Our biggest gadget makers - including HP and Apple - may inadvertently get their raw ingredients from murderous Congolese militias. A new movement wants them to trace rare metals from 'conflict mines.' [It] stands on the cusp of going mainstream. It's the push to make major electronics companies (manufacturers of cell phones, laptops, portable music players, and cameras) disclose whether they use conflict minerals"-the rare metals that finance civil wars and militia atrocities, most notably in Congo. Congo raises especially disturbing issues for famous tech brand names that fancy themselves responsible corporate citizens. Congo is a classic victim of the resource curse. Its bountiful deposits-in everything from copper to diamonds-are brazenly plundered by corrupt governments and regional warlords while the population goes without basic services. Today, most violence-including mass rape, slavery, mutilation, and possibly even forced cannibalism-is concentrated in the war-ravaged eastern Kivu provinces, where the Congolese Army and ethnic militias bludgeon each other over the right to trade in mineral ore.

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