www.africa-confidential.com 25 October 2002 Vol 43 No 21 AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL CONGO-KINSHASA 2 CONGO-KINSHASA Hall of infamy A UN Report names a magnificent Soldiers go, plunderers stay international line-up of military and How occupying generals turned into thieves and how private business figures who, it says, make companies helped them up the elite networks exploiting The multi-billion dollar looting of Congo-Kinshasa’s resources continues, threatening hopes for peace Congo-Kinshasa’s natural resources. and economic reconstruction following the withdrawal of Rwandan, Ugandan and Zimbabwean troops. That is the finding of a new United Nations investigation. In the three areas of Congo where Rwandan, Ugandan and Zimbabwean troops were deployed, a self-sustaining war economy has built up, ZIMBABWE 3 whose fruits finance conflicts and enrich the narrow band of politicians, military officers and business people whom the UN investigators call ‘elite networks’. Exploitative businesses have been built up in The British connection coordination with the foreign and Congolese military forces, strong enough to survive the departure of Britain’s smart sanctions haven’t the foreign troops. These parasitic businesses drain hundreds of millions of dollars a year from Congo’s stopped British-based economy and state coffers. businessmen selling military In areas controlled by the Congolese government, at least US$5 bn. of state mining assets have been equipment to Zimbabwe. UN investigators have identified John transferred to private companies controlled by the foreign elites, with no compensation or benefit for Bredenkamp and Captain Andrew Congo’s state Treasury since 1999. The UN Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation Smith as key suppliers and raise of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo estimates the questions about how spare parts Armée Patriotique Rwandaise has been earning about $320 million a year from commercial operations for fighter jets made by BAE in eastern Congo (AC Vol 43 No 10). In 33 years in power, Congo’s own Mobutu Sese Seko was Systems reached Harare. reckoned to have stolen $5 bn. The Report, released this week, argues that although the regional conflict which drew seven different CONGO-K/RWANDA/ 5 armies into Congo has diminished, the overlapping micro-conficts that they helped provoke continue (see UGANDA Box). As soon as Rwandan troops withdrew from the eastern town of Uvira last week, the area again burst into conflict. Criminal groups linked to the armies of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe have a vested Proxy wars and interest in continuing instability in Congo. Amid the melee, they run corrupt military procurement deals slaughter and negotiate access to mineral concessions that would never have been granted by accountable governments in peacetime. Rwandan and Ugandan troops may have pulled out, but they leave behind their business networks. Special interests And the war continues among the All these interests are censured by the UN Report. It names several senior officials in the Kinshasa various militias they support. government as key figures in the exploitative networks, including National Security Minister Mwenze Kongolo and the Minister of State in the Presidency, Augustin Katumba Mwanke. Zimbabwean KENYA 6 participants include the parliamentary Speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and Chief of Defence Staff, General Vitalis Zvinavashe. Rwandan leaders of the illicit trade include the former Chief of Staff, Gen. At the end of the James Kabarebe, and Major Dan Munyuza; key Ugandans named include Lieutenant Gen. (Retired) Rainbow Salim Saleh, brother of President Yoweri Museveni, and Major Gen. James Kazini, Chief of Staff. The Report calls for financial restrictions on 29 companies and 54 individuals involved in the President Daniel arap Moi’s chosen plundering of Congo’s resources. One of the companies, Groupe George Forrest (GGF), has a corporate successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, may base in Belgium and operates a Congolese joint venture with OM Group, based in Ohio, United States. lose the election if the opposition Rainbow alliance can remain Other named companies, such as Oryx Natural Resources and Tremalt Limited, hide their real ownership united behind Mwai Kibaki. But behind a web of trusts and holding companies based in the British Virgin Islands. The Report also names KANU is betting on a split. 