COMMENT - What the BBC isn't saying is that the 'rebel groups' are supported by the UK and US governments, and that the 'ethnic hatred' originates from their protegees, the Tutsi dominant Rwandan Army of US trained Paul Kagame, and it's affiliates and stooges like Laurent Nkunda. This is how Coltan makes it's way into western cell phones. Somehow the BBC omits those facts.
DR Congo bans mining for mobile phone minerals
By BBC News
Sat 11 Sep. 2010, 14:30 CAT
Mr Kabila said
there was a"mafia" controlling mineral mining in DR Congo Mining in three provinces of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been banned on the orders of the President Joseph Kabila. President Kabila ordered the indefinite suspension during a visit to the mining hub town of Walikale.
The president said he wanted to weed out what he called a "kind of mafia" involved in the mining industry. Control over mining minerals like coltan and cassiterite has fuelled conflict between
rebel groups. The minerals are used in mobile phones and computers.
Enforce
The ban covers the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema.
There has been a prolonged conflict there, last monthat least 150 women were reportedly raped by militia members near the town of Walikale.
The conflict is also fuelled by ethnic hatred, a hang-over from the 1994 slaughter of Tutsis in neighbouring Rwanda and Congo's subsequent civil wars.
The BBC's Thomas Hubert in eastern DR Congo says the ban may be difficult to enforce.
UN peacekeepers recently said they had control of the airstrip in Walikale, which is the easiest way out, but people might find other routes to export minerals.
Labels: COLTAN, KEITH HARMON SNOW, LAURENT NKUNDA, NEOCOLONIALISM, PAUL KAGAME
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Congo warlord may await trial in 'neutral' country
Written by Eddie Bugingo
Wednesday, May 06, 2009 2:51:30 PM
KIGALI (Reuters) - Congo's warlord Laurent Nkunda may be transferred from Rwanda to a third neutral country while the two African nations resolve outstanding legal issues regarding his fate, officials in the great lakes nations said. The Democratic Republic of Congo wants Nkunda extradited for crimes committed during a brutal five-year rebellion in its east, during which he captured swathes of territory and threatened the regional capital Goma.
But, Rwanda say their national laws prevent them from handing over someone to a country where they may be sentenced to death, according to a joint statement by the two countries.
"We have to look at these legal impediments before we come up with a sellable outcome that satisfies both countries" Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama told Reuters late on Tuesday.
"Being Congolese, the Congolese law applies to him and being on Rwandan soil, the Rwandan law applies," the joint statement said.
Last month, Nkunda's lawyer filed an unsuccessful law suit in Rwanda seeking the rebel's release saying he was being held illegally.
Tiny Rwanda has fought two wars with is much larger neighbour saying it wants to root out Congo- based rebels.
The conflict is thought to have killed 5.4 million people between 1998 and 2003 and triggered a humanitarian disaster that still simmers today.
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA
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Rwanda rejects suit for release of Congo rebel
Written by Hereward Holland
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 11:48:41 PM
KAMPALA (Reuters) - A Rwandan court has rejected a suit seeking the release of Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda on the ground that he is being held illegally, his lawyer said on Monday. Rwandan authorities put Nkunda under house arrest in January. He is wanted by officials in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where he is accused of committing various crimes during his five-year eastern rebellion.
Nkunda's lawyer, Stephane Bourgon, says Rwanda has detained the former warlord illegally, without formal charges, and has denied him access to legal counsel.
"We believe this decision is erroneous ... and we intend to appeal," Bourgon told Reuters by telephone from the Rwandan town of Gisenyi. "If there are no charges against Laurent Nkunda, he must be released."
Congo has asked Rwanda to hand over Nkunda, whose rebellion in Congo's mineral-rich eastern borderlands peaked late last year when he captured large swathes of territory and threatened the regional capital Goma.
Kinshasa wants to put Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi rebel, on trial for massacres, rapes and recruiting child soldiers.
"The judge is asking him to prove what the charges against him are, when he has never been informed what they are," Bourgon said. "It's circular reasoning, it's a dog biting its tail and it's simply unacceptable."
Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama was not immediately available for comment.
Last week, however, he said Nkunda's arrest was fundamental to promoting regional peace and various legal and political issues needed to be resolved before he could be extradited.
According to Karugarama, Rwandan law stipulates that the government cannot extradite suspects to countries where they could face the death penalty.
Relations recently thawed between the two Great Lakes states, which previously traded accusations of backing each other's rebels.
At Congo's invitation, Rwanda sent some 3,500 troops across the border in January to help fight Hutu militia who are seen as the root cause of a 15-year regional conflict in which some 5.4 million people have died.
Labels: LAURENT NKUNDA, RWANDA
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Congo rebel Nkunda sues Rwanda for wrongful arrest
Written by Kenny Batonga
Saturday, April 18, 2009 4:42:31 PM
GISENYI, Rwanda (Reuters) - Congo's rebel general Laurent Nkunda is suing Rwanda for wrongful arrest but he will ultimately be extradited back to Congo where he is wanted for war crimes, a Rwandan presidential official said on Friday.
Rwandan authorities put Nkunda under house arrest in January. He is wanted by officials in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where he is accused of crimes committed during his five year eastern rebellion.
"His application is being heard in court in Gisenyi today. It has nothing to do with extradition," Yoland Makolo, press secretary for Rwandan President Paul Kagame, told Reuters.
"He was detained under conditions of war ... ultimately, he will be extradited," Makolo added.
Rwanda has fought two wars with its much larger neighbour under the pretext of rooting out Congo-based rebels. The 1998-2003 conflict triggered a humanitarian disaster that still simmers today and is thought to have killed 5.4 million people.
But in an abrupt turnaround in relations between the two Great Lakes states, which previously traded accusations of backing the other's rebels, Rwanda arrested Nkunda sent more than 3,500 soldiers across the border in January.
Nkunda's arrest was seen as part of the deal that let Rwanda take part in a joint mission against the Hutu rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which have been at the heart of 15 years of conflict in the region.
Tharcisse Karugarama, Rwanda's justice minister, said Nkunda's situation was unusual and must be handled carefully.
"It's not a very common occurrence for a major-general from one state to find himself in the court of another," he said.
"What happens to Nkunda either in Rwanda or Congo would impact either positively or negatively on peace developments in the region," Karugarama told Reuters.
"On one hand, you have the political scenery that has to be looked at, and on the other hand you have legal issues that have developed."
Kinshasa wants to put Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi rebel, on trial for massacres, rapes and recruitment of child soldiers. He has not yet faced formal charges from the Rwandan authorities.
Labels: GENOCIDE, LAURENT NKUNDA, RWANDA, WAR CRIMES
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A People’s History of Congo’s Jean-Pierre Bemba
Written by keith harmon snow
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Who is Jean-Pierre Bemba and how did he rise to power in the heart of darkness? Did Bemba order his rebel soldiers to cannibalize pygmies? Or is that another Western myth manufactured to malign an African leader and feed stereotypes of tribal savagery?
What is Bemba’s relationship to the competitors of George W. Bush and the friends of Bill Clinton? How is Bemba linked to blood diamonds in Africa and mercenary armies in Iraq? Why have troops from Uganda recently re-invaded Congo and why have the United Nations and international press been silent about it? A look at Bemba's infamous history answers these questions and more.
After a decade of war and millions of lost lives in Congo the most basic truths remain hidden. In an August 3, 2007 Al-Jazeera interview held at his villa on millionaires row in Portugal, Congolese warlord-turned-opposition-Senator-in-exile Jean-Pierre Bemba spoke with a coy smile about bringing democracy and freedom to Congo.[1] Asked about accusations at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, Bemba insured the interviewer that he was not a candidate for any war crimes tribunal. “I am not of course involved in any of these things,” Bemba said. “Check your information,” Bemba replied, when pressed, indicating that it’s all been fixed.
Like a modern day Pretty Boy Floyd out of Africa, the baby-faced Jean-Pierre Bemba—who chillingly resembles the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin—has behaved like a spoiled brat with a private army. And his great white fathers have protected him.
