Are you kidding me? What part of this letter supports Dodd-Frank?

Point #1 says they’ve not been consulted by anyone at any time specifically regarding Dodd-Frank. That is not how you open a letter of support for Dodd-Frank.

Points 2-5 say “Our government just about killed us all with a 6-month embargo and in order to keep them from doing it again, we’re going to tell them we love them. Since we have no other way to resist, maybe they will stop torturing us if we make nice. Thanks for beating the crap out of us and making our lives a living hell. Please don’t do it again.”

Points 6 says they are aware of Dodd-Frank and “what you want to ACHIEVE”… BUT for us if we cannot start to work when the ban is lifted we will starve. We cannot continue to suffer any longer.” That is not a statement of support.

Points 7-13 go on to say they have their own very good traceability process in place, outlined in detail, and they then ask that the SEC support “implementing THIS model and to please engage with our partner …and to give us time to implement such a program for all areas under the control of our cooperatives.

The are begging the SEC NOT to impose a law from the outside, but to leave them to implement the great process they’ve already established. Nothing in that shows support for Dodd-Frank in any way.

Points 14-17 say the advocacy groups who WROTE the Dodd-Frank provision have no clue what they are talking about, have never once talked to the miners (a direct violation of OECD Compliance rules), and should not be listened to.

What do Enough and Project advocate for most strongly? Dodd-Frank. it is their baby and their crowning achievement of disgrace. The miners want nothing to do with Enough, Global, or their pet project of Congolese destruction, Dodd-Frank.

Having never had a conversation with ANYONE about a law which will have the most impact on them, Points 18-19 implore the SEC to talk to them before making a decision. But in the spirit of arrogant colonialism demonstrated by Enough and Global, the SEC will take the same tact as those two groups – it’s not really about the Congolese.

Enough and Global are worried about fundraising and are willing to let people die for their greed (no better than any of the giant corporations they used to disdain and are now in bed with). And the SEC is worried about giant corporations and politicians who might not like them.

Nobody in this Dodd-Frank process is worried about the Congolese. It is a travesty of historic proportions. We have learned little in the last 100 years about how to actually help build Africa, and nothing demonstrates this more than the author’s blind, careless and self-centered interpretation and grasping for straws, that these miners are lending support to Dodd-Frank.

COCABI (or Coopérativ de ceureseurs artisanaux de Bisie) was the first cooperative created by the non-indigenous people of the Walikale Territory, which also had the support of non-indigenous-led companies including MPC (Mining Process Congo), with prominent Congolese businessman Kambale Ngezayo as main shareholder. MPC is also based in Rwanda under the name MPA. The situation has now changed a bit. Indeed, at COCABI’s inception, there was a contest between MPC and GMB, both of them claiming right to a monopoly of buying tin for artisanal diggers. Now, thanks to competition the monopoly has been forsaken and the market is almost free. Nevertheless, there are still links between MPC and COCABI because MPC still claims to be the legal owner of Bisie mining site.

Regarding COMIMPA (Coopérativ miniere de MPAMA BISIE), it was the second cooperative after COCABI, but with the unique characteristic of being indigenous-led. It benefitted during its creation from the support and influence of the society created by the indigenous people of Walikale, named GMB (Group Minier BANGANDULA). The bangandula are one of the communities who see themselves as landowners in areas rich in minerals, including the Bisie site.

Regarding COMIDER, it is a new cooperative installed in 2010 with headquarters in Walikale, with an extension in the Ike mining site in Bisie. COMIDER has for a sponsor General Denis Kalume Numbi, former Minister of the Interior and General Commissioner of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Karen Stauss, Free the Slaves