Former Congo rebels tighten grip on mines, says campaigner

Mar 11, 2010, 8:58 GMT

Nairobi/Goma - Former Congolese rebels have taken advantage of UN-backed army offensives to seize control of mining interests in the central African nation, a campaigning organization said Thursday.

The desire to control mining of lucrative minerals used widely in consumer electronics has long been identified as the key driving factor in Democratic Republic of Congo's fluctuating conflicts.

Rebels from the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) joined the army in 2009 and took part in operations against rival militia, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), in the east of DR Congo.

The ex-CNDP rebels used the attacks, supposedly aimed at stopping the FDLR terrorising the local population, to expand their mafia- style extortion rackets in the mining industry, Global Witness said.

'Last year's high profile offensives against the FDLR paved the way for high-ranking elements of the ex-CNDP to gain and consolidate access to mineral wealth,' Global Witness campaigner Annie Dunnebacke, said in a statement.

'Control of the mines has effectively been transferred from one group of armed thugs to another - the main difference being that the new ones are wearing the national army's uniform.'

Dunnebacke, who spent a month in the east of DR Congo researching the claims, said ex-rebels were earning tens of thousands of dollars each month from illegal taxes imposed on miners around Bisie, the largest cassiterite (tin ore) mine in eastern DR Congo.

Miners in many areas are forced to pay for permission to work in mines and are whipped and beaten if they refuse to do so, Global Witness said.

More than 5 million people are estimated to have died as a result of the DR Congo's 1998-2003 war and its long aftermath, during which various rebel factions and militias have continued to fight.

Dunnebacke said that minerals continued to lie at the heart of the problem.

'For more than a decade now, the country's mineral wealth has provided an incentive and a cash base for the conflict to continue,' she said.

'Unless the government and international donors implement a comprehensive strategy which tackles once and for all the economic drivers of this conflict, the local population will continue to suffer.'

International companies have failed to move beyond rhetoric and carry out due diligence to ensure they are not using minerals from rebel-controlled mines, Global Witness said.

'Western donor governments have been very vocal about commitments to bring peace and stability to eastern DRC,' said Emilie Serralta, who accompanied Dunnebacke on the research trip.

'But the impressive rhetoric is at odds with their persistent failure to hold to account companies in their jurisdictions that buy conflict minerals.'