85 multinationals in Europe, the USA and South Africa – including Barclays Bank, De Beers and Anglo American – which, it says, have violated the ethical guidelines on corporate accountability and human POINTERS 8 rights formulated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In theory, citizens’ groups can demand that these companies be investigated by the government of the country where they France/Africa, have their headquarters. Anglo American was called to Britain’s Department of Trade and Industry for allegedly breaching OECD guidelines during its ill-fated purchase of Zambia’s Konkola copper mine. Liberia, Morocco & Western governments are reluctant to act against the named companies. In Belgium, George Forrest’s São Tomé e commercial empire has friends across the political spectrum, from the leftist Green Party to the centre- Príncipe/Nigeria right Liberals. A national inquiry into the plunder of the Congo run by Liberal Senator André Geens has been highly sympathetic towards Forrest, a New Zealander who has taken Belgian nationality and spent most of his working life in Congo. He is suing several Belgian newspapers for reporting on his companies’ operations in Katanga and was allowed to give testimony to the Belgian senate in camera on 25 October 2002 Africa Confidential Vol 43 No 21 S insists it has never knowingly bought columbo-tantalite (coltan, used CENTRAL AFRICAN U UGANDA-CONTROLLED AREA D REP. u ui om A in making mobile telephone chips) from Congo war zones despite the g COLTAN B DIAMONDS N n CAMEROON a (Orientale Prov) (Orientale & b Uele u UN Panel’s evidence. US President George W. Bush’s government Équateur Provs) O Trinity Investments La Conmet Victoria Group is unlikely to act against the formidable OM Group, which dominates o Cong Orientale L. Albert the world market in germanium, a rare metal with high-tech applications, Équateur of which Congo has half the world’s known stocks. Bush’s father Kisangani Mbandaka UG. George Herbert was a consumate diplomatic networker and struck up GABON N- DEMOCRATIC Kivu a long-time relationship with the late President Mobutu, who was seen Goma REP. OF RW. as an important asset for Washington in central Africa. Kindu BukavuRWANDA- Within a day of the Report’s release at UN Headquarters in New Bandundu CONGO CONTROLLED S- AREA Kasai BUR. K Maneima COLTANKivu as York on 20 October, almost all its main targets had denied culpability. ai Oriental Cabinda (Nord-Kivu & KINSHASA Orientale Provinces) (Ang.) Kasai TANZ. Kinshasa’s Information Minister, Kikaya Bin Karubi, told the BBC Bas-Congo Bandundu Occidental Somigl Matadi General BusinessLake Co. he was happy to see the report accuse Rwanda of deception in its Kananga Mbuji- EagleKalémie WingsTanzania Mayi K claims to have withdrawn all its troops from Congo but emphatically w DIAMONDS KINSHASA GOVERNMENTa AND n a (Orientale Province) ZIMBABWE -CONTROLLEDg AREA b o la denied that his fellow ministers were involved in asset-stripping of a Aziz Nassour COPPER & COBALT DIAMONDS u L Hamad Khalil (Katanga Province) (Kasai Oriental state mining companies: ‘The Congolese government is the legitimate Province) Groupe George Forrest Katanga L. Mweru OM Group Miba (Shaba) government of this country... whatever we do is legitimate.’ The Kababankola Mining Co. Sengamines Ocean resource transfers described by the Report had been part of the Atlantic zi Lubumbashi ANGOLA be government’s war financing efforts, he said, without going into detail. m a 800 kilometres Z Zimbabwe’s Gen. Zvinavashe told the state-owned Harare daily ZAMBIA 400 miles The Herald the Report was part of a Western plot to tarnish Zimbabwe’s such delicate issues as why he bought 70 Toyota vehicles used by the image. The Herald also reported that Zimbabwe’s UN Ambassador, late President Laurent-Désiré Kabila to transport government troops Tichaona Jokonya, had written a letter of protest to the UN Security to the front line. Council President even before the Report was released. Uganda’s Britain is doubly embarrassed by the Report and its Foreign and Director of Military Intelligence, Colonel Noble Mayombo, was Commonwealth Office is disdainful of many of the findings. Its arms named in the Report but insisted he had no economic interests in the embargo on Zimbabwe is shown to be toothless, given the ease with Congo. ‘I don’t hold any shares in any company doing business in which it has been circumvented by two British-based businessmen (see Congo... I know they cannot prove their allegations,’ he told Agence Box); Whitehall’s close regional ally, Rwanda, is the target of consistent France Presse: ‘I challenge them to make public the source of their accusations of military commercialism. Germany’s H. Starck company information’. Hall of infamy The following individuals are accused by the UN Report of involvement in Zimbabwean military company; advised both Oryx and Tremalt in their the illegal exploitation of Congo-Kinshasa’s natural resources. negotiations with Congo’s state mining companies. ● Thamer Said Ahmed al Shanfari: Chairman of Oryx, who denies ● Muamba Nozi: runs currency counterfeiting operation which Congo’s personal and business links to the Zimbabwe government; accused by the Central Bank says aims to destabilise the monetary system. UN Panel and parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa of ● Gen. Denis Kalumé Numbi: Congo’s ex-Deputy Defence Minister and contributions to the Zimbabwe African National Union election fund. National Planning Minister; shareholder in Cosleg and Sengamines; heads ● Viktor Bout: transporter of conflict minerals and arms for central and substantial reconstruction budget.