“The West fuels the conflicts in Africa”
US activist testifies in Spain on the deaths in Rwanda and Congo
MARICEL CHAVARRÍA
Barcelona
They aren’t just a profitable venture in their own right – arms exports sometimes constitute a strategy to attain more profitable aims. Cynthia McKinney, former US congresswoman sent to Africa in 1996 to carry out Clinton’s policy in the Great Lakes region, testified on Tuesday at the Audiencia Nacional [National Court of Spain] in the lawsuit initiated by the International Forum for Truth and Justice in Africa of the Great Lakes Region. “I accused his Administration of having acted as accomplices in the war crimes in Congo and instigating a genocide.”
“What my government wanted,” McKinney explained to La Vanguardia “wasn’t in the best interest of the Congolese people: Clinton kept me there because he wanted an African-American whom Kabila trusted. Even though Mobutu was, technically, the President of Congo, it was Kabila who was in charge of granting the mining concessions.”
The ploy, which was denounced by McKinney and the Forum for Truth and Justice, and which there is evidence on, was as follows: at the time, the then rebel Kabila and RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) troops continued making forays into the territory with weapons and funds that he had gotten from the West by promising, in return, to grant them the mining rights once he had conquered this territory rich in gold, diamonds, and coltan (an important component used in electronic equipment), etc. He would make good on his promise once he became president. “In October 1996, Kabila began to attack Hutu refugee camps in Congo and by july he had already conquered the entire country,” explains lawyer and mediator Jordi Palou who is accompanying McKinney during her visit to Spain. Rwanda, a country the size of Catalonia, was able to conquer, in less than a year, a country which is five times bigger than Spain.
“There they are: commercial stakes, which, combined with an illegal arms trade, were out to make money by fueling a war – a war which has claimed the lives of 7 million people, both Rwandans (Hutus and Tutsis) and Congolese,” states former U.S. congresswoman from Georgia who Bush managed to fire after accusing her administration of lying about 9/11. But what started out as being a lawsuit that the Spanish justice system had initially accepted, namely, the accusation against top administration officials of the Rwandan government regarding the deaths of 9 Spanish volunteers, has now ended up becoming a legal case which seeks justice for all the people who died between 1990 and 2002. In addition, the case is also evidencing the responsibility that mining companies (from Europe, Canada but primarily from the U.S.) have had all along. “What the West perceives as tribal wars is indeed,” Palou adds “hatred geared at obtaining benefits by taking advantage of the existing chaos.”
In Europe, this would be the first time that economic interests could indeed be judicially linked to war crimes. “This would be very pertinent if we take into account Europe’s historic role in Africa,” concluded the woman who people in her native South now consider as heir to the Luther King legacy. “The fact that Catalonia has an Institute of Peace is praise-worthy. Maybe Spain could have an entire Ministry devoted to peace, couldn’t it? My country will take a bit longer to get to that point, ha, ha.”
The Honorable Cynthia McKinney September 04, 1998
Member of Congress
United States of America
Dear Madam the Representative,
We have just read your letters addressed to the three presidents, respectively of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Uganda regarding the quasi tragic events unfold in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We sincerely thank you for your sympathy toward the people of DRCongo in these horrible and difficult moments of war. However, we feel that, you should have also written to the Vice-President of Rwanda Mr. Paul Kagame and to the President of Burundi Mr. Pierre Buyoya whom we profoundly believe are also majors artisans in this aggression war against the integrity and the international sovereignty of our country.
We encourage your demarche since you understand very well the veritable causes of this war. The inherent stake of this war it’s the Kivu province for which a lot of speculations have been said and for which we believe her political future is being discussed in different diplomatical and political forums around the world. And the so-called Banyamulenge people are being used as tools in collusion with the governments of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi for this purpose; obviously in compensation of some vital promises made to them if they succed in this mission. But, what we profoundly believe is that, the Kivu province cannot secede from the Democratic Republic of Congo without the will and conscent of it’s genuine people.
The people of Kivu are naturally very friendly and fraternal, and its with these two qualities that they welcomed the Tutsi refugees since 1959 when they had really problems in their country Rwanda and accepted to live together with them. The problem then came when these Tutsi refugees started to change the history and the ethnography of the province to their advantage at the grande surprise of all the people of Kivu. The Banyamulenge as an ethnic entity never existed and does not exist in the Democratic Republic of Congo contrary to the confusion surrounding this misinformation on the realities, history and ethnography of of the Kivu province and its people. And, its for this reason that the people of Kivu as a whole stood up and denounced this collusion which sice then threatened the good stay and relationship between the Tutsi people and the rest of other ethnic groups in the Kivu province.
Madam the Representative,
For the people of the DRCongo and in particular for the people of Kivu, their suffering is linked to the American policies in the Great-Lacs region. Many press report and information cite very often the American presence to the side of rebels in the current war being fought in our country. One Reuters report quoted by NCN on September 02, 1998 stated that “Uganda military forces under the command and control of Kampala were responsible for shutting down power and water flow to Kinshasa from a facility in the DRCongo. That the American ambassador in {Zimbabwe} might have personally intervened with tge Government of Zimbabwe to seek safe exit passage for this Ugandan unit, after that unit had shut down power and water to Kinshasa, a city of six million people, means the Clinton administration of the United States may be an accomlice.
