Democratic Republic of Congo: The Curse of Gold (Summary of report on gold mining/Congo's war)

Human Rights Watch ^ | June 2005 | Human Rights Watch staff

[seacapn]

“We are cursed because of our gold. All we do is suffer. There is no benefit to us.”

– Congolese gold miner

The northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to one of Africa’s richest goldfields. Competition to control the gold mines and trading routes has spurred the bloody conflict that has gripped this area since the start of the Congolese war in 1998 and continues to the present. Soldiers and armed group leaders, seeing control of the gold mines as a way to money, guns, and power, have fought each other ruthlessly, often targeting civilians in the process. Combatants under their command carried out widespread ethnic slaughter, executions, torture, rape and arbitrary arrest, all grave human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law. More than sixty thousand people have died due to direct violence in this part of Congo alone. Rather than bringing prosperity to the people of northeastern Congo, gold has been a curse to those who have the misfortune to live there.

This report documents human rights abuses linked to efforts to control two key gold mining areas, Mongbwalu (Ituri District) and Durba (Haut Uélé District), both bordering Uganda.

When Uganda, a major belligerent in the war, occupied northeastern Congo from 1998 to 2003, its soldiers took direct control of gold-rich areas and coerced gold miners to extract the gold for their benefit. They beat and arbitrarily arrested those who resisted their orders. Ignoring the rules of war for the conduct of occupying armies, they helped themselves to an estimated one ton of Congolese gold valued at over $9 million. Their irresponsible mining practices led to the collapse of one of the most important mines in the area in 1999, the Gorumbwa mine, killing some one hundred people

[seacapn]

The link to the table of contents for the full report is here:

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/drc0505/

I know that some posters had questions about the war in the DR Congo, probably the most ignored war going on right now in the world. This report gives an idea of how complicated and international the problem is.

[seacapn]

Whoops. Here's a clickable link to the table of contents:

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/drc0505/

[ClaireSolt]

What's to do? Send in some more Un rapist peace keepers?

[sgtbono2002]

I know I am not really knowledgeable about the world , but please. Is there anywhere in Africa where the people arent fighting, dying from Aids, starving, driving whites out, eating each other, killing with baseball bats or machetes ,Raping babies, Just Damn.

[seacapn]

Most of Africa is peaceful on a day-to-day basis. Countries like Ghana or Namibia or Gambia do alright.

[seacapn]

I guess some problems defy easy solutions. Aside from putting diplomatic pressure on the Rwandan and Ugandan governments to reign in their militais, I'm not sure what else is to be done. The peacekeepers are too few to make much of a difference, and some, as we can see, are ill-disciplined. They probably did save the city of Bukavu from a full-fledged rebel assault, though.

Peacekeepers are only effective if there are lots of them, and if they have the teeth to keep the peace

[Smokin' Joe]

Thanks for the info.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Call Joseph Conrad; it's time to update "Heart of Darkness".