World BEYOND War and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign are partnering with the Congolese Civil Society in South Africa to hold a symposium on Saturday 4 August in the TH Barry Lecture Theatre at the South Africa Museum in Cape Town to observe the 73^rd anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The uranium for the atom bombs was mined in the Congo, then a Belgian colony. An estimated 10,000 Congolese refugees now live in Cape Town, and many more elsewhere in South Africa.

The August 4 symposium in Cape Town will chronicle the history of the Congo, from the 1880s through the present. Rich in precious resources including uranium, copper, cobalt, diamonds, and oil, the Congo has been a hotbed of exploitation, corruption, looting, and violent conflict for centuries. An estimated twelve million Congolese have died, known as "Africa's First World War," the root cause being raw materials required by the "first world's" war business.

Investors like Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler are making a fortune off the exploitation of the Congo's natural resources. Given that the financial proceeds of the plunder are laundered through the international banking system, World BEYOND War South Africa, in partnership with the Congolese Civil Society in South Africa, is investigating legal action within the European Union in terms of articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute that pertain to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Join us for this informative symposium, in anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as we connect the dots between uranium mining and resource exploitation in the Congo, the WWII bombings in Japan, and the global military industrial complex.