Untold Suffering in the Congo
by Keith Harmon Show and David Barouski
The British medical journal Lancet recently took greater notice of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) than all western media outlets combined.
A group of physicians reported that about 4 million people have died since the
"official" outbreak of the Congolese war in 1998 (1). The BBC reported the war
in Congo has claimed more lives than any armed conflict since World War II (2).
However, experts working in the Congo, and Congolese survivors, count over 10
million dead since war began in 1996-not 1998-with the U.S.-backed invasion to
overthrow Zaire's President Joseph Mobutu. While the western press quantifies
African deaths all the time, no statistic can quantify the suffering of the
Congolese.
Some people are aware that war in the Congo is driven by the desire to extract
raw materials, including diamonds, gold, columbium-tantalite (coltan), niobium,
cobalt, copper, uranium and petroleum. Mining in the Congo by western companies
proceeds at an unprecedented rate, and it is reported that some $6 million in
raw cobalt alone-an element of superalloys essential for nuclear, chemical,
aerospace and defense industries-exits DRC daily. Any analysis of the
geopolitics in the Congo requires an understanding of the organized crime
perpetrated through multinational businesses, in order to understand the
reasons why the Congolese people have suffered a virtually unending war since
1996.
Some people have lauded great progress in the exposure of illegal mining in
DRC, particularly by the group Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose 2005 report "The
Curse of Gold" exposed Ugandan officials and multi-national corporations
smuggling gold through local rebel militias. The cited rebel groups were the
Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) and the People's Armed Forces of
Congo (FAPC). The western companies targeted by HRW were Anglo-Ashanti Gold, a
company headquartered in South Africa, and Metalor, a Swedish firm. The HRW
report failed to mention that Anglo-Ashanti is partnered with Anglo-American,
owned by the Oppenheimer family and partnered with Canada-based Barrick Gold
described below (3).
London-based Anglo-American Plc. owns a 45% share in DeBeers, another
Oppenheimer company that is infamous for its near monopoly of the international
diamond industry (4). Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, a director of Anglo-American, is a
director of Royal Dutch/Shell and a member of U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan's Advisory Board (5). The report also suppressed the most damning
evidence discovered by HRW researchers-that Anglo-Ashanti sent its top lawyers
into eastern DRC to aid rebel militia leaders arrested there.
Several multinational mining companies have rarely if ever been mentioned in
any human rights report. One is Barrick Gold, who operates in the town of
Watsa, northwest of the town of Bunia, located in the most violent corner of
the Congo. The Ugandan People's Defense Force (UPDF) controlled the mines
intermittently during the war. Officials in Bunia claim that Barrick executives
flew into the region, with UPDF and RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) escorts, to
survey and inspect their mining interests (6).
George H.W. Bush served as a paid advisor for Barrick Gold. Barrick directors
include: Brian Mulroney, former PM of Canada; Edward Neys, former U.S.
ambassador to Canada and chairman of the private PR firm Burston-Marsteller;
former U.S. Senator Howard Baker; J. Trevor Eyton, a member of the Canadian
Senate; and Vernon Jordan, one of Bill Clinton's lawyers (7).
Barrick Gold is one of the client companies of Andrew Young's Goodworks
International lobbying firm. Andrew Young is the former Mayor of Atlanta, and a
key organizer of the U.S.-Uganda Friendship Council. Young was chosen by
President Clinton to chair the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund in
October 1994. Goodworks' clients-or business partners in some cases-include
Coke, Chevron-Texaco, Monsanto, and the governments of Angola and Nigeria (note
weapons transfers from Nigeria cited below).
Young is a director of Cox Communications and Archers Daniels Midland-the
"supermarket to the world" and National Public Radio sponsor whose directors
include Brian Mulroney (Barrick) and G. Allen Andreas, a member of the European
Advisory Board of The Carlyle Group.
Barrick Gold's mining partners have included Adastra Mining - formerly named
America Mineral Fields (AMFI, AMX, other names), formerly based in Hope,
Arkansas, Bill Clinton's hometown. Adastra had close ties with Lazare Kaplan
International Inc., the largest diamond brokerage firm in the U.S., whose
president, Maurice Tempelsman, has been an advisor on African Affairs to the
U.S. Government and has been the U.S. Honorary Consul General of the Congo
since 1977 (8).
