Deaths at Anvil Mining's Kulu mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Published by MAC on 2006-04-28
Deaths at Anvil Mining's Kulu mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
28th April 2006
Anvil Mining put out a press release immediately after 2 of its employees were killed when protesting artisanal miners set fire to the company's guesthouse on April 24, decrying "illegal activity", but failed to mention that the mob might have been angry because the company's security was reported to have drowned one of their number. It also failed to explain what alternatives the "illegal" artisanal miners should avail themselves of in an area of extreme poverty and high unemployment. Only a week earlier a conference of non-governmental organisations had issued a communiqué decrying the pillaging of Congolese mineral wealth by foreign companies, environmental degradation, and child labour among other abuses suffered by the long-abused population.
Death in the Congo
The Northen Miner
27th April 2006
http://www.northernminer.com/article.asp?id=55335&issue=04272006&ref=rss
Tragedy struck at Anvil Mining's (AVM-T, AVM-A) Kulu mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Apr. 24. The company has confirmed two deaths, while African news agencies say another two are dead with the possibility of a fifth.
On Apr. 25th Anvil issued a release stating that two of its employees were killed when a group of protesting artisanal miners burned down an Anvil guesthouse just outside of Kolwezi, in the southeastern province of Katanga.
A cook, employed by Anvil, and a contracted security guard, are the victims.
Sources in the DRC say protestors became incensed when an artisanal miner was killed while being cleared off Anvil's property. The dead is said to be 30-year-old Kayembe Mukoj.
While Anvil would not comment on Mukoj's death, it says it has been trying to remove illegal artisanal miners from its land for months. Anvil says its has no problem with legal artisanal miners -- those that pay a government fee for a permit.
The exact cause of Mukoj's death is still a subject of debate. An non-governmental organization (NGO) in the Congo, the League against Corruption and Fraud (LICOF), reports the man drowned in a river while fleeing. But the news agency Agence France-Press reports that an eyewitness claims to have seen an Anvil security guard throw the man down a well. The South African-based security company contracted by Anvil denies the charge.
Patricia Feeney, head of Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) -- an NGO active in the region -- says news of the dead artisanal miner raised the ire of many of Kolwezi residents. Their anger was further fanned when the group was denied a meeting with the mayor to hear their complaint.
Anvil says the protesters numbered over 500, and disputed reports that the number could have been as high as 1,000.
"It started with a very few people," says Anvil spokesman Robert LaVallière of the protest. "But they added people as they walked through the town."
From the mayor's office, the growing crowd wound its way out to the company's guesthouse.
Sources say after setting fire to the building, protesters were dispersed when local Congolese police fired live ammunition into the crowd killing as many as two people. Thus far, government officials have confirmed the death of just one.
Since Anvil's association with the Kilwa incident — where some 100 villagers were killed by the Congolese Military, who used Anvil trucks and aircraft — Anvil has committed itself to stricter transparency procedures when incidents arise.
In compliance with its own policy the company quickly notified the U.N. mission in the Congo -- MONUC -- as well as the DRC government.
Staff members of the governor of Katanga's office flew into Kolwezi the day after the incident to study the situation. The company is now awaiting the outcome of their investigation.
Anvil describes the situation in the area as calm, but Feeney insists that tensions persist. She says high unemployment and poor environmental conditions are fuelling a tense atmosphere that she describes as a "powder keg".
Anvil has shut down operations as a precautionary measure, and has moved two of its employees 250 km away from the site. The company says operations will be ramped back up to full capacity by Sunday, Apr. 30.
In its release Anvil says it is "extremely upset that these deaths have occurred and is making every effort to assist the affected families and to protect its staff."
In Toronto, Anvil's shares fell just 3% after the news broke. They closed on Apr. 25 at $8.40 on roughly 86,000 shares.
Mining staff killed in DRC 'arson attack'
Sapa-AFP
25th April 2006
Lubumbashi, DRCongo - Two employees of a Canadian mining company died when illegal miners set fire to the firm's premises in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a regional official said on Tuesday.
"Illegal diggers who had been chased off the site of the firm (Anvil Mining) set fire to the premises, where there were a cook and a security guard," Diemu Tchikez, deputy governor of Katanga, told AFP from Kolwezi, where the incident took place, about 250km north-west of the provincial capital Lumumbashi.
"They were unable to get out and were burned alive," he said.
"The miners had been chased from the Anvil concession the day before by company guards and said that one of their number had been thrown in a well," Tchikez said.
He said the security company hired by Anvil had denied throwing the illegal digger down the well.
But a witness told AFP that security staff had indeed thrown a miner named Kayembe Mokoji into a pit full of water in the mine and he had drowned.
News of the death sparked a march on the town hall of Kolwezi where, according to witnesses the protestors were turned away. The demonstrators then marched on the mining company's offices.
