In Congo life is far from sweet
Published by MAC on 2006-02-13
In Congo life is far from sweet
13th February 2006
In Congo life is far from sweet
Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong memorably sung of "gold dust at my feet...on the sunny side of the street." Many citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo won't feel like joining that particular chorus. Although the resource conflicts officially ended in 2003, soldiers contine to steal gold resources and harrass villagers.
Last week, too, the World Bank finally released an internal report which found its own political risk insurance arm (MIGA) guilty of lack of due diligence, when assessing risks posed by Anvil Mining company's operations in Kilwa.
WORLD BANK INSURANCE ARM FAILS TO PROTECT LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Audit finds Bank’s Compliance Office Reveals Due Diligence Failures in DR Congo Mining Project
PRESS RELEASE by: Action Against Impunity for Human Rights (ACIDH) | African Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADHO) | Bank Information Center (BIC) | Environmental Defense | Friends of the Earth U.S. | Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID)
3rd February 2006
A World Bank report investigating its support for Anvil Mining’s Dikulushi project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) finds systemic problems in the way the Bank’s political risk insurer does business. According to the report, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) evaluated the risks of conflict to its client and their assets, but did not adequately consider the risks that the project poses to local communities in the volatile Katanga region of the DRC.
Congolese and international civil society organizations welcomed the overdue release of the report and called for immediate action on its recommendations. The groups urge the Bank to overhaul MIGA’s treatment of social risk and require that all companies receiving Bank support comply with international human rights standards and protections for local communities.
MIGA approved political risk insurance for Anvil’s Dikulushi copper-silver mine in September 2004, as the DRC was slowly emerging from years of natural resource-fueled conflict. One month later, Anvil Mining allegedly provided logistical support to the Congolese army during a violent counter-offensive to suppress a small-scale rebel uprising in the town of Kilwa, near Dikulushi. According to the United Nations, as many as 100 civilians were killed during the military offensive.
After an Australian television broadcast in June 2005 exposed Anvil’s reported role in the incident, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz directed the CAO to conduct an audit of MIGA’s due diligence for the project.
"The report has been anxiously awaited by the families of the victims. Its findings are important for all companies operating in Katanga,” said Hubert Tshiswaka, executive director of Action Against Impunity for Human Rights, a Congolese organization based near Dikulushi.
The CAO did not examine the Kilwa incident or Anvil’s alleged complicity, which is subject to an investigation by the Australian Federal Police. However, the report finds that MIGA did not “explicitly consider the risks that Anvil's presence might either have an impact on the dynamics of conflict, or that security provisions for the Dikulushi project could indirectly lead to adverse impacts on the local community.”
"The CAO’s findings validate concerns that have been raised in the past about critical weaknesses in MIGA’s treatment of social issues,” said Nikki Reisch, Africa program manager for the (Washington) DC-based Bank Information Center. “As the World Bank continues to extend its support to private companies in the name of sustainable development and poverty reduction, shortcomings in its social due diligence must be addressed urgently. The lives of people affected by the Bank’s projects could depend on it.”
“It’s unacceptable that MIGA takes its clients’ word that they will address important matters of policy or practice without assessing whether clients have the capacity to understand or implement requirements,” said Patricia Feeney, executive director for UK-based Rights and Accountability in Development. “Unless MIGA assures itself that companies are able to implement the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, one cannot have full confidence that necessary actions will be taken to avoid adverse impacts on communities or the environment.”
Developed in response to the human rights violations and conflict associated with a number of mining and oil projects, the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights provide recommendations for managing public and private security forces in a manner that protects and promotes human rights. Compliance with the Voluntary Principles, which the World Bank says it requires of its clients, should help avoid abuses like those that occurred in Kilwa. The CAO reiterated the importance of compliance with the Voluntary Principles and issued other recommendations, which have significant implications for future World Bank operations in countries emerging from conflict.
For more information:
RAID’s web page for the Dikulushi project: http://www.raid-uk.org/work/anvil_dikulushi.htm <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=79758565&url_num=1&url=http://www.raid-uk.org/work/anvil_dikulushi.htm> .
The CAO’s web page: http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/html-english/DemocraticRepublicofCongo.htm <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/trackjsp?key=79758565&url_num=2&url=http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/html-english/DemocraticRepublicofCongo.htm>
Media Contacts:
Nikki Reisch, BIC: (202) 624-0635
Shannon Lawrence, Environmental Defense: (202) 572-3369
Tricia Feeney, RAID: (UK +44) 779-617-8447
* MAC editorial note: For further information on the World Bank's MIGA, in relation to mining, see Roger Moody's "THE RISKS WE RUN; MINING, COMMUNITIES AND POLITICAL RISK INSURANCE" International Books, Utrecht, 2005.ISBN 90-5727-006-4
Sitting on Gold but Living off Nothing in Congo
by David Lewis, PlanetArk Feature, CONGO
31st January 2006
LULIBA - The sound is instantly recognisable across most of Africa: the dull pounding of a pestle and mortar over the murmur of women's voices.