Maurice Tempelsman accompanied Bill Clinton during his African tour in 1998,
and he sails with the Clintons off Martha's Vineyard. He serves on the
International Advisory Council of the American Stock Exchange, and is a
director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a "scientific" front for
his offshore diamond mining-raking the seabed into oblivion.
Adastra also purchased a diamond concession on the Congolese-Angolan border
from the Belgian mercenary firm International Defense and Security (1998), and
currently has cobalt and copper concessions in Congo's Katanga (Shaba) province
(9). Adastra is a member of the Corporate Council on Africa, along with
Goodworks, Halliburton, Chevron-Texaco, Northrop Grumman, GE, Boeing, Raytheon,
Bechtel and SAIC-the latter two being secretive intelligence and defense
entities involved in classified and supra-governmental "black" projects.
In April 1997, Jean-Ramon Boulle, a co-founder of Adastra (then AMFI), received
a $1 billion dollar deal for mines in the Congo at Kolwezi (cobalt) and Kipushi
(zinc) from Laurent Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation
of Zaire (ADFL) before they were even officially in power. The ADFL were even
allowed to use Boulle's private jet (10). Meanwhile, directors of Adastra are
also former directors of Anglo-American (11). Other Clinton-connected founders
of Adastra include Michael McMurrough and Robert Friedland-both involved in
shady, criminal, offshore businesses in Indonesia, Africa, Burma and the
Americas (12).
Barrick sub-contracts to Caleb International, who has also partnered with
Adastra in the past. Caleb is run by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's
half-brother Salim Saleh, the former acting General of the UPDF. When Uganda
withdrew from the Congo in 2002 following a so-called "peace" agreement, Saleh
began training paramilitary groups to act as Ugandan proxies to sustain the
flow of minerals into Uganda (13).
Salim Saleh is a shareholder in Catalyst Co. of Canada, who has a 100% interest
in Uganda's Kaabong gold fields (14). He is a part owner of Saracen, a private
military company created by the mercenaries-for-hire firm Executive Outcomes
(15). The U.N. Panel of Experts on Illegal Exploitation of Congo's Mineral
Resources recommended Salim Saleh be put on a travel ban and have his assets
frozen, but nothing was done.
Recent interventions by the armed U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo
(MONUC) have concentrated on disarming or eliminating the Forces for the
Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel group that opposes Rwanda, and
the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group that opposes Uganda. (Note
that the Rwanda military has partnered with its erstwhile "enemies"-the
FDLR-when necessary to secure resource plunder while Uganda has its own pattern
of complicity with its "rebel" enemies. Rebel alliances are to perpetually
shifting.)
The removal of these rebel groups will effectively clear the eastern Congo for
large-scale multi-national mining. The Mai-Mai militia, whose stated goal is
"to protect Congo from Rwandan and Ugandan invaders," has committed documented
human rights abuses, yet they appear to be off the agenda for MONUC. The
Mai-Mai operate in northern Katanga (Shaba) province and in the Kivus.
Katanga's militias and racketeering are connected to criminal networks of
businessmen, including Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, Billy Rautenbach, John
Bredenkamp, and Marc Rich. U.S. diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman has profited
from Katanga concessions since the Kennedy era. Lawrence Devlin, the old CIA
station chief of Lubumbashi under Eisenhower, maintained Tempelsman's criminal
rackets with direct ties to Zaire's former President Mobutu, and was
subsequently employed by Tempelsman (16).
The Forrest Group has the longest history of exploitation in the Congo, gaining
its first mining concessions before the Congo declared independence from the
Belgians. The group, which includes the Ohio-based OM Group, has numerous
concessions in Katanga (Shaba). Chairman George Forrest is the former chairman
of the Congo's state-owned mining firm GECAMINES, and owner of the New
Lachaussee weapons manufacturing company.
Coltan ore is widely used in the aerospace and electronics industries for
capacitors, superconductors and transistors after it is refined to tantalum.
