Everyday horror: A woman and her child flee from a burning compound during one of the Congo's typical election campaigns.

The soaring price of gold and the plummeting price of human life are converging this week. Is that good or bad news?

Gold prices surged to an all-time high today, spurred by the International Monetary Fund's sale of 200 tons of the stuff to India's central bank.

That's got to be great news for the Democratic Republic of Congo, which sits atop the world's most concentrated collection of untapped gold and other precious metals. Latest news on the Street shows that mining company Randgold advanced 6 percent after saying it's boosting its stake in the DRC's lucrative Moto gold deposit.

At this point, however, even more blood than anything else flows in the DRC, still the scene of the world's deadliest conflict since World War II.

Just yesterday, Human Rights Watch accused the UN peacekeeping force MONUC of actually supporting the Congo military's current campaign of murder and rape. The UN force is partners with the Congo army in Operation Kimia II.

The Congo is the rape capital of the world — sexual violence is a recognized tool of war — so the "rape of the Congo" is more than just a metaphor for the constant plundering of the country's natural resources.

Sad fact: The lust for the Congo's rich resources has never resulted in an easing of tensions over there, but has only intensified the civil war for control. So gold's record-high prices aren't exactly destined to spread peace and sunshine over central Africa.

The relationship between the Congo's mineral wealth and its unremitting violence and horror is unnaturally close. Coltan, a key material used to manufacture cellphones, is found primarily in the Congo, and fights over it have exacerbated the country's constant civil war.

As the price of gold goes up, the attraction of the Congo's gold gets stronger, no matter how dangerous and shaky the place is.

One of the best background pieces is Sarah J. Coleman's "Heart of Darkness," which notes that 3.5 million people have died in the Congo War since 1998 and then reveals even grimmer facts.

The country is the world's 19th biggest in population and in area it's basically the size of Western Europe. So why is the Congo's continually horrifying news almost always consigned to the back pages?