MWANA CONGO—SON OF THE CONGO
Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba was born November 4, 1962, less than two years after the assassination of Congolese nationalist Patrice Lumumba, in Gbadolite, a city in what was soon to become Zaire, on the border of the Central African Republic. He attended university in Belgium, traveling back to Kinshasa as a member of Zaire’s elites. Congolese supporters have called him Mwana Congo—“son of Congo.”
Jean-Pierre Bemba’s mother died when he was twelve. His father, Bemba Saolona, was a close confidante of Joseph Mobutu, Zaire’s 36-year CIA-backed president, and of Juvenal Habyarimana, the Rwandan president assassinated on April 6, 1994 by Major Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Army/Front (RPA/F).[2] Bemba Saolona remarried a niece of Mobutu’s main political rival, the infamous Etienne Tshisekedi.
Bemba Saolona is a millionaire tycoon who was jailed by former President Laurent Desire Kabila after the U.S.-backed invasion took Zaire (1996-1997) renamed it the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). By 1999 Bemba Saolona was Minister of Economy and Industry in the new Laurent Kabila government, even while his son Jean-Pierre, head of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), was leading a rebellion against it.[3]
At the start of the MLC rebellion (1999), Papa Bemba was concerned about his little boy. “This is a message from Papa,” the New York Times quoted Bemba Saolona, then 60, “he should really think hard about what he is doing.” [4]
“I’m not a kid any more,” replied baby-faced Bemba, then 39. “I can fly on my own wings.” [5]
Bemba Saolona is tied to the Central African Republic (CAR) and the criminal networks of CAR President Ange-Félix Patassé (1993-2003). The CAR capital Bangui provides a major economic lifeline for the northern Congolese city of Gbadolite, a stronghold of the Bemba and Mobutu families and a major transshipment point for blood diamonds.
Bemba Saolona worked for decades with Ugandan elites involved in networks of criminalized and coercive taxation, racketeering and extortion that plundered eastern Zaire/Congo. One Bemba Saolona enterprise is the Enzymes & Raffineries Company (ENRA), based in Beni, North Kivu, where Saolona has a tourist hotel and plantations.[6] Saolona Bemba did not visit ENRA during the war (1996-2005), but maintained regular contact, while ENRA “remained independent” but paid taxes to the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) rebel army, allied with Rwanda and controlled by Congolese warlord and later DRC vice-president Mbusa Nyamwisi, a long-time Ugandan ally. [7]
Saolona Bemba’s private airport at ENRA had one dirt runway with no lights, yet during the war it was buzzing with big and small aircraft landing and taking off with amazing frequency.[8] From 1998 to at least 2002, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) used the ENRA compound as a holding facility for interrogation and torture operations.[9] MONUC—the United Nations Observers Mission in Congo—for at least six years (2001-2006) leased landing rights at the private ENRA airport: during the rebellion ENRA territory was controlled by the RCD rebels, making MONUC an indirect financial backer of the RCD rebellion; MONUC payments to ENRA later benefited Bemba Saolona.[10]
From the age of thirty, Jean-Pierre Bemba vastly expanded his private fortune following in his father’s footsteps as personal assistant (1992-1997) of Joseph Mobutu, the dictator of Zaire (1965-1997): the Bembas father and son share responsibility for the terrorism sown by Mobutu’s Special Presidential Division (DSP) and Military Action and Intelligence Service (SARM), which ran secret torture centers in Kinshasa, massacred students, and raped and pillaged as state policy.[11]
Bemba was a vice-president in the transitional DRC government (2003-2006), while his top military commanders, Brigadier General Malik Kijege and Major General Dieudonné Amuli Bahigwa, were made big chiefs for the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC).
Worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Jean-Pierre Bemba’s DRC enterprises have included electronics, aviation and television. Cathy Bemba, Jean-Pierre’s sister, married François Joseph Nzanga Mobutu, one of the dictator’s sons, in 1994. Like Bemba and most all the others, Nzanga Mobutu paid the $50,000 presidential candidature entry fee in the 2006 elections with funds gained by betraying the Congolese people. After the 2006 elections, Nzanga got his younger brother, Albert Philipe Giala Kassa Mobutu, and eight other individuals, “elected” to parliament (achieved by buying votes and support through sheer financial clout).
The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Community financed numerous parastatal entities in DRC involved, for example, in disarmament, demobilization, electioneering or “humanitarian” operations, and more than $600 million dollars of this money disappeared in the past few years. Exemplifying the alleged graft, each of the 600 Congolese parliamentarians received a new car, each purchase passing through Cathy Bemba Mobutu, allegedly bringing her $1000 per car.[12]
MOVEMENT FOR THE LIQUIDATION OF CONGO
Jean-Pierre Bemba commanded the rebel Army for the Liberation of Congo (ALC)—the armed wing of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC)—from 1998 to 2003. Bemba’s military “adventures” in Congo began in partnership with General Kpama Baramoto, former national commander in chief of Mobutu’s elite Garde Civile, and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. Some 30 former Mobutuist officers of Zaire’s national army, the Forces Armée Zairois (FAZ), met with Museveni and Bemba in Uganda in 1999. Bemba ousted several Mobutuist partners who fled with millions of dollars to Europe and Canada, or to luxury mansions under the protection of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress in South Africa, a haven from which they pursued illegal arms and mercenary activities.[13]
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni supplied Bemba’s “rebellion” with troops, equipment and training. Museveni’s Ugandan People’s Defense Forces’ (UPDF) 305th Brigade was trained by the Pentagon’s Africa Crises Response Initiative (ACRI) in western Uganda, just prior to seizing control of Kisangani in 1998.[14] The Israeli mercenary firm Silver Shadow reportedly supplied the UPDF/MLC alliance.[15] The MLC’s primary bases of operations were Gbadolite and Kisangani.
The MLC was supplied from the Central Africa Republic and Uganda, but the political base was in Belgium. Soon after the MLC opened their “rebellion” against the Laurent Kabila government (1998), Jean-Pierre Bemba flew from Gbadolite to Lisala, another Mobutu stronghold with a palatial mansion, where the state bank managers turned all funds over to Bemba; banks in Gemena, Bumba and other cities were also emptied for Bemba. [16] Numerous Mobutu era cronies joined the MLC uprising and collaborated with Bemba, and many of these hold positions of power in Kinshasa today.
The MLC rebels allied with the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), a movement/army first supported by Rwanda and Uganda, but later split by greed and personalities. Scores of militias in Congo were supplied and trained by both Uganda and Rwanda. The MLC/RCD alliance fought against other RCD factions to control and command plunder, racketeering, and extortion[17], and by early 1999 the MLC “rebellion” controlled the northern Congo, east to west, rich in gold and diamonds, in economic and military partnerships with Ugandan forces commanded by James Kazini and President Museveni’s half-brother Salim Saleh, and by Rwandan commanders like James Kabarebe and Laurent Nkunda. The MLC was Uganda’s primary instrument to plunder Congo.
Burundi and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (backed by U.S. and Uganda) joined the MLC/RCD rebellion. Their enemy, Laurent Kabila, was backed by Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad and Sudan (Khartoum). Interests from the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Israel, South Africa, Australia, Russia and China supported one or the other and sometimes both sides.
Bemba also allied with Libya and established military ties with rebels or former rebels of the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), which was led by rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. Senior Ugandan Army officials visited UNITA and Angola between 1996 and 1999, and UNITA officials, including Jonas Savimbi, visited Museveni and Jean-Pierre Bemba in Uganda.
The MLC/RCD alliance shipped products from plantations in rebel-held territory owned by the Blattner Group International: palm oil, coffee, cacao (chocolate), and rubber were shipped up the Congo River by boat from the Blattner Busira Lomami plantations in Isangi, to Kisangani, where raw materials were loaded onto airplanes and shipped to Uganda and/or Rwanda. Planes returned carrying supplies and weapons for the war.[18]
“During the war the security was provided by Bemba” said one Blattner director. “Bemba did not want to destroy the [plantation] company, it was a question of building relationships.” [19]
In 2002 and 2003 Jean-Pierre Bemba sent MLC troops to the Central African Republic (CAR) to help President Patassé suppress attempted coup d’etats. General Bozize overthrew his former ally Patassé in 2003 and arrest warrants were issued for Bemba and MLC officers in 2004. Complaints filed in 2006 at the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged Bemba and the MLC with massive war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in CAR from 2001 to 2003; the ICC had taken no action at the time of this writing.
