Conflict used to mask theft - Global Witness

Global Witness, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that operates in areas where conflict is fuelled by the extraction of natural resources, has called for tough measures against companies implicated in such activity.

In a press statement on Friday, Global Witness said a call by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a clampdown on companies that fuel wars across Africa must be followed with genuine regulatory action.

"The lack of transparency in resource extraction industries across Africa sees the corporate sector providing major funds to unaccountable military and political elites who then use conflict to cover corruption and embezzlement in countries such as Angola (oil and diamonds), Democratic Republic of Congo (timber and diamonds), Sierra Leone (diamonds, Liberian timber) and the Sudan (oil)," the statement said.

The organisation alleged that investigations in Angola suggested that almost a third of state revenue, some US $1.4 billion, went missing last year. "Highest level individuals connected to the Presidency – Angola's 'Oligarchy' – loot cash from oil revenues and oil-backed international loans off the back of arms trafficking and the military procurement process. Angola's war has been privatised," alleged Global Witness director Simon Taylor.

"The missing funds are over five times the US $200 million that the UN barely scraped together to feed the country's one million internally displaced people."

Global Witness alleged that most international oil companies in Angola are complicit in state looting because they refuse to release any public information about payments to the state, "making it impossible for civil society to hold the Angolan government to account over the misappropriation of money from 'their' resources".

The NGO argued that, if Blair was serious about making progress in tackling the lack of transparency, moves should be made to go beyond voluntary approaches such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

"Mr Blair must level the playing field between companies and call on the stock market regulators, such as the UK's Financial Services Authority, to require companies to report their payments to all national governments as a condition for being listed," said Taylor.

Global Witness called on French President Jacques Chirac, who was to host the New Partnership for African Development in Paris (NEPAD) on Friday, to press for transparency over resource revenues. "To prevent NEPAD coming to stand for 'National Evasion of Public Accounting and Development'."