The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) government on Wednesday welcomed a decision by the United States to impose sanctions on seven warlords and businessmen, including a notorious international arms dealer, who are accused of fuelling instability in this vast country’s lawless east.
In an executive order on Tuesday, US President George Bush froze the US assets of the seven men and barred Americans from doing business with them. The seven were accused of violating international laws involving targeting of children or violating a ban on sales of military equipment to DRC.
It was not immediately known what assets the group had in the US, if any.
”They may or they may not, that’s really not the point or the object,” said US Embassy spokesperson in Kinshasa, Christopher Davis. ”It is a warning to anyone else about dealing with these individuals … that they run the risk of finding themselves under similar sanctions.”
DRC government spokesperson Henri Mova Sakanyi said he did not expect the sanctions to affect DRC’s tense run-off election, which pits incumbent Joseph Kabila against Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former warlord who was made vice-president in the current power-sharing administration after the country’s 1998 to 2002 war.
The run-off held Sunday was largely peaceful, though one-day repeat votes were required in two towns after rioting mobs destroyed ballots and polling stations.
”It’s a good thing for us that the international community is beginning to sanction those who financed the war,” Sakanyi said in the capital, Kinshasa. ”Without help from outside, the war wouldn’t have lasted as long.”
DRC is struggling to recover from decades of dictatorship and a war that divided the country into rival fiefdoms and drew in the armies of half a dozen African nations, many of which were accused of plundering the country’s mineral wealth, including diamonds, gold and copper.
Huge tracts of the east remain lawless despite the presence of more than 17 000 United Nations peacekeepers deployed to bolster security.
Those targeted by the White House sanctions include Congolese warlord Laurent Nkunda (49), who operates a private fiefdom in DRC’s eastern Masisi territory and claims the loyalty of thousands of army troops. His forces have been accused of torture and rape and he has been named in an international arrest warrant for war crimes.
Also named were Rwandan militia leader Ignace Murwanashyaka and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, an infamous figure who has allegedly trafficked weapons to Central and West Africa since the early 1990s. The list identified Bout as the owner of Great Lakes Business — whose planes are accused of transporting arms in violation of embargoes.
Two others working for Great Lakes Business were Dimitri Igorevich Popov (45), general manager, and Douglas Mpano (41), manager.
The rest were Khawa Panga Mandro (33), former head of the Party for Unity and Safeguarding of the Integrity of Congo; and Sanjivan Singh Ruprah (40), a businessman.
”We are glad to know that the United States government is now ready to put out everyone involved” in the war, Sakanyi said.
Meanwhile, a repeat vote in the presidential run-off that had been set for Wednesday in the north-east town of Fataki, where rioters destroyed ballots from Sunday’s voting, was postponed a day. A local electoral official, John Ukunya, said they needed more time to fly in new voting materials and inform voters the ballot would be held again.
Another repeat vote was held Tuesday in the northern town of Bumba.
Results from the landmark election are not expected for days or weeks. The electoral commission has said it will publish provisional results by November 19. — Sapa-AP