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As I have stated before, let us put an all out
embargo on African menerals for 5 years and we see where we can go from
there.
Em
The Mulindwas communication
group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 3:05
PM
Subject: [Mwananchi] Multinationals
exposed in DRC looting
The Sunday Mirrow
Multinationals exposed in DRC looting
Tawanda Majoni and Norman Mlambo
BARCLAYS Bank, Anglo American plc
and Standard Chartered Bank are
among the list of predominantly British
and Belgian international
conglomerates that have been exposed by the
United Nations as the
main culprits in the looting of mineral resources in
the war ravaged
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The United
Nations third and final report on the illegal exploitation
of natural
resources and other forms of wealth in DRC, which was
approved by the UN
Secretary General, Kofi Annan, names a total of 27
Belgian and British
multi-nationals as having violated set standards
of practice by looting
DRC's natural resources.
This is contrary to widely held beliefs that
the worst exploiters of
the DRC's natural resources are African companies,
governments and
top-ranking officials, most of whom are alleged to benefit
mostly
from kickbacks offered by the multinationals. Belgium tops the list
with 15 companies plundering the DRC, while Britain comes close on
the
heels of DRC's former colonial master with 12. Third on the list
is the
United States of America, which has nine companies. The
companies were
found to have operated outside the stipulations of the
Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an
economic organ of the
European Union (EU). Britain and Belgium are
signatories to OECD
conventions and have operated in violation of
standing rules and
regulations.
As a result of the violations, the UN panel, which was
commissioned
to undertake the research on the exploitation of DRC
resources,
recommended the placing of financial restrictions on some of
the
companies.
Four Belgian companies based in Antwerp whose
principal officers were
named as Ahmad Said Ali, Ahmad Hassan, Ahmad
Moussa and Ahmad Nazem
are bound to be affected by the restrictions if
effected. The four
companies are listed in the 59-page report as Ahmad
Diamond
Corporation, Asa Diam, Sierra Gem Diamonds and Triple Diamonds.
The
four principal officers also face UN travel bans and financial
restrictions for their illegal dealings in DRC.
Ironically, even
though they are on top of the list, no company or
individual from Britain
or the US was named for restrictions, a fact
that has raised eyebrows
among economists and international relations
analysts, prompting them to
question the impartiality of the UN
report.
"If a company or its
owner is found to have proceeded in violation of
set rules, it is natural
to expect it to be recommended for a penalty
unless there is a convincing
justification not to include it. In the
case of the UN report, there is no
reference to that and that in
itself is suspicious," said one of the
analysts.
Canada and Germany are in the top five, with each of them
having five
companies operating in the DRC.
The vast and mineral
rich DRC, formerly known as Zaire, was sucked
into a devastating war in
1998 when rebels backed by Rwanda and
Uganda invaded the country. Allied
forces from the Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC) quickly moved
in to repel the insurgents
in a war that was to be dubbed "Africa's World
War".
After four years, peace seems to be returning to the country with
belligerent armies withdrawing to pave way for a UN peace monitoring
force. The named companies are involved in various commercial
activities, which include coltan and diamond trading, assaying,
investment, banking, chemicals, tantalum processing, freight
forwarding, processing and capacitor manufacturing.
In Africa,
South Africa tops the list of plunderers, with 12
companies being
blacklisted. Other companies named come from Ghana,
DRC and Zimbabwe.
However, these companies are not signatories to the
OECD convention.
Africa as a whole has 19 companies on the list of
OECD violators, compared
to the west's 55.
Notable multi-nationals that the report names include
the British-
based Barclays Bank, Anglo American plc and Amalgamated Metal
Corporation(UK), Ashanti Goldfields (Ghana), Bayer A.G. (Germany), De
Beers (UK), Kinross Gold Corporation (Canada), Orion Mining Inc (SA)
and Standard Chartered Bank (United Arab Emirates).
Oryx Natural
Resources, a subsidiary of the international Oryx Group
owned by the
controversial Mohammad al Shanfari of Oman but based in
the UK, and
Ridgepointe International, owned by Billy Rautenbach, who
is based in
Zimbabwe are also named in the special report.
The multinational
companies are alleged to have used various
unethical and unprocedural
techniques to maximise profits through the
exploitation of DRC's mineral
resources. In one concerted racket, the
report claims the US based OM
Group, which "currently runs one of the
most profitable mining operations
from the Democratic Republic of
Congo" clandestinely excluded the DRC
based Gecamines from revenues
derived from the processing of a mineral
called germanium.
That was done in spite of the fact that the DRC-owned
Gecamines had a
20 percent share in the project where OM Group owned 55
percent, the
report says. The US company is alleged to have shipped
semi-processed
germanium to OM Group's Finland plant for extraction, in
violation of
the agreement with Gecamines.
The shipment of
semi-processed minerals and ores from the DRC is a
strategy that has been
assumed by several other companies besides OM
group. Eagle Wings Resources
International, a subsidiary of Trinitech
International Inc. of Ohio in the
US is said to transfer coltan to
Kazakhstan.
"Approximately 25
percent of Eagle Wings coltan is shipped from
Kigali to the Ulba
Metallurgical Plant of Kazatomprom in Kazakhstan.
Another 25 percent is
sold to the parent company of Eagle wings,
Trinitech International Inc in
the United States," reads the report.
This is in spite of the fact that
the recipients of the coltan deny
ever receiving any minerals from DRC.
The UN report also charges that
Eagle Wings collaborates with the Rwandan
Patriotic Army to "receive
privileged access to coltan and captive labour"
in areas hitherto
controlled by Rwanda. Chartered planes are reported to
be used in the
illicit transfer of the minerals, which are said to pass
through
various African countries en route to foreign markets. Several
countries, including the US, Germany, Belgium and Russia have pledged
to step up efforts to stem the illegal movement of minerals from the
DRC.
In spite of the revelations, some experts have greeted the UN
report
with cynicism. It has been charged that the research process was
flawed and the findings biased. Experts have expressed the concern
that even though western multi-nationals are top of the list in the
exploitation of DRC minerals, too much focus has been put on African
governments, companies, officials and belligerents in the conflict.
In
addition, the UN is being criticised for shifting people's
attention away
from the real issues in the DRC.
"The real issue in the DRC is the
conflict, which of course has
created an enabling environment for illegal
activities. The treatment
of the exploitation of resources in the country
by the UN however
invites the risk of shifting people's attention from
that and
persuades them to believe that what matters most is the looting,"
said another analyst. He said the war in the DRC was about the agony
of a country that was invaded by two neighbouring countries, the
fight
to restore its sovereignty and to address security concerns of
the
invaders. He queried why the UN had not commissioned any study to
address
any of those issues, choosing instead to order three
consecutive
investigations on looting and plundering by the
belligerent
forces.
The UN focus on looting is seen by experts as a part of a World
Bank
attempt to rubbish African conflicts as having no greater
significance than looting by greedy African groups. They say the
tendency to concentrate on material plundering was part of a new
ideology propounded by a WB think tank, notable among whom is Paul
Collier. In a number of World Bank sponsored researches between 1998
and 2002, Collier, together with a group of researchers, propounded
the theory that African wars had little to do with political
grievances and tenets of liberation and democracy. Instead, they say,
the conflicts revolve around some Africans' selfish motives to loot,
plunder and profiteer from Africa's natural resources.
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