Posted on 10/22/2002 12:54:31 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Despite an announced withdrawal of foreign troops, the plunder of the Congo's riches continues unabated among the military in Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, aided by Congolese officials and criminal networks, a U.N.-appointed panel reported Monday.
Although fighting that once involved armies from seven African nations has diminished, so-called "elite networks" are running a self-financing war economy centered on pillaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo's gems and minerals.
Criminal groups linked to the Rwandan, Ugandan and Zimbabwean armies have benefited from regional "micro-conflicts," with greed often dominating politics, the panel's 59-page report to the U.N. Security Council said.
"The elite networks derive financial benefit through a variety of criminal activities, including theft, embezzlement, diversion of public funds, under valuation of goods, smuggling, false invoicing, non-payment of taxes, kickback to public officials and bribery," the independent panel said.
Rwandan and Ugandan military officials dismissed the panel's findings.
The report said much of the death and malnutrition in eastern Congo was less due to fighting than pillaging that has left villagers without a livelihood.
Diamonds from Kisangani, for example, are marketed by criminal networks and laundered by purchasing large quantities of sugar, soap, cloth and medicines from Dubai to Rwandan wholesalers, thereby devastating local industries.
NAME AND SHAME LIST
The researchers, who issued two previous reports over the past year on how natural resources were fueling the Congo war, called on the United Nations (news - web sites) to impose financial restrictions on 29 companies and 54 individuals involved in the pillaging.
Most are in Africa but the list includes four Belgian diamond firms and the Belgian Groupe George Forrest mining operation, which is in partnership with the Cleveland, Ohio, based OM Group.
The report also names 85 multinationals in South Africa, Europe and the United States that it says have violated ethical guidelines on transparency and human rights abusers set down by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
These include the world's largest gem and mining firms, such as Anglo American PLC, Barclays Bank, Bayer A.G., De Beers diamond company, the Cabot Corp. among others.
While Rwanda, which has the strongest fighting force, has withdrawn some troops, it has left soldiers behind disguised as Congolese. It runs a "Congo Desk of the Rwandan Patriotic Army," which in 1999 contributed $320 million or 80 percent of the military budget, according to the report.
RWANDA-HUTU COMMON CAUSE
Rwanda said it invaded the Congo in pursuit of Hutu leaders of the 1994 genocide. But the Rwandan army was shown in the report to make common cause with the Hutu Interahamwe, although other Hutus have been used as forced labor.
Newly appointed Rwandan army chief of staff Charles Kayonga described the report as "hopeless."
"Our forces went into Congo for security reasons only and we did just that," he told Reuters. The Rwandan government said it would give a formal reaction once it had studied the report.
Zimbabwe military and some government officials have contended their contracts are legal payment for troops, which propped up the Kinshasa government.
The report says a network of Congolese and Zimbabwean political military and commercial interests, including top government officials in both countries, has transferred ownership of at least $5 billion in assets from the state mining sector to private companies "with no compensation or benefit for the state treasury."
"The diversion of funds from state companies and public coffers, by fraud or under the pretext of war efforts has contributed to eliminating funds available for public services," the report said.
SECURING TRADE ROUTES
The Ugandan army has trained local militia to serve as a paramilitary force, to secure trade flows and economic resources. Uganda has set up a commission to investigate allegations, with mixed results, the panel said.
Uganda army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza rejected the report's findings Monday.
"They have just recycled old information, they should not involve us in that recycling of lies," Bantariza said. "The Uganda army has not been involved in the plunder of Congo."
Among the clandestine networks is one run by Victor Bout, accused in previous U.N. reports as a gun runner and diamond smuggler. He is still operating from the United Arab Emirates, whose diamond exports to Belgium increased to nearly $150 million in 2001 from $4.2 million in 1998, the report said.
Bout has several passports from former Soviet republics and last year denied all allegations on a Russian radio show.
Among the resources in the central African nation are gold, diamonds, niobium, cassiterite, medicinal barks, cobalt, copper and coltan, a mixture of columbite and tantalite, used in light bulb filaments and nuclear reactor parts.
Mugabe and family loot blood gems*** Top Zimbabwean generals, government Ministers and close relatives of President Robert Mugabe have made millions of dollars from the illegal smuggling of 'blood diamonds', a US diamond executive has claimed. In a series of extraordinary encounters with the diamond dealer last year, senior Zimbabwean officials, including the President's nephew, Innocent Mugabe, offered for sale gems looted by Zimbabwean forces fighting in the Congolese civil war.***
Rwanda has withdrawn all its soldiers from Congo and none have shed their uniforms to continue extracting minerals from the vast central African country, as the report charges, said Theogene Rudasingwa, a senior aide to President Paul Kagame.
In the report, released Monday, a U.N. panel accused Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Congo of using criminal groups to plunder the nation's mineral wealth.
The five-member panel said that even though Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe are withdrawing from Congo under recent peace deals, elaborate arrangements have been made to continue exploiting billions of dollars worth of diamonds, gold, copper and timber.
In parts of eastern Congo that Rwanda controlled, Rwandan businessman were put in charge of essential services, like water and transportation, before soldiers were withdrawn, the panel said.
"It simply recycles unsubstantiated accusations and blatant falsehoods," Rudasingwa said.
The five-member panel "has not set foot in Rwanda since we began withdrawing our troops from Congo," he said. "Yet ... it claims, without offering evidence, that we have left soldiers in Congo."
Ugandan Foreign Minister James Wapakhabula said his country had not taken part in any plunder. Rather, he said, the Ugandan army had been a source of stability in the areas it occupied, laying the groundwork for a peaceful withdrawal.
"The facts on the ground clearly demonstrate that the security situation in all areas where the (Ugandan army) has withdrawn ... is relatively peaceful," he said.
In parts of eastern Congo that Rwanda withdrew from, there has been heavy fighting between Rwandan-backed rebels and pro-government tribal fighters.
The war in Congo broke out in August 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda sent troops to back Congolese rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila. They accused him of supporting rebels threatening regional security. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia sent troops to support the government.
The panel recommended the Security Council consider place financial restrictions on 29 companies based in Belgium, Congo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Africa.
It also recommended that 54 individuals - including businessmen, military and government officials - face travel bans, a freeze on their personal assets and the same financial restrictions as the businesses.
Gen. Vitalis Zvinavashe, the chief of Zimbabwe's army and one of the individuals named by the panel, dismissed the report as "meaningless."
"No one in the world ... was happy with the assistance that we rendered the (Congolese) government," Zvinavashe was quoted as saying by The Herald, a state-owned newspaper. [End]
(pvs/mr)
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