Anvil has been mining copper in Katanga for some years. It recently began operations in Kolwezi, obtaining a concession from which it is trying to expel independent miners.
Final Statement from the workshop on the role of the media and civil society in the exploitation of the natural resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo
We, the Civil Society Organizations of the DRC Natural Resources Network, and the Media from Kinshasa, Bas-Congo, South-Kivu, Orientale Province, Kasai Oriental and Katanga, met on April 18 and 19 in the Halle de l'Etoile in Lumumbashi to discuss "The Role of the Media and Civil Society in the Exploitation of the Natural Resources of the DR Congo" with the following objectives:
- to network the Media and other Civil Society activists concerning the RDC's natural resources;
- to raise the consciousness of the Media and other Civil Society activists on the same question;
- to define strategies for collaboration;
- to support lobbying action in the West.
After reviewing the various reports from national and international organizations, particularly the report of the United Nations Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of the DR Congo's Natural Resources, the report entitled "The State vs. the People: Governance, Mining and the Transitional Regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo" in Fatal Transactions (NiZA website), the report from the Special Parliamentary Commission, the Lutundula Commission, whose mandate was to examine the economic and financial validity of contracts signed during the wars of 1996 and 1998, which indicated the irresponsible management of Congolese natural resources by the public authorities.
This bad management was seen particularly in:
- the signing of one-sided contracts;
- the exploitation of children in the mines;
- the degradation of the environment and ecosystems;
- corruption in the terms of the deals;
- lack of respect by the mining companies for the normal social responsibility expected from them; etc.
Considering that the paradox of immense potential wealth side by side with the poverty of the population constitutes a real scandal characterising our country, where more than 70% of the people live below the poverty line with an income of about 80 cents per person per day, so making the DR Congo 167th in a list of 175 countries, according to the last UNDP report on human development ;
Convinced of the important and essential role that Congolese natural resources should play in the lasting development of the DR Congo and the struggle against poverty ;
Anxious to work towards a transparent management of natural resources for the benefit of the local community, particularly for the public treasury in general, as well as a fair and healthy exploitation;
Convinced of the need to fight against any other opposing views, particularly in this electoral period;
Faced with the laxity and complicity of public authorities and some international players in the management of natural resources on the one hand, and, on the other, with the impunity enjoyed by some shady customers, who have been physically and morally implicated in the looting of Congolese natural resources;
We have made the following resolutions:
- To denounce all those physically and morally implicated in the looting of natural resources in the DR Congo;
- To insist that Parliament does not procrastinate, but includes the examination and adoption of the report of the Lutundula Commission in the agenda for the present session;
- To insist that the Attorney General launch an investigation into all those physically and morally implicated in the looting of Congolese natural resources;
- To alert international institutions to the need to bring sanctions against all multinationals operating in the Congo who participate in the looting of Congolese natural resources;
- To denounce the mining and forestry policies of the World Bank which support pauperisation;
- To beg the people not to vote for anyone implicated in the looting of resources.
Announced at Lubumbashi, April 19, 2006
Participants:
1. The African Association for the Defence of Human Rights, Katanga Chapter, ASADHO, Katanga
2. The New Dynamic Union, NDS, Katanga
3. The Combined Organisation of Ecologists and Friends of Nature, OCEAN, Kisangani
4. Journalist In Danger, JED, Kinshasa
5. The National Centre National to Support Development and Popular Participation/Natural Resources Network, CENADEP/RRN, Kinshasa
6. The Action Group for the Organization of Mine Workers GRAERN, Kasai Oriental,
7. Katanga Community Radio, RCK, Katanga
8. Congo National Press Union, UNPC, Katanga
9. Radio Buena Muntu, Kasai Oriental
10. Radio Mwangaza, Province Orientale
11. Radio Maendeleo, Sud-Kivu
12. The Katanga Association for Women in the Media, AFEMEK, Katanga
13. Radio Ntemo, Bas-Congo
14. The Association des Community Radio Stations, ARCO, Katanga
15. Oasis Radio/Television, Katanga
16. The Panos Institute, Paris-Kinshasa
17. NiZA, Holland
DECLARATION FINALE DE L'ATELIER SUR LE ROLE DES MEDIAS ET DE LA SOCIETE CIVILE DANS L'EXPLOITATION DES RESSOURCES NATURELLES DE LA REPUBLIQUE DEMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO
Nous, Organisations de la Société civile membres du Réseau Ressources Naturelles de la RDC et des medias venues de Kinshasa, Bas-Congo, Sud-Kivu, Province Orientale, Kasaï Oriental et Katanga, réunis le 18 et le 19 avril 2006 à la Halle de l'Etoile de Lubumbashi autour du thèème « Le Rôle des Médias et de la Société Civile dans l'exploitation des ressources naturelles de la R.D.Congo » dont les objectifs étaient de :
- créer un réseau des Médias et autres acteurs de la Société Civile sur la question de la gestion des ressources naturelles en RDC;
- sensibiliser les médias et autres acteurs de la Société Civile sur la mêême question ;
- définir les stratégies de collaboration ;
- renforcer les actions de lobbying en Occident.