“I defy anyone at that court,” Bemba challenged, in 2003, “to say that Jean-Pierre Bemba raped a single girl in Central Africa, and I challenge anybody to say that I gave orders for rape.”
BEMBA GAVE ORDERS FOR RAPE
There are countless documentations and testimonies establishing Jean-Pierre Bemba’s reign of terror. War crimes and crimes against humanity included persecution, murder, forced population transfer, torture, rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation and extermination. After October 2002, the MLC/RCD forces swept across north central Congo with a killing campaign code-named ‘Effacer le Tableau’—‘Erasing the Board.’[20]
Land and plunder were attained through sheer terror. Effacer Le Tableau involved cannibalism by MLC and RCD soldiers: interviews with MLC soldiers in MLC territory in 2004 confirm that cannibalism and dismemberment occurred across Northern Congo.[21] The accusations of cannibalism were repeatedly raised against Bemba throughout the transition and electoral process.[22] The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) also took up the case. More than 350 testimonies collected by the UN confirmed these allegations against the MLC. [23]
“The operation was presented to the people almost like a vaccination campaign, envisioning the looting of each home and the rape of each woman,” said a MONUC spokesman in Congo. [24]
Effacer Le Tableau was a covert military operation commanded by Jean-Pierre Bemba and his top officers, and there are allegations that Bemba personally participated in rape and cannibalism. One insider explained, “Soldiers [here] do what their commanders do; no one would commit these kinds of atrocities if they didn’t think their commanders supported and condoned them, and they did.” [25]
“The very day (January 15, 2003) that human rights organizations accused Bemba of cannibalism,” reported Congolese journalist Antoine Lokongo of Congopanorama, “and the UN Security Council condemned these barbaric acts, André Flahaut, the Belgian Minister of Defense flew to Gbadolite, Bemba’s fiefdom, and shook hands with him in front of the world’s cameras.” [26]
Jean-Pierre Bemba is married to Lillian Teixeira, the daughter of Antonio Teixeira, a Portuguese born businessman now residing in South Africa. Recall that during the warlord’s battle in Kinshasa from March 22 to April 11, 2007 Jean-Pierre Bemba took refuge in the South African Embassy, and then fled to Portugal as a “tourist” seeking medical treatment.
European, South African and Libyan interests comprise the key pillars of support behind Jean-Pierre Bemba. But behind or allied with these appear to be U.S. interests either [1] closely affiliated with the Democratic National Committee or [2] in direct economic and political competition with the Bush administration and its allies. International arms dealers John Bredenkamp, Billy Rautenbach and George Forrest—untouchables known to hold multiple passports (e.g. South Africa, Zimbabwe, European and U.S.)—have also likely supplied Bemba with weapons.
LIKE FATHER LIKE SON
Bemba’s brother-in-law Anthony “Tony” Teixeira deals in blood diamonds, criminal networks and mercenary operations, but the diamonds are stamped as certifiably clean and conflict free by the Kimberley Process, the international diamond certification scheme created by intelligence operatives at Harvard University.[27] Bemba has at times moved some one to three million dollars in diamond sales monthly.[28]
Tony Teixeira is one of three pivotal businessmen who, along with Jacques Lemaire and Victor Bout, were cited in 2000 for sanctions-busting by supporting the UNITA rebels in Angola’s war.[29] UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola) was covertly backed by the CIA during the Reagan and G.H.W. Bush administrations, but abandoned in the Clinton era. UNITA dealt in diamonds and threatened the interests of the Angolan government of President José Eduardo dos Santos. The Angolan diamond cartels involve Israeli-American tycoon Maurice Tempelsman and Russian tycoon Lev Leviev, both close to the Clintons and their friends, and to the Israeli Mossad, and U.S. corporations were hungry for control of Angola’s offshore oil.[30]
Victor Bout runs an air transport company and was also cited by the UN Panel of Experts for the illegal extraction of natural resources from DRC. On November 22, 2006, the G.W. Bush government re-designated the official status of Victor Bout—who previously had a “special” designation apparently reserved for weapons suppliers, diamond dealers, drug lords and other syndicated criminals tied to the elites in the USA—and froze some of Bout’s central Africa assets.
The G.W. Bush action supported the Joseph Kabila government and its backers—at the expense of competing interests: Russian arms dealer Victor Bout’s ties to multiple combatants in DRC involved interests aligned with the Democratic National Committee that have backed guerrilla warfare in Sudan, Rwanda and Congo. The ascension of Israeli-American diamond kingpins Beny Steinmetz and Dan Gertler displaced the DeBeers and the Oppenheimers monopoly out of South Africa, and Maurice Tempelsman, and these latter interests have likely been using Jean-Pierre Bemba to leverage access to minerals and contracts in the Kasai and Katanga provinces.
Bemba and his brother-in-law Tony Teixeira also profited from Teixeira’s dealings with Central Africa Republic President Ange-Félix Patassé through Teixeira’s Central Africa Mining Company (CAMCO) and Central Africa Diamond Company (CADCO). [31]
The companies of Tony Buckingham and partner Tony Teixeira operate through a hornet’s nest of offshore subsidiaries and joint ventures. One Buckingham diamond, oil and gold firm is Canadian-based Energem, formerly DiamondWorks, whose director/shareholders include Mario and Tony Teixeira, Israeli-American Beny Steinmetz (owns 50%) and J.P. Morgan. [32] Through subsidiary Branch Energy, DiamondWorks has perpetuated war in 11 African countries.[33]
DiamondWorks ha been financed by the U.K.’s Lyndhurst Ltd., a company controlled by a consortium led by Teixeira. DiamondWorks was originally formed from a merger between Robert and Eric Friedland’s Carson Gold and Branch Energy. The Friedlands are “friends of Bill” Clinton.[34] Buckingham’s Branch Energy works in Uganda.
Buckingham’s Heritage Oil and Gas is involved in Kazakhstan, Russia, Iraq, Oman, Kurdistan, Gabon and on Lake Albert—on both sides of the war-torn DRC-Uganda border—where fighting between the Congolese FARDC army and Ugandan soldiers and Heritage Oil guards killed a British Heritage Oil subcontractor on August 3, 2007.[35]
Heritage Oil (Canada) and Tullow Oil (London)— operating around Lake Albert—are using the Bemba-Museveni military alliance to pressure the Kabila government in Kinshasa, partly because Kabila is looking east to China, partly because Kabila is close to Bush and the Israeli lobby, while Saudi Arabian and Omani interests (e.g. Bechtel, Heritage) are closer to Uganda.
By September 5, 2007, UPDF troops—and rebels reportedly aligned with Jean-Pierre Bemba—had occupied the DRC’s oil- and gold-rich Semliki Basin on the western shores of Lake Albert. Heavily armed foreign forces occupied the villages of Aru, Mahagi, Fataki, Irengeti and the Ruwenzori mountains.[36] The international press and MONUC remained completely silent about the Ugandan incursions. By September 8, 2007, Ugandan troops were heavily massed on the DRC border while Kabila and Museveni were signing oil and gold sharing agreements in Tanzania. UPDF forces and “rebel” troops alleged to be Bemba’s remained in DRC as of September 15.
One Heritage partner is Maurel and Prom, a leading European oil firm “with a strong presence in Africa since French colonial days.” [37] Heritage principal Micael Gulbenkian is renowned for his deep ties to Iraqi oil since 1920. One long-time Buckingham partner is Tim Spicer, now running a $430 million Pentagon contract in Iraq, fraudulently awarded, for Aegis Defense Services, a mercenary firm also involved in Kenya—an extension of clandestine U.S. interests sowing terror in Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Congo. Bechtel subsidiary Nexant is involved in the oil pipeline being constructed across Uganda to the U.S. military port at Mombasa Kenya.
