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There is a human rights crisis that is unfolding today in the Democratic Republic of Congo that requires the attention of all journalists. A photographer working in the region was quoted as saying that ANY journalist, publisher, or news organization that turns their back on this crisis is as guilty of pulling the trigger as any warlord in the region. Mainstream media is not covering this humanitarian disaster. By some accounts there are at least 800,000 and as many as 1.2 million refugees in Kivu province alone. After OEN had a conversation with Anneke von Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch in Congo, Friends of the Congo suggested a plan to have a non-celebrity driven independent media group go to DRC, document this crisis and get it out by whatever means possible. Anyone who reads this has the power to assist in this effort. Please read Rationale: Since 1996, nearly 6 million people have died in the Congo as a result of conflict and conflict related causes. The United Nations calls the conflict in the Congo the deadliest since World War II. Doctors Without Borders repeatedly ranks the Congo as one of the top ten most underreported stories in the world. In essence, there is a great deal of silence enveloping the tragedy that is the Congo, and when the country does receive coverage from the mainstream media, it is usually inadequate and lacking in substance. 1. Organize trip for a group of 10 independent journalists for ten days to travel to the Congo to cover the situation in the country2. Document the source of the conflict
4. Provide an alternative prism through which the global community views the Congo in the hopes of stimulating a response that will lead to more being done to resolve the Congo crisis. 5. Introduce the enormous range of issues (women & children, human rights, child labor, environment, resource exploitation, endangered species threat, and more) plaguing the Congo, but also explore the unfathomable potential that exists in the Congo should stability and unity be realized. Background: Congo is literally and figuratively the heart of Africa. It straddles the equator and is bordered by nine countries. Congo is one of the largest countries in the world with a population of 65 million people and is the size of Western Europe. Congo is the fulcrum on which the African continent swings. It has an illustrious history of famous figures speaking out against the atrocities that have plagued this country since its modern founding. Figures such as Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad and Arthur Conan Doyle have written about the Congo and the evil that men have perpetrated to capture and control Congo’s spectacular wealth of gold, diamonds, rubber, ivory, copper, tin, iron, cobalt, coltan, timber, and a myriad of other riches. The following is the complete text of a press release by Human Rights Watch:
Georgianne Nienaber is a writer, author, and investigative journalist. She lives in the world. Her articles have appeared in The Huffington Post, SCOOP New Zealand, Glide Magazine, Rwanda's New Times, India's TerraGreen, COA News, ZNET, OpEdNews, The Journal of the International Primate Protection League, Friends of the Congo, Africa Front, The United Nations Publication, A Civil Society Observer, and Zimbabwe's The Daily Mirror. Her fiction exposé of insurance fraud in the horse industry, Horse Sense, was re-released in early 2006. Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey was also released in 2006. Nienaber spent much of 2007 doing research in South Africa, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was in DRC as a MONUC-accredited journalist, and recently spent six weeks in Southern Louisiana investigating hurricane reconstruction. She is currently developing a documentary on the Gulf of Mexico DEAD ZONE.
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