OWN CORRESPONDENT, Windhoek | Thursday
FOLLOWING a year of denials, Namibia’s mines minister Jesaya Nyamu has admitted that the country does indeed have commercial interests in a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Afrikaans daily Republikein 2000 reported on Thursday.
”The minister of mines and energy, Jesaya Nyamu, admitted that the Namibian mine is being structured and run together with Americans and a front company of the Namibia Defence Force, August 26,” the paper reported.
August 26 also owns the Windhoeker Maschinen Fabrik, a company manufacturing military equipment such as the Werewolf armoured vehicles.
According to Nyamu, he has informed the U.N. that Namibia and the DRC are running the mine near Tshikapa in the southern DRC together with an American group according to an economic agreement entered into with the late DRC President Laurent Kabila.
”Namibia and its partners are not at the mine to plunder; everything is being done within the framework of the legal agreement,” Nyamu is quoted as saying.
The mine covers an area of 25 square kilometres near Maji-Munene, about 45km from Tshikapa not far from the Angolan border.
”Work at the mine began a while ago, but has not reached full diamond production yet,” Nyamu is quoted as saying.
Opposition politicians and critics of Namibia’s involvement in the DRC have long suspected that president Nujoma has received a diamond mine for his support of Laurent Kabila against the rebels.
This has until now been vehemently denied by government. Only last week Nyamu criticised a UN report on conflict diamonds listing Namibia as one of the countries involved in dealing in blood diamonds.
Namibia has an estimated 2_000 soldiers stationed alongside troops from Angola and Zimbabwe in the DRC since 1998 to help fight rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda.
Since then Namibia’s Defence budget has doubled. The country’s involvement in the DRC has been heavily criticised by opposition parties and the public, especially since it was decide upon without prior approval of parliament.