The U.S. is entirely dependant on foreign sources for tantalum, an enabling
technology for capacitors essential to aerospace weaponry and every pager, cell
phone, computer, VCR, CD player, P.D.A. and TV. U.S. import records show a
dramatic jump of purchases from Rwanda and Uganda during the time they were
smuggling tantalum and cobalt out of the Congo.
Sony dramatically increased their importation of coltan following the release
of their Playstation 2, while Compaq, Microsoft, Dell, Ericsson,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Nokia, Intel, Lucent, and Motorola are also large-scale
consumers (17). Sony's current Executive Vice-President and General Counsel
Nicole Seligman was a former legal adviser for Bill Clinton through the D.C.
firm Williams and Connelly, LLP, whose clients included Bill Clinton and Oliver
North (18). Sony Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Robert
Wiesenthal is a former banker with First Boston, a supporter of Refugees
International's "humanitarian" relief efforts at Rwandan refugee camps in
Eastern Congo, just before the fall of Mobutu in 1995; Wiesenthal was also
financial adviser to Cox Communications, OM Group, Time Warner and The New York
Times (19).
Walter Kansteiner, the son of a coltan trader in Chicago, is the Assistant
Secretary of State for Africa and former member of the Dept. of Defense Task
Force on Strategic Minerals. Kansteiner's speech at The Forum for International
Policy in October of 1996 advocated partitioning the Congo (then Zaire) into
smaller states based on ethnic lineage (20). Ironically, while the speech was
given, Laurent Kabila and his ADFL were beginning their march to overthrow
Mobutu with the aid of Rwanda, Uganda, and the U.S. (21). Kansteiner is a
trustee of the Africa Wildlife Foundation-another euphemistic front for
resource acquisition in Congo.
Bechtel, a U.S. aerospace & construction company, provided satellite maps of
reconnaissance photos of Mobutu's troops for the ADFL invasion of Congo in
1996; they also created infrared maps of the Congo's mineral deposits (22). The
Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Paul Kagame, the current Rwandan President
graduate of the U.S. Army officers school at Fort Leavenworth, used Bechtel's
NASA maps to locate Rwandan Hutu civilians that fled the cataclysm in Rwanda in
1994. An estimated 800,000 refugees were hunted down and killed in the Congo's
forests (23). Bechtel's friends in high places include former Secretary of
State George Shultz (Board of Directors), former Secretary of Defense Casper
Weinberger (Bechtel Counsel) and retired U.S.M.C. general Jack Sheehan (Senior
Vice President), who is also a member of the Defense Policy Board at the
Pentagon (24). Riley P. Bechtel is on the Board of J.P. Morgan (25). Bechtel's
Nexant Company is the prime contractor on the Uganda-Kenya
pipeline project, believed to ultimately facilitate petroleum transport out
of the Semliki Basin of Lake Albert.
The U.N. Panel of Experts named New England-based Cabot Co. for conducting
unethical business practices (26). Cabot is one of the largest tantalum
processors in the world. The current Deputy Director of the U.S. Treasury,
Samuel Bodman, was CEO and chairman of the board for Cabot from 1997-2001 (27).
Current Director John H. McArthur is a Senior Advisor to Paul Wolfowitz at the
World Bank (28).
Private Military Contractors (PMCs) are also big business in Africa. Brown &
Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, helped build a military base near Cyangugu,
Rwanda just next to the Congo-Rwandan border. "Officially," Brown and Root was
there to clear land mines, but instead housed mercenaries from Military
Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI) who trained the RPF and Laurent Kabila's
ADFL for invasion of the Congo in 1996, and the Rwandan army's re-invasion in
1998, after Laurent Kabila threw out the Rwandans, Ugandans, Bechtel and the
IMF (29). The French intelligence service reported that U.S. Special Forces and
mercenaries from MPRI participated in the murder of Rwandan Hutu refugees on
the Oso River near Goma in 1996 and even claims to have turned over the bodies
of two American soldiers killed in combat near Goma (30). The circumstances
surrounding the unofficial recovery of these two U.S. soldiers remain very
mysterious (31).