It usually comes from women grinding maize, millet or manioc for an evening meal in a remote village, but here in the steep lawless hills of Mwenga territory in eastern Congo women pound rocks from dawn to dusk in search of the gold hidden within.
The women are known as Les Mamans Twangaises, or the mothers who grind, and many say they were forced into this repetitive, punishing labour by the ebb-and-flow of Congo's war, a conflict that has officially ended but still simmers here.
"The killing of our animals, the destruction of our fields and the raping of the women forced us to do this," said Jeanne Kasindi, head of a group of Mamans Twangaises in Luliba village.
The women pound rocks that have been mined by their menfolk and then sell the gold to middlemen. They earn little and sometimes militia fighters steal the gold they find.
"We work for 400 francs (US$1 a day) but we don't like this work. It makes us ill. We want to return to the fields," said Kasindi. Living on top of pots of gold has brought little but trouble to most people in Luliba and many other villages in Congo's east, where rebels and militia still prey on residents.
Congo's five-year war sucked in six armies from neighbouring countries and most have been accused of plundering the resource-rich but chaotic central African state. The war officially ended in 2003 but the east has remained volatile.
"The (pro-government) Mai Mai militias and the Rwandans fought over this village 22 times," recalled Luliba resident Lupunda, who did not give his last name. "When the Rwandans were here, their helicopters used to land in (nearby) Kamituga. They brought in weapons and supplies and took out the gold."
The Rwandan army has now left the South Kivu region and the rebels it backed have left or been integrated into a new army.
But the soldiers based here are a ragtag collection of Mai Mai fighters who locals say continue to profit from the mines.
"Now we have the Mai Mai but we hear the proper army is on the way. They will do the same as the others have done - steal the gold," Lupunda sighed.
HARD TIMES
The international community has spent billions of dollars to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has vast reserves of gold, diamonds, timber, copper and coltan, which is used in mobile phones, but some believe the country's wealth will prolong its problems.
"Natural resources still fuel the conflict and there is no real end in sight," said a Western diplomat in the capital Kinshasa.
"Rebels may be pushed out, but the army then comes in and continues the mining. The prospect of short-term gains for local chiefs and the military still outweigh the long-term plans anyone has," the diplomat added.
Belgian colonialists mined the hills of South Kivu for decades and the remains of neatly laid-out workers' quarters and a rusting processing plant in Kamituga hint at the order that existed under the Kivu Mining and Industrial Company (SOMINKI).
The firm shut down during the years of conflict and the town of 130,000 people is now a run-down sprawl where barefoot children skip over pigs and rubbish scattered in the mud.
Instead of the Belgians' mechanised mining, men dig their way into the side of the hills, inching forward and emerging to wash dirt and rocks containing gold dust in streams.
"Soldiers from various groups controlled everything during the war," said Christophe Mwangikwa, the head of the Kamituga Gold-diggers Committee, which campaigns for miners' rights.
"Whichever soldiers are in control still take a cut of the 200 francs (50 cents) miners have to pay to get into the mines."
BRING BACK THE PAST
Mining is all the more important because the war destroyed infrastructure and halted food production.
Acres of palm trees could be producing palm oil, but farmers cannot transport it to market. Goods cost five times more in Kamituga than in Bukavu, 180 km (110 miles) away, as traders opt for a 30 minute flight over a two-week slog by road.
"This was the breadbasket of the Congo, but because of insecurity and a lack of organisation, production has dried up," said Pieter Vanholder, a liaison officer for Oxfam-Solidarite.
"We are trying to give people back their own food security," he said. "We are distributing seeds, providing micro-credit and encouraging the breeding of small animals. Roads are the simple answer. So long as there are none, things will be expensive."
Locals, however, are happy to continue mining but they want better conditions. Mwangikwa believes the Banro Corporation, a Canadian-listed gold exploration company operating in the area, could provide them.
"If they (Banro) come in, we will try and negotiate with them. The return of a company must improve the conditions here."
Banro is exploring four sites in the east, including Kamituga. Desiree Sangara, the firm's director of administration in the Congo, believes there may be "significant deposits" but stresses the company is still at the exploration stage. "We think there will be another two years of exploration. Then we will have to carry out a feasibility study and then maybe in four years we will begin preparing the mining."
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE