.!!Things do not have to remain as they are. We as a people must refuse to allow our consumerism and ignorance to fuel a war. Just as a grassroots abolition move-ment at the turn of the 20th!cen-tury ended Leopold’s exploitative regime, and a popular uprising threw off colonial rule in the 1960s, so can another coalition of whistleblowers demand the liber-ation of the Democratic Republic of Congo today.

!This is the task laid out for us. To pursue freedom in the face of op-position. To speak up when others are silent and few will listen. To protest.! And that is only the be-ginning. A moment of outrage is very nec-essary - reacting is part of what makes us human.! But reaction only creates the potential for change.! It is what we do with ev-ery day after that paves our path.! We can judge our love only by an equation of follow-through. This is called advocacy.

The road out of ignorance is a long one. But one we must walk. Together.

It will take you. Your unique voice. Your unique talents. Day after day.

_

THE WORLD IS CHANGED BY THOSE WHO SPEAK UP.

WHISTLEBLOWERS.

Rarely understood in their time, history looks back and calls them C O U R A G E O U S .

We have gone into the depths of our world’s deadliest war and come back to fight for a dream

most would call impossible.

_

You and me,me and we,we the free

FACE A HISTORIC CHOICE;

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC,BOYS AND GIRLS, WOMEN AND MEN, ARE ATTEMPTING TO FIND THEIR ROAD TO A DREAM WE ALL CALL COMMON. LIFE, LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. WILL WE BE BY THEIR SIDE?THIS IS NOT A JOB FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. NOT A JOB FOR THEM OR THOSE. THIS WILL REQUIRE WHAT HARVEY MILK CALLED THE “US’S”

We don’t have all the answers, but we know that speaking up is first. Wear your protest and be a whis-tleblower for peace. Use the whis-tle as a tool to elevate common conversations. A problem this size will not be solved by big men on big stages - there is too much

to be gained by those who have too much at stake in allowing the conflict to continue. A problem this size requires all of us.

So, go. Take this to your commu-nity, to your classmates, to your politicians.

WHERE NOW?

In another time, men and women gathered in defiance of an unjust law. They called it a speakeasy. Today, gather in defiance of an unjust war. Host a speakeasy. Share the Falling Whistles story with your friends and ask them to learn with you. Once people

know, we will organize across communities to shift the laws and policies that allow Congo’s war to continue. Our collective voices will break the cycle. But it must begin with you. Your voice. You deciding to be a whistleblower for peace.

And together, we might, just maybe, reverse the trends of history and push together toward a world freer than our fathers.

WRITTEN BY:

Will WatsonChris Gracey

Monique BeadleDavid Lewis

Sean Carasso

PHOTOGRAPHY BY:

Dan JohnsonAbby Ross

Jim Nachtwey& others

DESIGN BY:

Marcus PriceMario Salangsang

THE BREAKDOWNOF A COMPLEX EMERGENCY