MPRI is based in Arlington, Virginia and is staffed and run by 36 retired U.S.
generals. It is contracted by the Pentagon to fulfill the African Crisis
Responsive Initiative (ACRI). This program includes the Ugandan military, and
it supplied military training in guerrilla warfare to Ugandan officers at Fort
Bragg, North Carolina in July 1996. During the invasion of the Congo in 1998,
Ugandan soldiers were found with ACRI equipment while Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International have implicated Ugandan battalions trained by ACRI in
rapes, murders, extortion, and beatings of Ugandan civilians (32).
Executive Outcomes founder Tony Buckingham has established other Private
Military Companies that operate around Africa. Buckingham's Heritage Oil & Gas
works closely with his PMC Sandline International to manipulate the petroleum
options around Lake Albert, and is believed to have signed concession deals
with warring armies and governments on both sides of the Uganda-Congo border.
Branch Energy is another Buckingham affiliated company operating in the Great
Lakes region.
Investigations of illegal weapons sales to Rwanda last year, in violation of
the U.N. arms embargo on the region, have been hampered by the Rwandan
government's refusal to provide a list of serial numbers of the 5000 AK-47s
delivered there. The shipping country, Bulgaria, also refused to provide serial
numbers, and would only confirm that the weapons were sold legally to a
non-embargo country, Nigeria, en route to Rwanda and DRC. The governments of
Uganda, Congo, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea-a major U.S. petroleum
protectorate-are equally culpable in supporting the clandestine arms sales to
the region (33).
Weapons shipments arriving by boat from Tanzania, and the Government of
Tanzania's role in supporting war in DRC, are never questioned. This may have
something to do with Barrick Gold's mining licenses in Tanzania's Masaai
territories. Aircraft flying between Tanzania, DRC, and from Kenya, are allowed
to do so without proper documentation, record-keeping or customs oversight.
Another shady "untouchable" arms dealer operating behind the scenes in the
region is an Indian-American named Mr. Kotecha. Kotecha's interests in South
Kivu are substantial, and he is openly fingered as dealing in money laundering,
arms, coltan and diamonds. After the first U.S.-sponsored invasion of the Congo
in 1996, Kotecha is known to have repeatedly boasted of being the "United
States Consulate" in South Kivu. Kotecha holds a U.S. passport and owns a
mansion in California.
When an outspoken local defender of human rights working for a small NGO
(Pascal Kabungulu of Heritiers de la Justice) was assassinated during the
summer of 2005 in Bukavu, the alleged killers, including a local Congolese
military commander, were identified but MONUC and the international "community"
took no action. The killing revolved around his role in exposing the Congolese
commanders' involvement in contraband smuggling (which continues today).
A U.N. Panel of Experts in a forthcoming report will challenge many airlines
and companies for undertaking illicit flights (illegal, secret, unregistered or
falsely registered) into and out of DRC. One of many notable companies
apparently connected to Victor Bout's arms trafficking networks is Simax, an
Oregon-based company using an address in Sierra Leone. However, the U.N. Panel
of Experts has once again ignored certain western agencies-with histories of
illicit activities-whose flights remain equally surreptitious and
unaccountable.
At the top of the list is the International Rescue Committee (IRC)-directors
include Henry Kissinger -whose flights in and out of Congo, and internal
flights to and from isolated airports in eastern DRC, are completely
unmonitored by MONUC arms embargo inspectors. In Bukavu, for example, all light
aircraft are subject to MONUC arms embargo inspections, but IRC flights are not
within the MONUC mandate. As one MONUC Military Observer admitted, "The IRC
should be subject to the same standards as everyone else; otherwise we have to
assume they are shipping weapons, because they do not let us confirm they are
not."
Similarly, while the U.N. Panel of Experts have investigated and reported on
certain illegal criminal networks and activities in Congo, they never attend to
the top-level deals brokered behind closed doors by executives from Adastra,
Anglo-American, the companies of Sweden's Adolph Lundin (a close friend of
George H.W. Bush), who have control of mining concessions in Lubumbashi,
Kolwezi and Mbuji Mayi areas in the Katanga (Shaba) and Kasai provinces.
