Illegal Congolese Resource Exploitation to be Punished

Illegal Congolese Resource Exploitation to be Punished

November 8, 2002 (ENS)

New York - The Security Council could put financial and travel restrictions on 29 companies and 54 persons that an expert panel says have illegally exploited the natural resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo focused its fact finding on diamonds, gold, coltan, copper, cobalt, timber, wildlife reserves, fiscal resources and trade in general.

Conservationists have been particularly concerned about the damaging impacts of coltan mining on the natural values of two universally important World Heritage sites: Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Okapi Wildlife Reserve located in the eastern part of the DRC. Coltan is a mineral that is used in the manufacture of cellular telephones.

Companies based in the DRC, Belgium, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa have been accused of looting the country, while the Zimbabwe government is accused of supporting Laurence Kabila in exchange for resource exploitation concessions.

The report was presented to the UN Security Council on October 24 by the panel's chairman, Mahmoud Kassem of Egypt. It recommends punitive measures be taken to curb the illegal exploitation of the country's natural resources by criminal organizations and persons.

The report says that a ban on the export of raw materials originating from the DRC would be counterproductive, but it recommends that financial restrictions be placed on 29 companies.

It recommends that a travel ban and financial restrictions be imposed on 54 persons, including Augustin Katumba Mwanke, minister of the Presidency in the DRC, Kibassa Maliba, a former minister of mines, and Mwana Nanga Mawapanga, a DRC ambassador in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The list also includes the Speaker of Parliament in Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa Dambudzo, the DRC's minister of national security Dan Munyuza, and Dennis Numbi Kalume the minister of planning and reconstruction in the DRC.

Noting that those involved in the illegal exploitation of natural resources did not have a strong incentive to alter the economic status quo, the report calls for "measures that address their fears of losing revenues." Such measures could only be effective if they took place simultaneously with a political process and should monitored by a UN body that would report any violations to the Security Council.

Representatives of some 20 countries participated in the Security Council's debate, including Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, as well as Belgium and Denmark, which spoke on behalf of the European Union.

The Council is expected to meet next week to hold further informal consultations on a future course of action.

Environmental News Service