Belgian minister criticises exploitation report

While the report of the UN Panel on the exploitation of natural resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo "undeniably underlines the link" between the foreign troops that were there and economic exploitation of the country, it failed to propose ways of distinguishing the legal from the illegal, Belgian Deputy Foreign Minister Annemie Neyts said on Wednesday. "Immoral doesn't mean illegal, and this point is still unclear," she added. She was speaking at a Brussels news conference concluding a seminar she initiated on "doing business in conflict areas: ethical and legal challenges". Almost 160 participants attended, representing official bodies such as Belgian ministries, the EC, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the UN, embassies, European companies, international NGOs and universities. "We haven't reached a common approach, but the exchange was open and constructive", she told reporters. The main point of difference, she said, was of participants who favoured sanctions against "non-ethical" companies, and those in favour of self-regulation and the application of codes of conduct. In further criticism of the UN panel report, she said "many companies" included in its annex were not mentioned in the body of the text. An analyst said that 21 of 85 companies cited in the list of "business enterprises considered by the Panel to be in violation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises" were Belgian. However, Neyts said, Belgium would comply with the UN Panel's recommendations, after the Security Council reviewed them on 6 November. "We shall obviously apply its recommendations," she said, adding "the Security Council will also be preoccupied by not jeopardizing the fragile peace process in DRC". Belgian NGOs at the seminar warned of a potential "burying" of the recommendations of the UN Panel. "Belgium should now be prepared to implement the sanctions proposed by the experts," Indra Van Gisbergen, a member of an umbrella body of Flemish NGOs, said. "The need for further investigation cannot be a pretext for a wait-and-see attitude. To promote only a code of conduct is insufficient".