U.S.-based Phelps Dodge is partnered in Katanga copper/cobalt mining projects
with Lundin's Tenke Mining. Phelps Dodge director Douglas C. Yearly is also a
director of Lockheed Martin, and the World Wildlife Fund-partnered with USAID
and CARE in "conservation"-read: acquisition-projects all over Congo while
CARE's "humanitarian" agenda is also funded by Lockheed Martin.
"Conservation" interests provide the vanguard of western penetration in Central
Africa: USAID, WWF, AWF, and Conservation International lead the charge.
Evidence from USAID cases all over Congo quickly contradicts all fanfare about
USAID bringing "sustainable" or "community development" projects. Most notable
are the Central Africa Region Partnership for the Environment (CARPE) and Congo
Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), two programs pressing hidden military,
intelligence and economic agendas. Notably, National Geographic is involved in
furthering the mythologies of conservation, democracy, community development,
or the lip service paid to respecting and supporting indigenous people.
Some people have suggested the reason that there isn't greater awareness and
equitable intervention in the Congo is because "we simply don't know what to
do" to remedy the situation. However, it is fairly clear what needs to be done,
the West is just unwilling to do it because of powerful economic and
geopolitical reasons.
Footnotes:
1. U.S. Military Training programs must have an oversight committee and total
transparency. Western governments must end their hypocritical stance and ensure
they don't train any "rebel" or "dissident" groups, especially if they are
against a democratically elected government (provided the elections weren't
fraudulent), even if the elected government isn't politically aligned with the
western ideology and/or economic ideals. To do otherwise would refute claims
that the west is intervening to "spread democracy."
2. In parallel with number 1, a committee must be set up to ensure the same
doesn't occur for the private military companies. As multinational
corporations, these firms aren't subject to obey laws of warfare as an
established country's armed forces are supposed to. The U.N. must pass
resolutions mandating the World Court and International Criminal Court (ICC) to
prosecute such corporations. Lastly, when such companies are exposed for
conducting illegal activities, such as aiding coups or trafficking human
slaves, the corporations who conduct these activities must be blacklisted from
receiving government contracts, domestic or international, and the guilty
individuals must be prosecuted (34).
3. In the arms arena, more substantial efforts must be created to intercept and
prosecute "embargo busters," illegal brokers, and arms sellers. Furthermore,
those selling, transporting, brokering, funding, or wiring arms transactions
for weapons specifically intended for children should receive the harshest of
the penalties (certain "small weapons" are modified to reduce their weight to
make it easier for a child to carry). Firms that participate in arms shipments,
transport and/or the movement of the flow of the money generated from these
sales with countries, people or organizations that are embargoed or act against
national or international law should be held accountable for their crimes.
Assets can be frozen, travel bans imposed, and all government and economic
business ties with such firms severed. These penalties must also have an
assurance of enforcement.
4. Debt relief is essential, but ways must be found to protect IMF and World
Bank loans from being used for military expenditures. The motivations of World
Bank President Paul Wolfowitz are suspect. Dr. Wolfowitz is a former Deputy
Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, a former ambassador to Indonesia
under Ronald Reagan, a PNAC member, and dual citizen in Israel. Likewise, the
World Bank and IMF must shift their policy of privatization as a stipulation
for loan approval in order to stimulate business growth within the state
instead of having the business sector growth be almost entirely from
multinational corporations. The World Bank and IMF must also provide debt
relief to the counties that need it most according to economic indicators. Some
countries receiving debt relief, like Uganda and Rwanda, are among the biggest
spenders of their loans in the military sector (35). It must be ensured that a
majority of spending occurs on infrastructure and public services, and th
at this does not benefit the standard set of "embedded" western corporations.
