United Nations | Tuesday
THE plunder of natural resources in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo continues unabated, a UN panel said Monday, while softening a previous call for punitive measures to stop it.
In a report to the Security Council, the five-man panel recommended a moratorium on imports of gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, timber, coffee and other valuable commodities from rebel-held areas of the central African nation.
It urged “transit” countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia to use the moratorium to tighten their laws against illicit traffickers in high-value commodities. It said the ban should include coltan, a mineral ore found in parts of the country where Rwandan troops have been present. An excellent conductor, coltan is in high demand in hi-tech industries such as aerospace and communications.
The panel noted that the price of coltan had plummeted from a peak of more than $300 a pound last year to between $20 and $30 dollars a pound now.
It said this may have been partly due to “manufacturers’ desire to disassociate themselves” from blood-tainted minerals since the panel released an interim report to the council in April.
The interim report recommended a mandatory arms embargo and a freeze on the rebels’ financial assets. It also said the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank should suspend aid to Rwanda and Uganda, the rebels’ supporters, until peace has been achieved.
At the time, Rwanda and Uganda protested vigorously, the chairwoman of the panel was replaced after admitting that the report was only 70% complete, and the Security Council asked the experts to extend their work for three months from the end of July.
The new report blamed all sides in the conflict, saying that some government ministries in the capital, Kinshasa, “actively interact” with companies exploiting resources in rebel-held areas.
“A primary and fundamental reason” for the plunder was “the effective collapse of all state institutions and structures of the DRC,” it said.
Its first recommendation was that the international community should help formulate a plan of action to rebuild the state, in part by convening an international conference on peace and security in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
The new panel chairman, Mahmoud Kassem of Egypt, said Monday the situation had changed since President Joseph Kabila came to power in January.
The president’s assassinated predecessor and father, Laurent Kabila, “had a certain attitude with regard to how to solve a problem. … He didn’t really give the peace process a chance,” Kassem said.
Joseph Kabila did not think in military terms, he added.
The panel recommended all concessions and contracts signed with foreign firms during the presidency of Laurent Kabila be reviewed by a special body set up under the Security Council.
This would enhance efforts to rebuild the country and encourage genuine foreign investment, it said. – AFP