Aprèès avoir passé en revue les différents rapports des Organisations nationales et internationales notamment le rapport du Panel des Nations Unies sur l'exploitation illégale des ressources naturelles de la RDC, le rapport intitulé l'Etat contre le peuple de Fatal Transactions, le rapport de la Commission spéciale du Parlement dite Commission Lutundula chargée d'examiner la validité des contrats économiques et financiers signés pendant les guerres de 1996 et de 1998 lesquels ont eu à démontrer la mauvaise gouvernance des ressources naturelles congolaises par les pouvoirs publics.
Cette mauvaise gestion se traduit notamment par :
- la signature des contrats léonins,
- l'exploitation des enfants dans les mines,
- la dégradation de l'environnent et des écosystèèmes,
- la corruption dans la passation des marchés,
- le non - respect par les entreprises extractives des normes sur la responsabilité sociale des entreprises ; - etc.
Considérant que le paradoxe entre d'immenses potentialités des richesses et la pauvreté de la population constitue un véritable scandale qui caractérise notre pays où plus de 70 % de la population vit en dessous du seuil de pauvreté avec un revenu d'environ 0,80 $ par personne par jour reléguant ainsi la RD Congo au 167èè rang sur une liste de 175 pays selon le dernier rapport du PNUD sur le développement humain ;
Convaincus du rôle important et primordial que doivent jouer les ressources naturelles congolaises pour le développement durable de la RD Congo et la lutte contre la pauvreté ;
Soucieux de concourir à une gestion transparente des ressources naturelles au bénéfice des communautés locales en particulier et du Trésor public en général, ainsi qu'une exploitation équitable et saine ;
Convaincus de la nécessité de combattre toutes ces antivaleurs particulièèrement en cette période électorale;
Face au laxisme et à la complicité des pouvoirs publics et de certains acteurs internationaux dans la gestion des ressources naturelles d'une part et d'autre part l'impunité dont jouissent certaines personnes physiques et morales véreuses impliquées dans le pillage des ressources naturelles congolaises ;
Avons résolu ce qui suit :
- De dénoncer toutes les personnes physiques et morales impliquées dans le pillage des ressources naturelles en RD Congo ;
- D'exiger du Parlement d'inscrire sans atermoiement à l'ordre du jour de sa présente session l'examen et l'adoption du rapport de la Commission Lutundula ;
- De demander au Procureur Général de la République d'ouvrir une instruction judiciaire à charge de toutes les personnes physiques et/ou morales impliquées dans le pillage des ressources naturelles congolaises ;
- De sensibiliser les institutions internationales sur la nécessité de sanctionner toutes les multinationales installées au Congo et qui s'adonnent au pillage des ressources naturelles congolaises ;
- De dénoncer la Politique minièère et forestièère de la Banque Mondiale en RD Congo qui entretient la paupérisation ;
- De demander à la population de ne pas donner ses voix à toute personne impliquée dans le pillage des ressources.
Fait à Lubumbashi, le 19 avril 2006
Les Participants
1. Association Africaine de défense des Droits de l'homme, Représentation du Katanga, (ASADHO/Katanga)
2. Nouvelle Dynamique Syndicale (NDS) /Katanga
3. Organisation Concertée des Ecologistes et Amis de la Nature (OCEAN)/Kisangani
4. Journalistes En Danger (JED)/Kinshasa
5. Centre National d'Appui au Développement et à la Participation Populaire/Réseau Ressources Naturelles(CENADEP/RRN)/Kinshasa
6. Groupe d'Action pour l'Encadrement des Exploitants artisanaux GRAERN / Kasai Oriental
7. Radio Communautaire du Katanga (RCK)/Katanga
8. Union Nationale de la Presse au Congo(UNPC)/Katanga
9. Radio Buena Muntu / Kasai Oriental
10. Radio Mwangaza / Province Orientale
11. Radio Maendeleo / Sud-Kivu
12. Association des Femmes des Médias du Katanga (AFEMEK)/Katanga
13. Radio Ntemo / Bas-Congo
14. Association des Radios Communautaires (ARCO)/Katanga
15. Radio Télévision Oasis/Katanga
16. Institut Panos Paris Paris-Kinshasa
17. NiZA / Hollande
Me Marc WALU
Avocat prèès la Cour d'Appel de Lubumbashi
Directeur financier de l'Association Africaine de défense des Droits de l'Homme, représentation du Katanga, ASADHO/KATANGA
Phone:(243) 814533319
asadhokat(at)ic-lubum.cd ou walkerwalu(at)yahoo.fr
RD Congo