It must also be ensured the loan money is used in areas that need development
the most. For example, in Uganda, the loan money Museveni has used for
development has focused in the south in Kampala, the capital, and in Mbarra,
his hometown. Meanwhile, the Acholi people, who always vote against Museveni's
party in the polls, are ignored and the situation in the Lira, Gulu, and Kitgum
districts continues to deteriorate. In addition, individual countries must
examine the aid they give to countries that spend a high percentage of capital
on military, as well as commit human rights abuses. Lastly, debt relief doesn't
harm banks that gave the loans in the first place and collect on some of the
interest rates, not to mention the American businesses that make profit on the
privatized businesses as part of the loan deal. The debt is transferred to the
taxpayers, so transparency is needed to insure that costs
are also incurred by the firms granting the loans (if they want credit for
their "humanitarian" debt relief).
5. Western countries must end the impunity for those responsible for looting
minerals from Congo. Firms that purchase smuggled minerals, and/or purchase
concessions from illegitimate rebel groups must be prosecuted. The World Court
recently made a start by convicting Uganda and fining the government, but
Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe remain unaccountable for their direct
pirating, as are the Western firms that purchased the minerals, and Western
individuals supporting them. (The Kimberly Process, established with the
support of academic and intelligence experts at Harvard University, is a
perfect example of the gatekeepers policing their own gates: the huge,
entrenched, but secretive interests like the Oppenheimer/DeBeers and Maurice
Tempelsman owned companies are legitimized as dealers of "clean" diamonds;
while the other, far less connected competitors and challengers of the status
quo, including Congolese children sneaking into mines and being shot for
"stealing" t
he diamonds off their own starving families' former lands, are demonized as
dealers of "blood" diamonds.)
6. The World Court and International Criminal Court must hold all military and
civilian leaders-African, U.S., European-that are guilty of war crimes and
crimes against humanity accountable for their actions. The West must not be
allowed to shield criminals from prosecution by virtue of their economic and
political alliances with Western governments. Governments that harbor these
criminals should be subject to prosecution. Economic sanctions may not be
proper, as poor nations generally suffer severe civilian casualties as a
result; specific involved individuals in government and the military must be
held accountable.
7. "Peacekeeping" forces, in particular MONUC, must be examined to ensure that
the mission is being conducted with the interests of promoting stability in the
country. As illustrated, elements of MONUC have used the mission as a cover to
further the agenda of the West and its corporate sponsors under the banner of
"peacekeeping," causing the death of civilians in the process: those
responsible should be tried and prosecuted. It must also be ensured that the
investigations don't stop at individual soldiers or brigades committing crimes,
but to examine the chain of command and their allegiances to uncover the
motivations behind MONUC operations. There have been reports of MONUC troops
looting ivory, gold, and animal skins in National Parks. Villagers say that
they have seen murders occur right in front of MONUC soldiers and they didn't
act to prevent the killings (36). MONUC soldiers have raped Congolese women
(37).
When pro-Rwandan rebel leaders Laurent Nkunda and Jules Mutibusi, both war
criminals wanted by the U.N., took over Bukavu by force in May 2004, MONUC
provided them with weapons and vehicles. Nkunda himself has stated the head of
MONUC, William Swing, personally gave him a telephone to use during the raid.
(38)
8. The international media is completely silent on virtually every major issue
of significance with respect to war in DRC-and the international and criminal
networks behind it. Misinformation about Africa prevails due to a concerted
effort by the mainstream media to blackout the truth. A boycott of key
publications is imperative, and must include the most offensive: Boston Globe,
Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, US News & World Report, USA Today, New York
Times, the New Yorker (Conde Nast Publications), Harper's, Atlantic Monthly
(highly subsidized by Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman) and, especially,
National Geographic.
9. The fog of war needs to be cleared away from so-called "humanitarian" and
"human rights" programs, organizations and individuals currently aligned with
the Western corporate enterprise. Notables in this category include: Human
Rights Watch, Amnesty International, CARE, USAID, Norwegian People's Aid,
International Crises Group, International Rescue Committee, Refugees
International, the Genocide Intervention Fund, and many U.N. bodies, but
especially UNHCR. Most of these agencies appear to exist merely to perpetuate
their own survival. Doctors Without Borders also deserves scrutiny for their
recent actions in DRC.
