UN condemns exploitation, extends inquiry’s mandate

The UN Security Council on Thursday condemned the illegal exploitation of the natural resources and wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and expressed serious concern at those economic activities fuelling the conflict in the country. The condemnation followed a day-long open discussion of a report by a UN panel of experts charged with investigating the illegal exploitation of Congolese natural resources and other forms of wealth.

Emphasising the importance of a comprehensive approach to the DRC conflict, the Council asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to extend the resource panel’s mandate by three months, and requested its members to submit an addendum to their main report. That addendum, it said, should provide an update of relevant data and an analysis of further information; a response, based as far as possible on corroborated evidence, to the reactions of the states and actors cited in the final report of the expert panel; and an assessment of whether progress had been made on the issues.

The chairwoman of the panel of experts, Safiatou Ba-N’Daw of Côte d’Ivoire, had told the Security Council that the illegal exploitation of the mineral and forest resources of the DRC was taking place at “an alarming rate”. She said the panel had distinguished two phases of the plundering: mass-scale looting and the systemic exploitation of natural resources. According to the experts, the conflict in DRC has become one mainly concerning access by foreign armies to the country’s rich mineral resources.

The panel reported strong indications that, during the phase of mass-scale looting, key officials of the governments of Rwanda and Uganda were aware of the situation on the ground, including knowledge that looting of stocks from a number of factories was taking place. The panel also stated that the current illegal exploitation was facilitated by administrative structures established by Uganda and Rwanda.

The UN panel recommended that the Security Council immediately declare an embargo on the import or export of certain minerals from or to Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda until the involvement of these states in the exploitation of the resources was “made clear, and declared so” by the Council, and that any country breaking the embargo should face sanctions. It also urged, among other things, that the Council request the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to consider suspending their support for the budgets of Rwanda and Uganda until the end of the conflict.

Speaking during Thursday’s debate on the resource panel’s report, DRC Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Leonard She Okitundu said the report rather belatedly confirmed Kinshasa’s long-standing position on the link between the “shameless looting” of Congolese natural wealth and the conflict in his country.

Illegal exploitation of diamonds, gold, timber and other natural resources had had devastating, perhaps irreversible, effects not only on the Congolese people but also on the country’s flora, fauna and national parks, he said. The Council must act swiftly on the panel’s recommendations, he added.

The Rwandan special envoy, Patrick Mazimhaka, said the panel’s mandate had not been carefully defined, which had led to contentious interpretations. By ignoring the pattern of trade links in the region and the reality of the Congolese rebellion, the UN panel had based its findings on a misconception of illegality and legitimacy, and decided that any economic activity taking place in the DRC without the consent of the Kinshasa government was illegal, he said.

The Rwandan government has repeatedly criticised the motivation, methodology and conclusions of the UN panel. In a letter to the UN Security Council on 24 April, it dismissed the report as “diversionary, maliciously unfair and definitely ill-intentioned”.
Rwanda’s former Permanent Representative to the UN, Joseph Mutaboba, said the panel’s report was full of hearsay, innuendo and references to unverifiable sources. It purported to deal with illegal exploitation since the beginning of the DRC war but, in fact, attacked existing legal trade. Moreover, it was biased in concentrating only on natural resources (coltan, diamonds, copper, cobalt and gold), which occurred in those areas controlled by the rebel movements.

The Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) has also denied that it has been engaged in massive looting of natural resources. Its foreign relations representative US, Joseph Mudumbi Mulunda, was in the US to rebuff the claims at the UN Security Council. The movement called for “total rejection of the report” because of the “biased methods” used by panel members intent on “destroying a particular group”, RCD-controlled radio reported from Goma, eastern DRC on Thursday.

Uganda’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation, Amama Mbabazi, questioned the principles underpinning the resource panel inquiry, and the quality of the evidence presented during the Security Council debate on Thursday. He said the Ugandan government had decided to establish an independent judicial commission to investigate the top Ugandan military officers and civilians implicated, but doubted the quality and credibility of the document.

Everyone accepted the fact that the government of the DRC had no authority over 60 percent of the country; thus, under the panel’s definition, any economic activities in those parts of the DRC would be automatically illegal, Mbabazi said. That was erroneous, and Uganda did not believe that it was a meaning intended by the Council, he added.

Several speakers at the Security Council’s open meeting stressed the need to carefully assess the panel’s findings before taking action on its recommendations, including applying sanctions, according to a UN account of the proceedings. While some speakers said that the natural wealth of the Congo was the reason for the continuation of the conflict, others maintained that the looting was a consequence of the war, it added.

After Thursday’s debate, the Security Council stated its intention to give full consideration to the panel’s disturbing report about illegal exploitation of Congolese resources by individuals, governments and armed groups involved in the conflict. The Council urged the governments named in the report to conduct their own inquiries and take immediate steps to end illegal exploitation of the natural resources by their nationals or others under their control.

The Council concluded that it would examine and respond to the recommendations of the report in the light of the addendum to be submitted by the panel, so as to advance the peace process in the DRC.