ROBERT HOLLOWAY, United Nations | Tuesday
A UN panel has called for tough measures to stop the plunder of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including a regional ban on exports of timber to and from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, saying it was now the motive and engine of the war there.
“The DRC conflict has become one for the access and control of five key minerals: coltan, diamonds, copper, cobalt and gold,” panel chairwoman Safiatou Ba-N’Daw told a news conference.
Trafficking in timber, coffee and ivory was also pervasive, she said, and “almost all the belligerents are, in one way or another, profiting from the conflict.”
The panel also called for a mandatory arms embargo and a freeze on the rebels’ financial assets, and said the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank should suspend aid to Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda until the end of the war.
Establishing “an international mechanism” to prosecute high-ranking military and government officials, including relatives of presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, was also recommended, with the panel condemning top army commanders and businessmen as “engines of this systematic and systemic exploitation.”
Museveni’s younger brother Khaleb Akandwanaho, also known as Salim Saleh, and rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba were among those recommended for charges.
While the report focused on Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, it also cast blame for the plunder on those on the other side in the war, criticizing “the opportunistic behaviour” of some decision makers in the DRC, and its chief ally, Zimbabwe, and said “some leaders in the region bear a direct responsibility.”
The report said Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda had all become exporters of valuable minerals they did not produce.
“Uganda has no known diamond production,” it said. However, since 1997, when it first became involved in the war in DRCongo, Uganda’s diamond exports have jumped in value from $198_000 annually to well over a million dollars. The report quoted similar figures for exports from Rwanda and Burundi. – AFP
16