Multinationals scramble for Congo's wealth
UN report accuses firms of helping to plunder war-torn country's resources
>Rory Carroll (The Guardian Weekly)

Dozens of multinationals including Barclays Bank, De Beers and Anglo
American were accused in a scathing United Nations report last week of
facilitating the plunder of the Democratic Republic of Congo's wealth.
An independent panel of experts reported to the UN security council
that  85 multinational companies based in Europe, the United States and
South  Africa had violated ethical guidelines in dealing with criminal
networks  that have pillaged natural resources from the war-torn
central African  country.

  According to the panel, a scramble for gold, diamonds, cobalt and
copper  by army officers, government officials and entrepreneurs from
Congo and  neighbouring countries generated billions of dollars that
found their way  to mining companies and financial institutions.  The
panel did not detail the accusations against the multinationals
but  said it had evidence that they violated the ethical guidelines of
the  Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, to which
Britain  was a signatory. The British government will be expected to
take action  because 12 of the companies are registered in Britain.

  "Home governments have the obligation to ensure that enterprises   in
their jurisdiction do not abuse principles of conduct that they
have  adopted as a matter of law," said the 59-page report.  The report
accuses a Zimbabwean businessman of procuring military  equipment from
BAE Systems in violation of European sanctions. The report  named John
Bredenkamp as a key investor in the Aviation Consultancy  Service
Company, which represents BAE Systems. The report alleges that
he  offered to mediate sales of British Aerospace military equipment to
Congo.  The panel said he procured aircraft parts for Zimbabwe, which
was propping  up the Kinshasa government.

  The publication of the report caught several of the multinationals
by  surprise, and they scrambled to obtain copies. A Barclays spokesman
said:  "We have not yet seen a copy of the report . . . but I can
assure you that  we take our ethical responsibilities extremely
seriously and apply high  standards of business conduct across our
operations worldwide."  De Beers declined to comment until it had seen
the report, and Anglo  American did not return calls.

  Francois Grignon, the Central Africa director for the
research  organisation International Crisis Group, welcomed the
report's targeting  of multinationals. "Even providing a bank account
to those who are  exploiting the re sources is a substantive role," he
said. "The  corporations must accept responsibility. They benefit more
from this dirty  business than those doing the digging and mining."

  The report named an additional 29 companies and 54 individuals,
mostly  African and Belgian, which it said were directly involved in
the plunder  and should be considered for financial restrictions.   The
five-member panel had Egyptian, Canadian, American, Belgian
and  Senegalese members, and British and Swiss technical advisers. It
was  mandated by the security council to investigate the scramble for
Congo's  resources in the wake of four years of war that left 2 million
people dead.

  Some of the report's harshest criticism was levelled at officials
from  several African countries that stayed   in Congo after peace
deals led to the official withdrawal of outside  forces. The list of
the accused is a roll call of top military officers,  government
officials and businessmen, including the Rwandan army's chief  of
staff, James Kabarebe, the Ugandan army's chief of staff, Major-
General  James Kazini, and Zimbabwe's parliament speaker, Emmerson
Mnangagwa.  "The elite networks derive financial benefit through a
variety of criminal  activities, including theft, embezzlement,
diversion of public funds,  undervaluation of goods, smuggling, false
invoicing, non-payment of taxes,  kickbacks to public officials and
bribery," the report said.

  So lucrative and elaborate was the looting that there were attempts
to  prolong the fighting by stirring conflict between rival militias
and  rebels. "Those [criminal] groups will not disband voluntarily.
They have  built up a self-financing war economy centred on mineral
exploitation,"  according to the report.  Rwanda's claim to have stayed
in Congo to hunt the Hutu interahamwe  militia responsible for the 1994
genocide was described as a cover for its  army's desire to strip
minerals.

  The report even claimed that Rwanda had collaborated with its
enemies. It  cited a letter from Jean-Pierre Ondekane, a senior pro-
Rwandan official,  urging all army units to maintain good relations
"with our interahamwe and  Mayi-Mayi brothers", and "if necessary to
let them exploit the sub-soil  for their survival". 

>The Guardian Weekly 31-10-2002