10. The peace and justice community remains unaccountable for its failure to
take any significant actions to mitigate war in Congo and expose the true
reasons behind it. A first step should be open up the spaces to alternative
voices currently excluded by major social justice media venues. Second is to
declare a total boycott on diamonds and gold, and an organized campaign to
protest and economically castigate diamond stores where Lazare diamonds are
sold. A third action is the commitment of meaningful funds-both from
individuals and from organizations-to support the vibrant grass roots
organizations and individuals working for human rights, women's health,
disarmament, education, food security, rainforest and environmental defense in
Congo. Fourth, people need to break through their fear (inculcated by the
western media) of taking action to help people in the Congo: there is no
reason-except the unacceptable-that westerners cannot establish a "Witness for
Peace" program situ
ated in the Congo.
11. Rights groups with missions pertinent to Congo's need must expand their
missions to include Congo. Rape is endemic in the Congo: a source of
psychological and physical trauma, it contributes to the spread of HIV, Ebola
and other sexually transmitted diseases. Survivors often give birth to HIV
positive children with no prospects for medical or financial help. This has
lead to an insurmountable need for aid to care for the orphans. Mothers of
children conceived of rape are often disowned by their village and families.
Western feminist and women's rights activists and organizations must get
involved and provide resources for the victims of rape in Congo. Those
responsible for rapes must be tried and punished as per the law if guilty.
Indeed, evidence from rape cases in rural DRC shows that sexual violence is
significantly reduced simply by holding military officers accountable for their
troops' actions, but this is not happening.
12. MONUC's Radio Okapi is the lifeline of news in DRC today, but programming
is largely comprised of U.N. programming. The United Nations needs to be
pressured to open up the Radio Okapi network, eliminate the "fluff" pieces, and
diversify and deepen its programming and reportage. As a simple example of how
things could easily be improved in DRC, programs that sensitize the public o
the issue of rape, and sensitize the military to the punishment for it, could
easily be implemented; such programming is never considered.
13. The transitional government in Congo is comprised of military leaders and
government officials who must be held accountable for their crimes. Like the
individuals, organizations, corporations and governments that have supported
them, all are responsible for crimes against humanity. The current profiteering
in DRC is enabled by these key players, who hold the highest levels of the DRC
government, and whose crimes remain hidden by the western press. The
transitional government must not be allowed to appoint war criminals to cabinet
or parliamentary positions, as well as local governor positions in the
provinces.
References
(1) "Mortality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: A Nationwide Survey."
Benjamin Coghlan, Richard J. Brennan, Pascal Ngoy, David Dofara, Brad Otto,
Mark Clements, and Tony Steward. The Lancet, 7 Jan. 2006. Number 367 pp. 44-51
(2) "Thousands' dying in DR Congo war," BBC News, 6, Jan. 2006
(3) "Depopulation & Perception Management Part 2: Central Africa," keith harmon
snow. Pioneer Valley VOICE, Feb. 2001"; Congo: Capitalist Mineral Lust Fuels
Bloodshed," Direct Action
(4) "The Lost World War," Erik Vilwar, Corporation Watch Newsletter, Issue 13,
March-April 2003
(5) "Depopulation As Policy, or, How the Despair and Death of Millions of
African People is Daily Determined by the Lifestyle of Ordinary Americans, in
Small Town USA, With Nary a Word of Truth In the US Press, If Anything At All,
And Why Most of Us Know Nothing About It, And Do Nothing To Stop It When We Do
Know," keith harmon snow, 2003
(6) Private interview, keith harmon snow, Bunia, 2005.
(7) "Central Africa: Hidden Agendas and the Western Press," Pioneer Valley
Voice, Keith Harmon Snow
(8) "Genocide and Covert Operations In Africa 1993-1999," United States One
Hundred Seventh Congress. Subcommittee on International Operations and Human
Rights. First Session. 17 May 2001. comp. Centre for Research on Globalization.
(9) Ibid.
(10) "Stolen Goods: Coltan and Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo," Dena Montague, SAIS Review, vol. XXII no. 1 (Winter-Spring 2002);
"Congo: Capitalist Mineral Lust Fuels Bloodshed," Direct Action; "Congo: The
Western Heart of Darkness," Asad Ismi, The Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives Monitor, October 2001.
