“This is the monstrosity of our century.”

These words, spoken by a Congolese doctor in the HBO documentary “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo,” resonated with the NIU chapter of STAND.

Last night, STAND (the student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network) hosted a panel discussion in the Regency Room of the Holmes Student Center. Moderated by Christina MacKenzie, the Great Lakes Regional Outreach Coordinater of STAND, the panel aimed to raise student awareness of the conflict in the Congo.

In short, the Congo has been exploited for years due to its abundance in natural resources. Most recently, the Congo has come to be a source of minerals that are integral in electronics Americans make use of every day. Cell phones, MP3 players, video game consoles, laptops and other electronics make use of these “conflict minerals” - tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold. High demand has left the Congo in a state of perpetual conflict as numerous factions fight to control the region and its resources, with civilians caught in the crossfire.

Frequently, these militant factions use rape as a weapon of war. Thousands of women are reportedly raped each year. Of these women, 47 percent are assaulted by more than one perpetrator, said Lee Ann De Reus, an associate professor at Penn State Altoona. De Reus traveled to the Congo over the summer and interviewed 30 survivors of rape.

“Unfortunately, if a woman is raped [in the Congo], she’s damaged goods and scorned,” De Reus said. “And if she becomes incontinent, that’s two strikes against them.”

The panelists stressed that although the situation is dire, there are steps that college students can take to try and end the conflict.

“The road to peace is complex,” De Reus said. “But there is a solution within reach.”

Students can insist that electronics companies, such as Motorola, Nintendo or Dell, make their supply chains transparent and make their products “conflict-free.”

“We need to show them we care about this as consumers,” said Candice Knezevic, an advocacy expert with the Enough Project. “We need to show them that there’s a market for these products, and that if they make a conflict-free product, we’ll buy it.”

Also speaking was Omekongo Dibinga, a speaker with the Enough Project. Dibinga’s parents emigrated from the Congo, and his family has roots in the conflict going back decades.

“We have a great power in this country,” Dibinga said, intentionally echoing the credo of Spider-Man, which elicited laughs from the crowd. “And we must also have a great responsibility. We want you to leave this room with the Congo on your conscience.”

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