Looting Congo's Natural Resources
10/13/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: ECONOMY: Looting Congo's Natural Resources
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 13, 1999
Byline: Bienvenu Mundala
KINSHASA, Oct 13 (IPS) - The Congolese people are becoming
increasingly disgruntled by the systematic pillaging of their
national resources by the Congolese belligerents and their allies.
Uganda and Rwanda, who support the rebels fighting the
Congolese regime in Kinshasa, as well as allies of President
Laurent-Desire Kabila - Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe - have had no
qualms about helping themselves to the riches in territories under
their control.
''The rebels and the Kinshasa government have got to understand
it is time to put an end to this war, which has become profit-
maker for the allies on both sides'', says Tshidibi Ngodavi, a
political analyst in the capital Kinshasa.
According to Tshidibi, both the rebel and government allies are
behaving like bandits, while the population continues to be
subjected to dictatorship and violence.
''We are witnessing the biggest hold-up of modern times. The
people live in abject poverty while the warring parties profit
from their national resources'', says Jackson Bitema, a 47-year-
old owner of a small grocery shop in Kinshasa.
Kinshasa's private press, whose news sources are mainly
international press agencies and foreign radio stations, confirms
that the country is being pillaged of its natural resources. And
the Congolese are furious.
''It's truly disgusting how our own compatriots can permit our
natural resources to be sold off, just to maintain their own
power'', laments Franklin Musau, a 39-year-old head of a small
private transportation company in Kinshasa.
He says the government of Kabila, which is supposed to be
defending the country's interests, looks the other way when the
country's mineral treasures are being ''stolen'' by its allies,
especially Zimbabwe.
''President Kabila is selling off the country to foreign
interests. This is irresponsible, bad leadership'', says Musau.
Each day, the allies export more and more mineral resources
pillaged from the DRC.
''Too vast, too rich, and too poorly developed, Congo possesses
too much mineral wealth for its own good, and this incites lust in
the hearts of foreign governments'', says Kwebe Kimpele, former
journalist with state radio, describing the stakes of the
Congolese war.
Unconfirmed sources in Kinshasa say each allied country makes
off with whatever valuable materials that exist in its sector. The
Ugandans and Rwandans plunder gold, diamonds, coffee and wood, the
Zimbabweans diamonds and copper, and the Angolans, oil.
According to the Diamond Office, a division of the Belgian
customs bureau which exclusively oversees the import and export of
diamonds, Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe have become exporters of
diamond, although not one mine exists on their own soil.
Statistics for last July published by the Diamond Office show
that Zimbabwe exported 19,000 carats worth of diamonds, Rwanda
1500, and Uganda 11,000.
The government in Kinshasa says the Ugandans and Rwandans
seized 185,216 carats worth of diamonds and 447 kilogrammes of
gold during the first eight months of the war.
The conflict in the DRC erupted in August 1998, after President
Kabila ordered the remaining Rwandan troops and military
instructors who helped him to overthrow the late dictator Mobutu
Sese Seko in May 1997, out of the country.
Since then, the conflict has sucked in six African countries
with Angola, Zimbabwe, Chad and Namibia supporting Kabila, and
Uganda and Rwanda backing the rebels.
During this period, the Congolese treasury lost over a million
and a half dollars in tariffs and other taxes, according to
sources at the treasury.
The country with the worst reputation among the Congolese is
Zimbabwe, Kabila's main military ally. This country, which sent
11,000 soldiers to assist loyalist Congolese troops, appears to be
profiting most from the war without end, the inhabitants of
Kinshasa believe.
''It's sad to say but ever since they arrived, we just keep
losing more territory while they grab whatever they like'', says
Francois Moweni, a medical student at the University of Kinshasa,
indignantly.
Zimbabwe no longer hides its intentions of strengthening
economic ties with the DRC by increasing the number of mining and
agricultural contracts with Kabila.
Zimbabwe, led by President Robert Mugabe, has succeeded in
getting a concession for 200 square kilometres at Mbuji-Mayi, the
capital of the diamond-producing province of Eastern Kasai in the
central DRC.
According to Radio France International, some heavy diamond-
mining machinery manufactured by Caterpillar company has ved
he DRC's
income.
Zimbabwe also obtained, for its Agricultural and Rural
Development Authority, a concession for 500,000 hectares in
Katanga, in the country's southeast, to grow rice, corn, soya
beans and sweet potatoes.
By 1998, Zimbabwe had already seized the reins of Gecamines,
the country's largest mining company and its cash flow. Ever
since, the firm's director has been White Zimbabwean Billy
Rautenbach who, several months ago, laid off 16,000 of its 25,000
employees.
The Central Bank of Congo notes that Gecamines has only
produced 206 metric tonnes of copper during the year's first six
months, as opposed to production of 17,000 tonnes during the same
period in 1998.
At the end of September, a joint venture was undertaken by the
Zimbabwean and Congolese armies to market copper, diamonds and
wood to finance the war. As a result, Congolese copper will be
refined by the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
''These are the kinds of contracts that can only be concluded
in times of war. At their root, the cooperating country always
engages in a bit of blackmail and threatens to withdraw its troops
if expected favours are not forthcoming'', Tshidibi remarks.
The Congolese, in a state of battle fatigue from the conflict,
with no end in sight, have increased their public prayer sessions
in search of peace.
''We want to be in charge of ourselves again. All the
foreigners should go home'', suggests Bitema, who believes that
the DRC will never get back on its feet again if its allies
continue to willfully and systematically loot it.
''The fact that Congo has been transformed into a giant, free,
self-service supermarket by all the foreign countries involved
provides some insight as to how such an unpopular war has been
able to perpetuate itself so long'', says Colette Braeckman,
journalist with the Belgian daily ''Le
Soir''.(END/IPS/bm/nrn/sz/mn/99)