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Man arrested in
Belgium with gold worth $500,000 from South Kivu
BRUSSELS, 20 November (IRIN) - Belgian police have arrested in Brussels a Canadian carrying gold bullion from South Kivu worth US $500,000 and charged him with money laundering, the city's police force announced on Wednesday. Zulfa Karim Panju, 60, was carrying five gold bullion bars each weighing 10 kg. Police displayed the bullion at a news conference on Wednesday. The Brussels prosecutor's office said the gold originated from Bukavu, a town in the South Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The metal was transported in plastic boxes bearing the seal of the [Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie rebel movement] RCD-Goma", Glenn Audenaert, a director of the police, said. The boxes were concealed in a backpack. Police said that Panju had for four years, every two weeks, carried fake corporate invoices, along with 50 kg of gold, destined notably for Belgium, UK, USA and Switzerland. The gold was then sold and laundered through non-resident bank accounts, such as at the BBL bank in Belgium. The gold was smelted in Antwerp before appearing on the international market. The profits of the transactions were then sent to Rwanda, where they were used to buy arms, clothes and vehicles for the RCD rebellion, the prosecutor's office in Brussels said. The arrest occurs in the wake of an investigation into the business affairs of Aziza Kulsum, alias Mrs Gulamali, 50, who headed the Societe Miniere des Grands Lacs (Somigl); a company that from November 2000 to April 2001 organised a coltan monopoly for the benefit of RCD-Goma. On 4 November, police in Brussels arrested Belgian businessman Jacques Van den Abeele for forgery and money laundering. He is accused of involvement in a major operation to smuggle coltan. However, Belgian judicial authorities said Van den Abeele was only an intermediary for a highly complex network headed by Gulamali, who is being sought by Belgian authorities. In both the Van den Abeele and Panju cases, Belgian judicial authorities froze the accounts used for transactions, "representing several millions of US dollars", they said. Accounts in other European countries, notably Switzerland, have also been frozen. Since the Van den Abeele case, the DRC government, through a Congolese lawyer established in Belgium, has elected to associate itself as a plaintiff in court action by the Belgian public prosecutor against money laundering of proceeds from the plundering of minerals originating from DRC. The Mulindwas
communication group
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