The UPDF/Museveni government genocide against the Acholi people of northern Uganda is driven by transboundary petroleum and gold concessions linked to foreign corporations like Heritage, Tullow, and Bechtel.[38] Uganda and Rwanda are two of the Pentagon’s premier military partners in Africa: some 150 U.S. Special Forces were added to the Pentagon’s Uganda arsenal in March 2007 and U.S. and U.K. military have been training UPDF troops.[39]
EXXON (ESSO) discovered oil in Equateur during the Mobutu reign, but—apparently—Mobutu’s insistence on domestic refining sidelined the project; the petroleum reserves in Equateur have recently been “discovered” and these reserves—in territory controlled by Bemba and the MLC—were clearly at stake in the wars of 1996-2004. On a 1997 petroleum industry map the huge Equateur Province concession (labeled “Trillion”) stretches more than 120,000 square kilometers into the rainforest of the Congo River basin.
There is also a criminal Portuguese connection to the logging sector through concessions granted in areas under Bemba’s MLC control to two secretive Portuguese businessmen. Jose Albano Maia Trindade and João Manuel Maia Trindade control four companies SODIFOR, SOFORMA, FARABOLA and Compagnie Forestière et de Transformation (CFT, a subsidiary of NST Sedeada Holdings of Liechtenstein); financing reportedly comes from Switzerland. The Portuguese Trindade brothers reportedly evade all rents and taxes to the DRC government and have been ripping out the rainforest as fast as possible.[40]
“The Portuguese brothers got eight million hectares,” said Belgian Georges Somja, owner of Lisala-based SICOBOIS, another Belgian logging company exploiting Equateur province through slavery and theft, near a SOFORMA concession. “They paid money completely under the table. It was all corruption.” [41]
“Who supports Bemba?” said one insider in Kinshasa. “That is the question. It is the Democrats in the U.S., because they support Uganda and Rwanda. They are behind the petroleum interests. Portugal supports Bemba. South Africa supports Bemba. They can say what they want but it’s very clear that there are some games going on in the back. And businessmen like the Blattners support both Kabila and Bemba.” [42]
THE PAGE IS TURNED
Another foreign interlocutor in Congolese affairs is Spanish diplomat Javier Solana, now EU Foreign Policy and Security Chief, and the former NATO Secretary General who ordered the illegal bombing of Serbia to support the “humanitarian” Clinton/Albright diplomacy. In diplomatic talks with Bemba in September 2006, Javier Solana reportedly offered Bemba a buy-out deal to step aside before the October 2006 presidential run-off.[43] Jean-Pierre Bemba refused, and the warlords fought it out like spoiled brats in the Congo’s “War of Three Days”—March 22-25, 2007.[44]
On July 13, 2007, EU Commissioners Louis Michel and Javier Solana met with Jean-Pierre Bemba at his villa in Faro, Portugal. The two commissioners praised the baby-faced Bemba after the meeting, noting his commitment to “constructive” engagement, peace and cooperation. “Mr. Bemba,” the EU Commissioners announced to the Western press—Jean-Pierre Bemba was himself not allowed to come outside and appear before the press—“wants to engage honestly and loyally in a debate on the future of the Congo.” [45]
Like a little boy, the baby-faced Jean-Pierre Bemba received his marching orders and was sent to his room (villa).
“He wishes to examine in greater detail the solutions needed to attain the Millennium Development Goals,” said Louis Michel, the great white father from Belgium, “which he deems a priority in his vision of a modern Congo; this includes issues such as gender equality, social cohesion through dialogue between partners, decentralization, the mobilization of the Diaspora, the emergence of a participatory and dynamic civil society and the necessary reform of the security system (Justice, Army, Police). He also intends to lend his unconditional support to the country’s unity and to an external policy of good neighborly relations.”
The great white fathers had hardly finished outlining Bemba’s reformation when reports began to claim that baby-faced Bemba was meeting with President Museveni in Uganda. Soon Congolese survivors in frontier towns saw Ugandan military and their “rebel” allies—believed to be Bemba’s boys—marching into Congo with their bombs and their guns and their other deadly toys.
Jean-Pierre Bemba met with Rwandan warlord General Laurent Nkunda during his Vice-Presidency and he is now one of General Nkunda's secret backers in the ongoing bloodletting that claims some 1000 lives a day in eastern Congo. There are reports that Nkunda sent soldiers to Kinshasa to support Bemba in the warlord's deadly battle of March 22-25, 2007—now described as an “attempted coup” by Jean-Pierre Bemba and the Western warlords behind him.[46] Bemba's buying off of high-level MONUC officials—as MONUC sources allege—would partially explain MONUC's unwillingness to challenge or dislodge General Nkunda. [47]
But the Kabila government is looking east: on September 17, 2007 a “resource hungry” China signed an agreement to invest five billion dollars in Congos' infrastructure. Anglo-European interests are now using the military occupation of General Laurent Nkunda—backed by clients regimes in Uganda and Rwanda, by Jean-Pierre Bemba and MONUC—to leverage their position with Kabila. Nkunda earns at least $100,000 a month in extortion and minerals theft, and he is buying officials. Most important, General Laurent Nkunda is the “insurance policy” for the U.S. and German companies preventing Congo's access to the Lueshe niobium mines and other mineral bonanzas, including coltan, cassiterite and, allegedly, uranium, under Nkunda's control.
It is apparent that international capitalism—the warlords behind the warlords—does not care which black face they put on Congo to mask their predatory white enterprises. Like Patrice Lumumba, General Sani Abacha, Thomas Sankara and Laurent Kabila, those who step out of line are removed, one way or another. Chaos and deconstruction are often favored. Atrocities and genocides are selectively declared, selectively punished. Those black leaders who cooperate to further the fictions of Africa controlled by Africans are rewarded, the corruption and atrocities are ignored, and the page is turned.
For more articles by keith harmon snow, visit his website: http://allthingspass.com/
[1] "Al Jazeera Interviews Jean-Pierre Bemba," YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk6xmIuwGEo.
[2] The facts of the double presidential assassination of April 6, 1994 are now very well established.
[3] See: Norimitsu Onishi, "Kinshasa Journal: Papa and a Rebel Son Ask Who’s the Betrayer?" New York Times, July 29, 1999, Section A: p. 4.
[4] Norimitsu Onishi, "Kinshasa Journal: Papa and a Rebel Son Ask: Who's the Betrayer?" New York Times, July 29, 1999.
[5] Op cit.
[6] Saolona Bemba is the main shareholder in ENRA, though ENRA describes itself as a "public" company. ENRA also manufactures fine finished furniture sold to European customers, and produces a rare powdered papaya enzyme, papaine, used in European pharmaceutical, beer and food products. The RPA/F seized huge stocks of coffee and papaine in 1996 and stored them in Kigali for two years. The RPA/F forced ENRA agents in Europe to buy back the papaine because all other potential European buyers balked. Private communication, Robert Ducarme, ENRA, August 16, 2007.
[7] Nyamwisi was allegedly involved with DARA Forest, a pirate Ugandan-Thai logging firm, connected to the Museveni regime, which cut-and-run widely in Oreintale and North Kivu; some DARA Forest logs ended up at ENRA. Private inspection, ENRA, keith harmon snow, Beni, DRC, 2005. One partner in DARA’s war-based plunder of DRC’s timber was DARA Tropical Hardwoods, Portland, OR. DARA Forest timber was sold to international buyers and shipped to Belgium, China, Denmark, Japan, Kenya, Switzerland and the USA: see Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of DR Congo, UN Security Council, 4/12/01. See also: http://www.edcnews.se/Reviews/DRC-UNReport010412-C.html.
[8] Private interview, Beni, DRC, 2004; also "DRC: North Kivu destabilized by rebel infighting," IRIN ReliefWeb, 11 September 2001.
