IRIN Focus on UN panel report

The Zimbabwean government has dismissed findings by a UN panel of experts that it is involved in the plundering of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). "We are not really worried about the report because we know that it is a pack of lies," Minister of Foreign Affairs Stan Mudenge said on Tuesday. "In fact, we know that the report has been created by the British government, who are keen to discredit Zimbabwe at all costs," the official Herald newspaper reported him as saying. The findings by the panel, an addendum to an earlier report on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC, was submitted to the UN Security Council earlier this month. Alongside the detailed description of Rwandan and Ugandan activities in the Congo, Zimbabwe was accused in the addendum of using its military presence in the DRC to directly benefit "top military and party officials". The commercial activities of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces revolve around mining concessions in areas of the mineral-rich country it controls. But the report noted that Harare views "these exploitation activities" as legitimate business links. Invited into the DRC by a Kinshasa government under threat in 1998 from Rwandan and Ugandan backed rebels, Zimbabwe has justified its costly involvement to a sceptical public in terms of the profitability of the commercial opportunities. "The revenues from these ventures have yet to have a positive impact on Zimbabwe's weakened economy, however. The reason for this", the report said, "is that Zimbabwe's holdings in the [DRC] seem to be controlled by top military and party officials who are also the direct beneficiaries". However, a source close to Zimbabwe's ruling party denied the accusations. She pointed out that the board of OSLEG, the commercial arm of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, was common knowledge. "The structures are very clear and very public. There is no personal business by politicians, individuals are not making money. These are legal concessions," she told IRIN. The conflict in the DRC is often dubbed a "resource war", in which the security interests of the protagonists intersect with the more prosaic goal of profit - providing a powerful inducement for its continuation. "Zimbabwe is genuinely fighting a mercantilist war," Richard Cornwell of the Pretoria-based Institute of Security Studies (ISS) told IRIN. "The war is used as a money laundering operation in the light of the collapsing Zimbabwe economy." But Zimbabwe's "legitimate" business interests in the DRC are no different from European ventures, for example, the Harare-based source alleged: "If Belgium is doing it, its normal business ... If the (report) is going to look at business arrangements, why not look at European interests?" She added that Zimbabwe's 12,000 troops in the DRC are regarded as disciplined professionals who are a force for stability. "People don't seem to ask where we would be if Zimbabwe hadn't intervened. Zimbabwe is a stabilising factor and I think it's criminal it is not said publically (by the international community)." According to the UN report, the "effective collapse" of state institutions in the DRC "offers significant financial opportunities and rewards to unscrupulous elements operating under the garb of various governments, businesses, mafias, individuals etc". It added: "The initial motivation of foreign armies to intervene in the [DRC] was primarily political and security-related in nature; over a period, and owing to the evolving nature of the conflict, it has become the primary motive of extracting the maximum commercial and material benefits. This holds true for both government allies and rebel supporters." However, according to Human Rights Watch, a glaring omission in the expert panel's findings is the failure to fully acknowledge the human cost of the fight for DRC's resources. The belligerents "have no interest to see an end to the current situation in eastern Congo," Suleiman Baldo of the US-based rights group told IRIN. "There is a level of violence they can tolerate because the violence is targeting civilians ... The end result is that the Congolese will continue to die as (leaders) line their pockets with gold and diamonds." It is estimated that 2.5 million Congolese have died as a result of the war. Baldo equates that loss of life with the horrors of Belgian colonialism, which claimed 7 million Congolese. He said that African leaders involved in the DRC conflict had a colonialist mentality" which failed to value the lives of the local population. "The Congolese are not only facing material losses, they are being crushed in the exploitation of natural resources," insisted Baldo.