(11) "Depopulation & Perception Management Part 2: Central Africa," keith
harmon snow, Pioneer Valley VOICE, Feb. 2001 .
(12) "Proxy Wars in Central Africa: Profits, Propaganda, and Luxury Goods for
the White World-Pacification, Rape, and Slavery for the Blacks," keith harmon
snow, World War 3 Report, Issue No. 100, 19 July 2004.
(13) "Named and Shamed," Ruud Leeuw.
(14) "Uganda, Sanctions, and Congo-K: Who is Who in Uganda Mining," Africa
Analysis, 5 June 2001.
(15) "Corporate Soldiers: The U.S. Government Privatizes Force," Daniel Burton
and Wayne Madsen.
(16) David Gibbs, "The Political Economy of Third World Interventions,"
University of Arizona Press; and Wayne Madsen, "Genocide and Covert Operations
in Africa, 1993-1999," Mellen Press, 1999.
(17) "The Lost World War," Erik Vilwar, Corporation Watch Newsletter, Issue 13,
March-April 2003.
(18) "Sony Corporation of America: Executive Biographies," Jan. 2006.
(19) "Proxy Wars in Central Africa: Profits, Propaganda, and Luxury Goods for
the White World - Pacification, Rape, and Slavery for the Blacks," keith harmon
snow, World War 3 Report, Issue No. 100, 19 Jul. 2004
(20) "Genocide and Covert Operations In Africa, 1993-1999," United States One
Hundred Seventh Congress, Subcommittee on International Operations and Human
Rights, First Session, 17 May 2001, comp. Centre for Research on Globalization
(21) "The U.S. (Under)mining Job of Africa"
(22) "Stolen Goods: Coltan and Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo," Dena Montague, SAIS Review, Vol. XXII, No. 1, (Winter-Spring 2002).
(23) "A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa," Howard
French, 12 April 2005, Vintage, New York, NY.
(24) "The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Polititians, War Profiteers,
and the Media That Love Them," Amy Goodman, David Goodman, 2004, Hyperion
Press, New York, NY.
(25) See: "Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story."
(26) "Stolen Goods: Coltan and Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo," Dena Montague, SAIS Review, Vol. XXII, No. 1, (Winter-Spring 2002);
Named and Shamed, Ruud Leeuw
(27) "Rwanda's Secret War: U.S.-Backed Destabilization of Central Africa,"
keith harmon snow, 12 December 2004.
(28) "Proxy Wars in Central Africa: Profits, Propaganda, and Luxury Goods for
the White World - Pacification, Rape, and Slavery for the Blacks," keith harmon
snow, World War 3 Report, Issue No. 100, 19 Jul. 2004.
(29) "The U.S. (Under)mining Job of Africa"
(30) "Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999," United States One
Hundred Seventh Congress. Subcommittee on International Operations and Human
Rights. First Session. 17 May 2001. comp. Centre for Research on Globalization.
(31) Private interview, keith harmon snow, eastern DRC, July 2005.
(32) "Corporate Soldiers: The U.S. Government Privatizes Force," Daniel Burton
and Wayne Madsen
(33) Confidential report, received, February 2006.
(34) "The Controversial Commando," Pratap Chatterjee, 14 Jun. 2004;
"CSC/DynCorp." Corporation Watch; "Crossing the Rubicon," Michael Ruppert,
2004, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: p. 79-80.
(35) "The Use of Rwanda's External Debt (1990-1994): The Responsibility of
Donors and Creditors," Michel Chossudovsky, Pierre Galand, 30 March 2004.
(36) "Rwanda's Secret War: U.S.-Backed Destabilization of Central Africa,"
keith harmon snow, World War Four Report, 12 Dec. 2004.
(37) "Proxy Wars in Central Africa: Profits, Propaganda, and Luxury Goods for
the White World-Pacification, Rape, and Slavery for the Blacks," keith harmon
snow, World War 3 Report, No. 100, 19 Jul. 2004.
(38) "Report on Events in Bukavu, South Kivu: May 26 to June 9, 2004," Network
of Women for the Defense of Rights and of Peace.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
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