[9] Research in DRC, 2004-2007, keith harmon snow; see also: Uganda in Eastern DRC: Fueling Political and Ethnic Strife, Human Rights Watch, Vol. 13, No. 2, March 2001.
[10] MONUC spokesman Kemal Saiki did not respond to August 2007 requests for clarifications on the MONUC relationship with Jean-Pierre Bemba.
[11] See e.g. Zaire: Repression As Policy, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 1990.
[12] Private interview, Kinshasa, DRC, April 2007.
[13] Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1992-1999, Mellon Press, 1999: p. 422-423. Baramoto is in Belgium today, there are rumors that he has some relationship with General Laurent Nkunda. According to an International Crises Group report of 13 August 1998, North Kivu Into The Quagmire, Mobutu generals Baramoto, Mavhe and Nzimbi reportedly organized the RCD movement. However, the Mobutuists were apparently excluded by Kigali. Private interview, PG, December 2006.
[14] Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1992-1999, Mellon Press, 1999: p. 463. ACRI was apparently the work of Susan Rice, Undersecretary of State for African Affairs, in the Clinton Administration. As a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Susan Rice is today one of the most vocal advocates for decisive military action to "Stop Genocide!" and "Save Darfur!"—again, by any means necessary.[79] ACRI’s Uganda trainees also worked with the SPLA in South Sudan. Susan Rice reportedly has close ties with ex-National Security Council staffer Shawn McCormick who went to work for BP, one of the oil companies (formerly Amoco) with concessions interests in Somalia today; Rice is also very close with Roger Winter of USAID.
[15] Op cit.
[16] Private interview, Lisala, DRC, keith harmon snow, 2005.
[17] Private interviews, Kisangani, 2004-2007; see also e.g., Peter Tygesen, "Abandoned and Neglected," Dateline ACT, ; and Congo: Kisangani Residents Again Under Fire, Human Rights Watch, .
[18] Research in DRC, 2004-2007, keith harmon snow.
[19] Private interview, Blattner firm director, Equateur Province, DRC, 2005.
[20] Erasing the Board, Minority Rights Group International, 2004, .
[21] Personal interviews, Equateur Province, keith harmon snow, 2004.
[22] "Congo candidate calls for calm, denies cannibalism," Reuters, July 28, 2006; also "Congolese rebel denies cannibalism," BBC, January 14, 2003.
[23] "DR Congo Rebels Go On Trial," BBC, 18 February 2003, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2775569.stm>.
[24] "Congo cannibalism claim provides first challenge," Guardian Unlimited, March 10, 2003.
[25] Personal interview, Kinshasa, 2006, keith harmon snow.
[26] Antoine Lokongo, "Keeping Congo Bleeding: How British Mercenaries are ‘Fueling’ Africa’ First World War," Congopanorama, Spring 2005, http://www.congopanorama.info/documents/mag-mercenary.shtml .
[27] See: keith harmon snow and Rick Hines, "Blood Diamonds: Doublethink and Deception About Those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire," Z Magazine, June & July 2007, published in full at .
[28] Christian Dietrich, Diamonds in the Central African Republic.
[29] "Hain turns up international heat on Savimbi," Angola Peace Monitor
, ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa), No. 6, Vol. VI, 23 February 2000; .
[30] See: keith harmon snow and Rick Hines, "Blood Diamond: Doublethink and Deception over those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire," Z Magazine, June and July 2007.
[31] Christian Dietrich, "Blood Diamonds: Effective African-Based Monopolies," African Security Review, Vol. 10, No 3, 2001, .
[32] Officers: Antonio Teixeira, President & CEO; Robert G. Rainey, CFO; Brett Thompson, COO, Mining; Dimitri (Jimmy) Kanakakis, Vice President, Corporate & Legal Affairs; Bernard Poznanski, Corporate Secretary; Board Members: Brian Menell, Richard Dorfman, Bruce Holmes, Robert Rainey, Antonio Teixeira, .
[33] See: "Africa/Diamonds: Rough diamonds," Africa Confidential, 5 March 2004, Vol. 45, No. 5; and "Equatorial Guinea: All Theft is Property," Africa Confidential, 17 Nov. 2006, Vol. 47, No. 23: p. 12.
[34] Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellen Press, 1999.
[35] See: keith harmon snow, "Northern Uganda: Hidden War, Massive Suffering: Another White People’s War for Oil," and "Tullow, Hardman and Heritage Oil Concessions Map," .
[36] Private communications from Eastern Congo, August and September 2007. See also: Apollo Mubiru, "Uganda might be forced to enter Congo," New Vision, August 16, 2007.
[37] See: analyses by Sam Keiri, "Heritage Oil Corporation," eResearch, April 24, 2006.
[38] See petroleum maps and story: keith harmon snow, "Northern Uganda: Hidden War, Massive Suffereing: Another White People’s War for Oil," .
[39] See Indian Ocean Newsletter, March 2007, and "Uganda: A glimmer of Hope," Africa Confidential, Vol. 41, Number 9, 2004.
[40] Personal interviews with Belgian and Congolese logging principals, DRC, 2004-2006. Where concession taxes or rents are paid the Congolese state earns about one cent ($US 0.01) per hectare. Concessions rights, granted for thirty years, have been taken from Congolese villages in exchange for compensation totaling less than $200. Logs of the precious dark wood Aformosia species sell at Congo’s Matadi port for $US 7000-10,000 each. Logging firms operating all over Congo have been ripping out timber as fast as possible. Besides the World Bank, the World Wildlife Fund and other "conservation" organizations have facilitated this thievery. See: Georgianne Nienaber and keith harmon snow, "King Kong: The Curious Activities of the International Monkey Business," Parts 1-7, and .
[41] Private interview, Georges Somja, SICOBOIS, Lisala, 2005. One of the Portuguese companies, SODIFOR, is apparently headed up by Evariste Boshab, a Congolese Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Kinshasa and the principal private secretary of president Joseph Kabila during the transition period; Boshab is also described as EU Commissioner Louis Michel’s "right hand man."
[42] Private interview, Kinshasa, April 5, 2007.
[43] "Tshisekedi, Kingmaker," Eye on Africa, September 28, 2006, .
[44] See: keith harmon snow, "Behind the Scenes: Warlord’s Deadly Battle in Congo," Toward Freedom, August 9, 2007, .
[45] "Louis Michel has meeting with Jean-Pierre Bemba in Faro (Portugal) and is soon to visit the Democratic
Republic of the Congo," EUROPA, Press Release, IP/07/1102, Brussels 13 July 2007.
[46] Private communication September 12, 2007.
[47] See: keith harmon snow, Behind the Scenes: Warlord’s Deadly Battle in Congo, Toward Freedom, August 9, 2007, .
Labels: DRC, JEAN-PIERRE BEMBA, LAURENT NKUNDA, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Rupiah hails Obasanjo, Mkapa over DRC peace efforts
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe and Mwala Kalaluka
Friday, February 13, 2009 7:56:10 AM
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda yesterday said Zambia appreciates the efforts by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa towards restoring peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
And General Obasanjo said sustainable and irreversible peace should be entrenched in eastern DRC whether rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda is extradited to that country from Rwanda or not.
Speaking when Gen Obasanjo met him at State House yesterday, President Banda said it was a great honour for Zambia to be visited by a great son and leader of Africa who was for many years leader of Nigeria.
President Banda said he knew that Gen Obasanjo had an immense task of facilitating and advising on how to solve the problem in the DRC, which had the longest border with Zambia, which meant that the efforts were for Zambia's benefit as well.
President Banda said the DRC was a very important neighbour to Zambia, with most economic assets along the border.
"So many family connections with the Congo, so many people in this country came from the Congo, when you are here you really can't tell the difference between the us and the Congolese. So we are very happy and supportive of the efforts you and your colleague president Mkapa are carrying out because it is really important for Zambia, especially at this time when the economic problems are rising from the collapse of financial system in the world as well as the collapse in the prices of our main commodity copper which we share in common with them, which means our people on both sides of the border are facing great difficulties economically, so we are all praying for you to succeed," President Banda said.
