The Anatomy of Resource Wars
Publisher: The Worldwatch Institute
Author(s): Michael Renner
Date: 2002
Topics: Assessment, Conflict Causes, Extractive Resources, Governance, Programming, Renewable Resources
Countries: Angola, Colombia, Congo (DRC), Indonesia, Liberia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone
“Since the late 1990s, awareness has grown rapidly of the close links among illegal resource extraction, arms trafficking, violent conflict, human rights violations, humanitarian disaster, and environmental destruction. Expert panels established by the United Nations have investigated cases in Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Civil society groups have launched a campaign against “conflict diamonds” from those countries and have shed light on other conflict resources as well. Company and industry practices are coming under greater scrutiny. Media reports have helped carry these concerns from activist and specialist circles to a broader audience. All of this also comes against the background of an intensifying debate over the unchecked proliferation of small arms, the weapons of choice in resource- based conflicts.”