OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kigali | Wednesday
COUNTRIES and rebel groups accused by a UN-appointed panel of fuelling the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo by plundering the countrys resources have rejected the charges.
Rwanda scoffed that they were “without foundation”. Uganda called them “baseless”. Burundi dismissed them as “false”. The Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), a rebel group backed by Kigali that has been fighting Kinshasa since 1998, said the report’s findings were “incorrect and partial.”
Jean-Pierre Bemba, the businessman who heads the Kampala-backed Congolese Liberation Front (FLC), said the report, which called for his prosecution, was “based on rumours” and asked of its authors: “Who are these people?”
Presenting the report in New York this week, UN chief Kofi Annan called on the Security Council to impose sanctions on the rebels and their backers and for an immediate, temporary ban on exports of minerals and timber from and to Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.
The assets of rebels and their supporters should be frozen, and an arms embargo imposed, he urged.
The recommendations came in a 56-page report compiled by a panel of five experts set up by Annan in July last year.
It named senior military and government officials involved in the “mass-scale looting” and systematic exploitation of natural resources in the DRC, one of the largest and potentially richest countries in Africa.
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.”
This brought a chorus of denial from the accused.
“There is no truth in this report which sometimes speaks of people who do not exist, of companies which do not exist,” said Rwandan government spokesman Joseph Bideri.
“The Ugandan government, as a policy, has not in any way involved itself in plundering in the DRC,” said Minister in Charge of the Presidency Ruhakana Ruganda, adding that the government in Kampala would launch its own investigations.
The UN report named Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s younger brother, Major General Caleb Akandwanaho, popularly known as Salim Saleh, as one the senior Ugandan army officers and government officials involved in “mass-scale looting and systematic exploitation of natural resources of the DRC.” – AFP
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