And Gen Obasanjo, who first congratulated President Banda on his election victory, said he was in the country with his delegation from the United Nations (UN) in his capacity as Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the UN to promote peace along with Mkapa in eastern DRC.
However, he said their efforts were not limited to DRC but the entire Great Lakes Region.
Gen Obasanjo said they were making headway in bringing peace to the eastern DRC as the two leaders - Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and DRC's President Joseph Kabila - who could hardly talk to each other last year were cooperating and were now planning a joint operation together.
And speaking through Special Envoy to the DRC Ambassador, David Kapya at the Lusaka International Airport, Gen Obasanjo, who is the co-mediator in the DRC peace process, said he was visiting countries in the region with a view of consulting various stakeholders.
Ambassador Kapya said Gen Obasanjo, whose planned press briefing with the local press could not materialise, was also briefing the various regional leaders on the progress realised in the restoration of peace in the eastern DRC.
"We just came out of Addis Ababa last week where there was a regional summit on the margins of the African Union Summit, which released a report to the AU on the DRC peace process," Ambassador Kapya said.
He said the regional meeting was also held to get reports from the DRC and Rwandese government on their efforts over the eastern DRC conflict.
Ambassador Kapya said Gen Obasanjo's major achievement, since he embarked on his co-mediatory role in the DRC conflict last year, has been the diffusion of the tense relations between DRC and Rwanda.
"You see there has been a lot of animosity between the two countries, between the DRC and Rwanda," he said. "They were accusing each other over what we call the proxy war."
Asked how soon they would want to see the extradition of Gen Nkunda from Kigali to Kinshasa, Ambassador Kapya said the two governments are currently engaged in intense consultations on the matter.
"So whether Nkunda goes to Kinshasa or goes to Rwanda is the preserve of the two governments," he said. "Whatever happens we want to have durable, long-lasting, sustainable and irreversible peace in the DRC."
Meanwhile, President Banda said social protection as enshrined in the Fifth National Development Plan was among the government's priorities.
Commissioning 38 motor vehicles and 50 motor bikes at the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services yesterday, President Banda said the government was taking all the appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect all the children in the country from all forms of physical and mental violence, injury, abuse, neglect, maltreatment and exploitation including sexual abuse.
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA, OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, RUPIAH BANDA
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Was Nkunda Arrested or Recalled Home?
Despite the fact that news of Laurent Nkunda's arrest was welcome to the world of peace lovers many questions need to be asked and answered. The arrest of the self-made ‘general’ creates many doubts for those that know his roots and mission.
Nkunda was created by Rwanda to enable Rwanda and Uganda to plunder DR Congo on top of trying hand on power in DRC under the pretext of preserving minority Tutsi from Interahamwe. Had Nkunda succeeded to become a stooge president in DRC, his creators would have go on to siphon whatever they want from DRC.
Nkunda's assault on DRC has seen millions of innocent people displaced not to mention hundreds of thousands who have died. This is the legacy Nkunda leaves behind. The Human Rights Watch group has documented summary executions, torture and rape committed by soldiers under Nkunda's command.This was followed by stealing and smuggling minerals - a fact that has caused much economic hardship and insecurity to DRC.
Nkunda meets Obasanjo last year
Now that Nkunda was recently ‘arrested,’ does it mean Rwanda and Uganda are no longer interested in plundering DRC? They’ve always maintained their forces to enter DRC and whoosh the rebels that threaten their autocratic regimes.
To get away with it, Rwanda and Uganda refused to talk with the rebels until recently when Uganda bowed to sitting down with LRA. Looking at the ping pong Uganda has always employed, another opportunity to invade DRC is on the offing after it was said that Joseph Kony is now in DRC.
Musing on Nkunda’s service to his master, it becomes too good to be true that he was arrested and soon might be arraigned.There are reasons to become wary.Firstly, Nkunda was operating under orders from Kigali. He’s but Kigali’s agent and loyal soldier despite being a disgrace. Nkunda went home after finding the nut he was sent to crack harder and bigger than he thought. He lacked leadership skills and was recalled to be reprimanded and rehabilitated.
Nkunda might have been also been deposed just because he could not prevail over the interests of those that cloned him. This means, Bosco Ntagandawho announced the boot down of Nkunda, may soon come into the big picture to see to it that the stand off goes on.
Will Rwandan authorities present Nkunda to The Hague to answer charges related to grave abuse of human rights and general atrocity against humanity? Shall they do, won’t Nkunda implicate them under the doctrine of conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity in DRC?
I heard that Nkunda will be handed over to DRC. This will create chaos unnecessarily. The good venue to submit Nkunda is The Hague. The evidence is water-tight that DRC that could not try Jean-Pierre Bemba cannot do the same reminiscent to Nkunda.
It seems Nkunda and his bosses in Kigali might have fallen out so as to create animosity, distrust and vengeance. Having come of age, Nkunda might have become over-ambitious and refused to receive and carry out orders from Kigali, something Kigali would not stomach. After gaining international recognition, Nkunda wanted to go solo so as-in the future-to try hand on power in Kinshasa.Nothing on earth is as dangerous as dealing with power seekers. This is the business in which trust comes last after personal interests.
Now that Nkunda is out of the big picture, is this the beginning of the end of DRC’s crisis? The ‘arrest’ of Nkunda is still sketchy and murky. Much remains to be seen and it is too good to be true. Was Nkunda arrested or he was recalled home for spanking and reprimanding? This is the question we need to answer before jubilation and sighs.
By Nkwazi Mhango
Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He is a Journalist, Teacher, Human Rights activist and member of the Writers' Association of New Foundland and Labrador (WANL)
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Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Joint forces capture Nkunda in Rwanda
Written by Reuters
Saturday, January 24, 2009 8:51:22 AM
Congolese Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested in Rwanda after he resisted a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation designed to pacify eastern Congo, officials said yesterday.
The arrest of Nkunda, who has led a Tutsi rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since 2004, occurred during the joint Congolese-Rwandan operation which was launched this week to hunt Rwandan Hutu militiamen operating in Congo.
Wars, rebellions and ethnic violence since 1998 have killed more than five million Congolese, holding back the development of the huge former Belgian colony in central Africa, which is rich in minerals like copper, cobalt, coltan, gold and uranium.
"Ex-general Laurent Nkunda was arrested on Thursday, January 22 at 22:30 hours while he was fleeing on Rwandan territory after he had resisted our troops at Bunagana with three battalions," Congolese and Rwandan military commanders said in a statement.
The statement, read at a news conference in the eastern border city of Goma, gave no more details. A Congolese minister said Congo's government would ask Rwanda to extradite Nkunda.
A Congolese army colonel, who asked not to be named, said Nkunda and rebels loyal to him had fought against Rwandan and Congolese troops when they arrived at Bunagana, a town on the border with Uganda in Congo's North Kivu province.
Nkunda's leadership of his Tutsi rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) group had been challenged this year by dissident rebel commanders who last week ended hostilities with the Congolese government.
The commanders' statement urged Tutsi fighters loyal to Nkunda to disarm and integrate into the Congo government army. - Reuters
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Nkunda aide denies claims by general
Written by Reuters
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 9:29:58 AM
Bertrand Bisimwa told the Nation the matter has been dealt with as the talks entered the second week in Nairobi under the chairmanship of United Nations Special envoy General Olusegun Obasanjo.
He dismissed claims that there is a split in the CNDP high command terming the head of the army reported to have ousted Nkunda, “a man who is now under control”.
Bisimwa said General Bosco Ntanganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court acted beyond his powers which did not allow him to execute such pronouncements.
“General Ntaganda is now at his home where his movement is restricted. He has been replaced and disciplinary committee will deal with outright defiance he showed. He is not under arrest though and was free to have security around him,” Bisimwa told the nation at the United Nations headquarters in Nairobi where peace talks are being held.
General Ntaganda who is challenging General Laurent Nkunda’s leadership of Congo’s Tutsi rebels said on Thursday last week Gen Nkunda was obstructing efforts to achieve peace in the country’s war-ravaged east.
