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Leonardo DeCaprio on the road to Dodd-Frank paved with good intentions?

“The intention of the law was good, but in practice, it was not well thought-out,” said Eric Kajemba, director of the Observatory for Governance and Peace, a regional nonprofit group. “This is a country where the government is absent in many areas, plagued by years of war and bad governance, where the economic tissue has been destroyed. The American lawmakers didn’t appear to take this into consideration.”

Requests for comment were made to former senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), a key backer of the conflict-minerals measure who is now the U.S. special envoy to the Great Lakes region, which includes Congo. But his office said he was not available. The State Department also did not reply to several requests for comment.

In the Congo...

Villagers call it “Loi Obama” — Obama’s Law.

The legislation compels U.S. companies to audit their supply chains to ensure that they are not using “conflict minerals” — particularly gold, coltan, tin and tungsten from artisanal mines controlled by Congo’s murderous militias. It was championed by influential activists and lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, and tucked into the massive Wall Street reform law known as the Dodd-Frank Act.