Minister named in exploitation report calls for government probe

A minister in the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) named in the latest UN report on the unlawful exploitation of the country's natural resources, Augustin Katumba Mwanke, said on Monday that the government must institute an inquiry into the report's findings. "I wouldn't answer to things like these. Let an inquiry speak for itself," he told IRIN. Mwanke, the minister of the presidency and portfolio, was accused of looting the DRC's natural resources. The government has not yet commented on the report released on Monday, and attempts to contact DRC officials named in it by telephone have not been successful. The other "elite team" of current and former government officials named in the report were Minister of National Security Mwenze Kongolo; Director of the National Intelligence Agency Didier Kazadi Nyembwe; the president of the state diamond company, Societe miniere de Bakwanga, Jean-Charles Okoto; Planning Minister and former Deputy Defence Minister Gen Denis Kalume Numbi; the director-general of Sengamines, Yumba Monga; and former Minister of the Presidency Pierre Victor Mpoyo. The report, prepared by a six-man panel, said there were "three distinct criminal groups linked to the armies of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe and the DRC government which had benefited from overlapping micro-conflicts [and] will not disband voluntarily even as the foreign military forces continue their withdrawals". Full IRIN report