The apparent power struggle emerged as the Tutsi rebel group, whose attacks in east Democratic Republic of Congo in recent months have displaced a quarter of a million civilians, resumed peace talks this week with Congo’s government.
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA
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Title:
What is going on in the Congo? Artist: Unusual Sources
Laurent Nkunda is just another stooge for western mineral interests, like Morgan Tsvangirai. And Paul Kagame.
Labels: DRC, LAURENT KABILA, LAURENT NKUNDA, NEOCOLONIALISM, PAUL KAGAME
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DR Congo rebels 'stalling talks'
Written by Reuters
Saturday, December 13, 2008 3:43:22 AM
Talks aimed at ending the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are encountering serious difficulties, the UN mediator says. Olusegun Obasanjo said this was because Gen Laurent Nkunda's rebel negotiators lacked the authority to make decisions.
The talks, taking place in Kenya, had not collapsed but such indecision was limiting progress, he said. Meanwhile, Rwanda and DR Congo have denied accusations of using proxy rebel groups to fight a covert struggle. The allegations are made in a draft report for the UN, seen by the BBC.
It says Rwanda is supplying aid and child soldiers to Tutsi rebels and the Congolese army is collaborating with the Rwandan Hutu FDLR militia, some of whose leaders were involved in the Rwandan genocide 14 years ago.
Rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda says he is protecting his Congolese Tutsi community from attack by leaders of the Rwanda genocide, but critics say the conflict is about raw power and control of mineral resources.
Recent fighting in eastern DR Congo has displaced some 250,000 people since August. Both government and rebel forces have been accused of raping, mutilating and killing civilians.
Obasanjo said Gen Nkunda's CNDP rebels had not been given enough power to make concessions.
"Either they give the people they have sent here the delegation, the power to make decisions or they send people who they will give such power to," he told journalists in Nairobi.
He also criticised them for "trying to broaden the negotiations to cover the whole of the DRC".
Obasanjo said this was in contrast to the delegation from the Congolese government, who were "more flexible".
"They are empowered to take decision[s] and we have seen them taking decisions on the ground," he said.
Direct talks with the Congolese government was a key CNDP demand.
A ceasefire negotiated by Obasanjo in November has halted battles with government troops, but rebels have continued attacking Congolese and Rwandan militia allies of the government.
In a draft report, the UN alleges the Rwandan authorities have supplied Gen Nkunda's forces with military equipment, child soldiers, the use of Rwandan banks, and allowed the rebels to launch attacks from Rwandan territory on the Congolese army.
But Rwandan's foreign minister told the BBC's World Today programme that Rwanda was not supporting General Nkunda.
"Rwanda and the CNDP of Laurent Nkunda do not have links, neither does the government or the military have links with them, except that they, the people on their side speak [Kinya]Rwandan but that is only a historic link it has nothing to do with the current link," Rosemary Kobusingye Museminari said.
She said that even if rebels were being recruited from within Rwanda, this was not being done with the support of her government.
"Laurent Nkunda could recruit from Kenya, he could recruit from Uganda, he could recruit from Europe, he could recruit from anywhere else, that wouldn't mean that the [Rwandan] government is sanctioning that."
In turn, DR Congo's communications minister denied working with the FDLR, saying no responsible government would co-operate with an armed group killing their own people.
"Those people are still killing our people, Congolese people, they are really destroying our environment there. We cannot ever support them," Lambert Omalanga Menda told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
The final report is being presented to the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council in the next few days.
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA
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DRC Crisis: The Britain-Rwanda Link
* By Amengeo Amengeo
Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:39:00 +0000
The sudden outbreak of fighting in eastern DRC this past week underlines a basic fact of life in Africa.
There can be no peace and development in the Continent unless and until Africans control their own destinies. The self-appointed ‘General’ Nkunda is nothing more than a warlord who has been used as a cat’s paw for forces whose interests are inimical to the well-being of the Continent.
In every crisis in the DRC since the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko and the subsequent destabilization efforts launched by Rwanda and Uganda, ‘General’ Laurent Nkunda has played a negative but pivotal role. Given the less than 2 million ethnic ‘Tutsis’ in a nation of close to 70 millions, it is frankly baffling that Nkunda should have such a decisive role affecting the stability of this vast nation.
It is virtually impossible that Nkunda could affect the lives of so many people and control such a vast swathe of territory unless he has substantial backing behind him. Whence comes the money to arm and pay his ‘soldiers,’ supply his intelligence, provide brand-new uniforms and artillery?
The systematic looting of the area’s resources alone cannot instantly provide the millions needed to prosecute war with such frequency as has this warlord done. We need to examine the covert war that is being waged for control of Africa’s resources.
Everywhere in Africa there is conflict, there are strategic resources and bitter, irrational ‘wars’ for control of these resources. Since logically Africans would not be fighting each other for resources they all share in one way or another, the answer must be that they are fighting as proxies for external forces.
It is instructive that Nkunda is making noises about China’s investments in the Congo’s railway and road infrastructure. To underline the massive destabilization offensive against Africa, we have the past weekend witnessed a shadowy group calling itself the Bakassi Freedom Fighters, hitherto unknown, springing up in Cameroon, kidnapping foreign workers and demanding the fulfillment of conditions that can only lead to destabilization in the region. To complicate the issue, a new instant ‘rebel’ group, the Niger Delta Defense and Security Council, issued statements that it was allied to the so-called Bakassi Freedom Fighters. The region is oil-rich.
Overnight in resource-rich regions, brand-new armies emerge, making unreasonable demands which ultimately lead to the national government’s heavy-handed response and the subsequent disruption of populations and food supplies. Where do these armies come from, well-equipped with pristine uniforms and weapons and instant access to news media? We would be naïve in this contemporary world of intrigues, power politics and a US President that lied his country into a losing war in Iraq that Africa’s problems spring from ‘tribalism’ and political inexperience.
Africa has perpetually been the victim of external forces whose only concern has been the ruthless exploitation of the Continent’s human and natural resources. From slavery right up to the 21st century discovery of high-tech minerals in the DRC have encouraged external forces to fight their proxy wars on African soil, spilling African blood as readily as a chronic gambler wastes his money.
Do the ‘wars’ in the DRC, Sudan, the Niger Delta in Nigeria, the incipient conflict in Cameroon and Somalia, among others, spring from genuine grievances or have been exploited for strategic benefit by external forces?
Let us take the example of Somalia, for instance: in 2006 the Islamic Courts in Somalia brought a measure of stability to the war-torn country: markets re-opened, garbage was collected and citizens enjoyed a hiatus of tranquility with hope of future peace. The United States, with its obsession over the ill-advised ‘war on terror’ decided that the Islamic Courts administration harboured ‘terrorists’ and recruited its satrap Ethiopia to invade Somalia in order to prevent al-Qaeda [the catch-all bete-noir] from gaining a ‘foothold’ in Somalia. An ugly insurgency ensued, guaranteeing chronic chaos in a region that does not need it.
The war in Somalia only serves the United States, not the Somalis nor the Ethiopians. Off the coasts of Somalia ‘piracy; has proliferated- but why? With the implosion of the Somali government and the development of warlord culture, vulture nations sought to exploit the instability for their benefit. Thus we had fishing boats from Asia and the European Union poaching the rich fishing stock off the Somali coast and unscrupulous governments dumping their toxic waste in the sea. The natural reaction of the Somali has been to react; first they attacked the trespassing vessels, but foreigners have always underestimated the Somali and the depredations continued. Somali resistance evolved into what the West calls ‘piracy,’ thereby setting the stage for intervention in a crucially strategic region of Africa [the Americans, with the collusion of France, have troops placed in Djibouti, which already has a Foreign Legion base in an ostensibly sovereign African country].
We have the intractable Sudan problem with Dar-Fur [home of the Fur people] exacerbated by Western interference by ‘humanitarian’ celebrities, aid agencies with covert ties to Western corporations; the ongoing MEND debacle in the Niger delta of Nigeria with well-armed ‘militants’ kidnapping and threatening and disrupting oil production and incidentally threatening Chinese investment in Africa, similar threats issued in Sudan and by the self-appointed General Nkunda in DRC.
