End of War Intensifies Plunder of Congo Riches *** 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. ***
MATTHEW PARRIS: The tribal catastrophe that awaits Zimbabwe*** My evidence is anecdotal, sketchy and based on unsourced information, but a boyhood spent there lends me confidence to back my hunch. My fears are sharpened by those in Zimbabwe to whom I have been speaking this week.
The majority Mashona tribe who occupy the richer, northern part of the country centred on Harare, may soon be urged by their leader, Robert Mugabe, and his Zanu (Patriotic Front) governing party into a genocidal bid to take from the southern Matabele ("take back", he would say) the lands which the Mashona believe were stolen from them more than a hundred years ago. The situation has parallels with Kosovo. The plan would be to drive the Matabele, by terror and by massacre, over the southern borders of Zimbabwe whence (in some Mashona minds) they came.***