On Sunday October 16, 2011, Friends of the Congo partnered with Sahara Reporters to launch Congo Week IV and host a live webcast of a Conflict Minerals panel from Congo in Harlem at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem, New York.
This exchange involving Congolese voices is particularly relevant considering that a few days later on October 18th, The Securities and Exchange Commission hosted a panel discussion on the Congo and Conflict Minerals where no Congolese were invited to speak about the affairs of their own country.
The panel discussion at Congo in Harlem, on the other hand, offered a rich dialogue and exchange among Congolese and non-Congolese experts.
Sekombi Katondolo (producer of Blood in the Mobile and founder/director of Mutaani FM), David Aronson (freelance journalist, blogger, author of NY Times article on Conflict Minerals ), Steve Hege (current member of the UN Group of Experts on the Congo), Eric Kajemba (founder and director of Observatoire Gouvernance et Paix), and Mvemba Phizo Dizolele (writer, foreign policy analyst and independent journalist ) discussed the impact of the Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals provision on the situation in the Congo.