What is going on in the Congo and the rest of Africa where seemingly intractable conflicts erupt at a moment’s notice in strategic regions? The French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and his British counterpart David Milliband have traveled to the country to ostensibly ‘mediate a peaceful solution to a growing humanitarian problem.’
The British Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown has warned that British troops may be sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The European Union has already made similar threats about sending a ‘European’ force to the DRC for ‘humanitarian’ reasons.
If one reviews the history of the infamous Scramble for Africa in the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, one would find similar problems of exploitation and instability in the same regions as today, and for the same reason- exploitation.
The very same regions that are being destabilized today are the very same regions that were destabilized in the period of the Scramble for Africa : the Sudan was under attack as were Somalia, the so-called Belgian Congo and West Africa for either mineral and human resources or strategic access to enable penetration and colonization of the interior and then as now, the European powers suborned local warlords to serve their interests.
‘General’ Laurent Nkunda with his pressed uniform and walking stick poses for Western journalists who conveniently appear for his ‘spontaneous’ interviews and invokes the spectre of ‘genocide’ to rally Western sympathies. Who does he answer to? Who pulls his strings? The immediate answer would be Rwanda which seems to have a vested interest in the chronic instability of its giant neighbour. But the real question is: who pulls Rwanda’s strings? When we realize that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is an adviser to the Rwanda government, the pieces begin to fall into place.
Before our eyes in the 21st century, Africa is being re-colonized, subtly, but surely. Even if, as expected, Barack Obama becomes President of the United States of America, the re-colonization will continue. Only Africans can stop this and if the leaders will not, then the people must rise up and protect their very existence, because, in the final analysis, the African people, the world over stand alone.
By Amengeo Amengeo
*Specialist in Spanish, Latin American, Caribbean as well as African History. He has also been a journalist, civil servant and graphic artist
Article first published in The African Executive
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA
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Malu-Malu: Laurent Nkunda lacks the means to overthrow the government
Congo News Agency - November 27, 2008
Apolinaire Malu-Malu, the coordinator of the Amani Program, which resulted in the signing of the Goma peace accords between the government and rebel groups in January, has said in an interview with Belgian newspaper Le Soir that warlord Laurent Nkunda "has the power to annoy" but lacks the means to overthrow the government.
The rebel leader has threatened to remove the government by force if it does not hold direct negotiations with him. Lambert Mende, the government spokesman, said on Tuesday that there will be no direct negotiations with Laurent Nkunda and his CNDP movement outside of the Amani framework.
Malu-Malu also told Le Soir that Laurent Nkunda won't be able to go to Kinshasa and overthrow the government. He also said that it is important "to stop the massacres, such as those committed by the rebels in Kiwanja and the attacks on refugee camps", which he called war crimes.
Labels: APOLINAIRE MALU-MALU, LAURENT NKUNDA
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Zambia is ready for influx of refugees, says Shikapwasha
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Monday, November 24, 2008 10:03:54 AM
CHIEF government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha has said Zambia is ready to welcome refugees from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In an interview in Lusaka on Friday, Lt Gen Shikapwasha, who is also Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services, described the situation in DRC as fluid.
“It’s a fluid situation; naturally it will affect Zambia, a number of refugees will start trickling to Zambia and we have to work out a situation where the United Nations under the UNHCR [United Nations High Commission for Refugees] should be able to help looking after the refugees,” said Lt Gen Shikapwasha who until last week was minister of home affairs, a ministry which is also responsible for the refugees’ welfare.
“There are already mechanisms that Zambia has had, as you know this is not the first time Zambia will be looking after Congolese refugees. There are measures in Northern Province, Luapula Province and North Western Province to accommodate some of the Congolese refugees that may want to come to Zambia.”
He expressed optimism that the war in DRC would soon be resolved.
“The international community and the AU [African Union] are working on DRC issue. As you saw the former president of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo being assisted by the former president of Tanzania Mr [Benjamin] Mkapa are working together to try to bring solutions to DRC,” Lt Gen Shikapwasha said.
Lt Gen Shikapwasha observed that there were inroads that had been made to find a solution to the DRC war crisis.
He said Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries were still discussing the possibilities of sending peacekeepers to the DRC.
“I think it [the deployment of peacekeepers] is not yet concluded. It is still being worked on,” said Lt Gen Shikapwasha.
Rebels loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda have been fighting DRC President Joseph Kabila’s government, creating a humanitarian crisis that has forced thousands of civilians in eastern DRC to flee for safety.
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA, REFUGEES, SHIKAPWASHA
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Genocide in the Congo: Führer Laurent Nkunda's Wildest Dreams
Congo News Agency - November 13, 2008
In his wildest dreams, warlord Laurent Nkunda sees himself as the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo one day. He dreams of marching on to Kinshasa from his hideouts in Kigali and North Kivu, on to South Kivu, Katanga, the Kasais, Bandundu, Bas-Congo, and finally making a triumphal entry into the capital. He envisions he will be welcomed as the Hero, Liberator, Savior, Lord, and proclaimed Chancellor of the Congo.
"How does he plan to accomplish this herculean feat?", you ask. Well, don't be so puzzled, the answer is pretty simple. He has so far given us plenty of clues.
For years now, his Modus Operandi has consisted of rapes, ethnic cleansing, kidnapping of children, use of child soldiers, mass murders, genocide, attacks on refugee camps,... you name it. Any other war crime on the books, he has done it. Simply put, Laurent Nkunda wants to be the Führer and Supreme Guide of the Congo by any means necessary.
And what if 5,400,000 Congolese should die along the way, 30,000 dying each month, more than 1,000,000 innocent civilians displaced? Well, Laurent Nkunda says it's all worth his ego. "Who will stop me?", he asks. "They can all die for all I care" ... "I am Laurent Nkunda, damn it! I will rule over the dead if I have to", he adds.
Pretty dramatic, hein? Well, I think not. This is exactly what this Nazi copycat and Adolf Hitler admirer has been telling us and doing. And like his despicable idol, he shall fail miserably.
Laurent Nkunda will never be President of the DRC, let alone Reichsleiter of North Kivu. There will be no march to Kinshasa, no victory speech at the stadium, and no crowning moment at the Marble Palace. But rest assured, mark my words, there will be justice one day. History has a long memory.
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA
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Congo rebel says he'll restart war unless government talks
Written by Reuters
Tuesday, November 04, 2008 4:43:23 PM
KIROLIRWE, Congo (Reuters) - Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said on Tuesday he would extend his eastern guerrilla war to the capital Kinshasa unless the government agreed to political negotiations with him.
"If they refuse to negotiate, it will mean they will be ready to only fight and we will fight them because we have to fight for our freedom," Nkunda said at his hilltop headquarters in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern North Kivu province.
He told Reuters in an interview his next offensive would not stop at the North Kivu provincial capital Goma but would aim for Kinshasa, the national capital well over 1,500 km (950 miles) to the west.
Nkunda, who has said he is fighting to defend Congo's Tutsi minority but also demands a better government for the whole country, last week halted a major advance toward Goma that sent tens of thousands of civilians fleeing from their homes.
Wearing a green beret and beige camouflage uniform and carrying a cane topped with a silver eagle's head, he said that if his offer of talks was not accepted by President Joseph Kabila, he would end a ceasefire in North Kivu.
"Goma is just a place to pass through ... When they force us to come down to Goma we won't stop there. People must be serious, otherwise there's no turning back," he said at his headquarters, located in rolling green highlands.
Congo's government has refused to negotiate with Nkunda since his most recent offensive and has accused neighboring Rwanda of backing him, a charge denied by Kigali.
The United Nations is leading international efforts to try to arrange a peace summit between Congo and Rwanda and to solve the humanitarian emergency in the east of the former Belgian colony, which has rich reserves of copper, cobalt and gold.
Labels: DRC, LAURENT NKUNDA
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