UN confirms continued exploitation of DRC's resources

An addendum to the April report of the UN panel of experts on the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has recommended imposing a moratorium on the purchase and import of certain precious commodities from that country. The panel "confirmed a pattern of continued exploitation carried out by numerous state and non-state actors, including rebel forces and armed groups, conducted behind various facades in order to conceal the true nature of the activities".

According to the report, presented on Monday to the UN Security Council, a wide array of interests has ensured that the war in the DRC remains a self-financing and self-sustaining affair. While parties to the three-year conflict in the country may have been originally motivated by security concerns, they have remained in the DRC largely for economic gain.

The panel emphasised that the Congolese people do not figure among the beneficiaries of this activity, and decried the exploitation of human resources by all parties to the conflict, which they called "a far graver phenomenon than the exploitation of material resources". Such exploitation has resulted in "flagrant and systematic violations of the fundamental rights of the Congolese people", the panel reported. "Human resources constitute the most important wealth of a nation, and the panel strongly feels the need to reinforce the international community's attention to this situation so that urgent measures are taken."

As regards the exploitation of natural resources, Zimbabwe was reported to be "the most active" of the countries - also including Angola and Namibia - allied to the Kinshasa government.

On the side of the "uninvited forces", Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, the panel reported that "commercial networks put in place by Ugandan military commanders had allowed them to continue their exploitation activities despite the withdrawal of a significant number of troops". The Rwandan military, meanwhile, "continued to collect and channel profits from trade in natural resources through a sophisticated internal mechanism". As for Burundi, the panel "found no evidence directly linking the presence of Burundi in the DRC to the exploitation of resources".

Given the broad mandate of the panel, it limited its examinations of resources to coltan, gold, copper and cobalt, diamonds and timber, "since they best illustrate the current patterns of exploitation".

The panel said that the two main underlying causes of the conflict in the DRC must be addressed in order to end the exploitation of natural resources and to establish a lasting peace in the country: the decline of the Congolese state and its institutions, and continued security concerns generated by the presence of armed groups in the country's uncontrolled territory.

In the meantime, the panel said, a moratorium on trade in precious commodities from the DRC would stem the flow of profits and could also help encourage the finalisation and implementation of international technical measures to halt illicit commerce in such goods, including regulatory procedures being developed for diamonds under the Kimberley process. A temporary freeze would also give time to states directly or indirectly involved in the conflict to review and pass legislation aimed at prosecuting those trafficking Congolese resources.

The panel underlined that the burden for resolving the security concerns must first and foremost be assumed by the parties to the conflict itself, including the DRC. In order to help promote a stable environment in which to implement the measures, it suggested that the UN mission in the DRC, with the cooperation of all the parties, could accelerate the process of disarmament and demobilisation.

The 38-page report can be found at
http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/letters/2001/1072e.pdf