The same report pursuit that “U.S. ambassador McDonald has benn seeking the safe exit passage of the elite Ugandan unit on instructions from the U.S. Secretary of State since August 30 and the American ambassador has been shuttling bac and forth between the foreign and defence ministries.
For this, the congolese considers that the American Government has always been in a state of war against them for more than three decades.
Because its should be remembered that, its the American Gouvernment and it’s CIA that organized and sponsored politically and financially the assassination of the first and last legitiately elected Prime minister P. Lumumba in 1961. They are the same who organized and sponsored the dictatorial regime of Mobutu formore than two decades to the detriment of the superior interests of the congolese people then zaireans.
If these report and information from Reuters are true, we would wish that the American Government be blamed and condemned by the Congress. And in your quality of a member of the Committee on International Relations, we please ask you to raise this issue with the Congress through your Committee. What we sincerely want is that the American Government should change it’s attitudes and policies toward congolese people whom for long time wish to have friendly relationship with the American people so that we can build up a strong cooperation and good understanding for our mutual future.
We wish you a long and bright carrier as the representative of Fourth District in the State of Georgia.
Sincerely your
Corporations Reaping Millions as Congo Suffers Deadliest Conflict Since World War II
Congosoldierweb
A new mortality report from the International Rescue Committee says that as many as 5.4 million people have died from war-related causes in the Congo since 1998. A staggering 45,000 people continue to die each month, both from the conflict and the related humanitarian crisis. Amidst the deadliest conflict since World War II, hundreds of international corporations have reaped enormous profits from extracting and processing Congolese minerals. We speak to Maurice Carney of Friends of the Congo and Nita Evele of Congo Global Action. [includes rush transcript]
Guests: Maurice Carney, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, an advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
Nita Evele, Co-Chair of Congo Global Action, a coalition of human rights, humanitarian and other organizations advocating for justice in the DRC.
AMY GOODMAN: The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is often called the “Forgotten War,” even though it’s the deadliest since World War II. A new mortality report from the International Rescue Committee says the death rate in the Congo remains as high today as it was during the brutal war that officially ended in 2003. The mortality survey found as many as 5.4 million people have died from war-related causes in the Congo since 1998. A staggering 45,000 people continue to die each month both from the conflict and the related humanitarian crisis, despite the presence of the largest United Nations peacekeeping force and billions of dollars in international aid.
Meanwhile, a US- and European Union-mediated ceasefire deal between the Congolese government and rival rebel factions in the east of the country has threatened to fall apart Tuesday, the deal announced Monday in the war-torn and diamond-rich North Kivu province. But Tutsi rebels from General Laurent Nkunda’s National Council for Defense of the People, or CNDP, refused to accept the ceasefire. They said the government is not doing enough to protect the Tutsi minority in eastern Congo from Rwandan Hutu militias, known as the FDLR, or Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.
RENE BANDI: For us, the problem of FDLR is the main problem. If that problem is apart, it’s not integrated in a global solution, I think there will be problems.
AMY GOODMAN: That was a spokesperson for the CNDP led by General Laurent Nkunda, who is wanted by the Congolese government for war crimes. Some reports indicate the talks broke down over whether or not to grant Nkunda amnesty. The representative of the Mai Mai rebel group, a Congolese militia that’s been fighting Nkunda’s forces in eastern Congo, also threatened to pull out of the agreement Tuesday.
MAI MAI REPRESENTATIVE: We are very concerned, because we are looking for peace and we are ready to do peace, to make peace take place in our region. We are very tired with fighting. So if the CNDP doesn’t accept, doesn’t agree to send the documents, it means he needs to continue fighting against our population. And as we said, we always said and everybody know, we are just defending. We are protecting our population. As long as the CNDP should continue to reject the agreement that we need to sign, it means he needs to continue fighting. And we are ready to protect our population against any attacks, any aggression, which can come from them.
AMY GOODMAN: Over one million civilians have been displaced from the war-ravaged North and South Kivu provinces to escape fighting between government soldiers, Mai Mai militia and Tutsi rebels loyal to General Nkunda. Deo Bolingo is one of the many displaced people from this region, desperate for the peace deal to be implemented.
DEO BOLINGO: [translated] All my hopes are in this conference. They should end the war. But if they cannot end it, at this point even old people, children, mothers and youth—the entire population, everyone—should be given a gun, so that everyone should know that they are dying for their lives.
AMY GOODMAN: Although war, poverty, malnutrition and disease continue to stalk the lives of millions of Congolese, the Democratic Republic of Congo also has some of the world’s richest deposits of mineral wealth. As a result, hundreds of international corporations have reaped enormous profits from extracting and processing Congolese minerals.
In June 2007, the Congolese government initiated a process to review sixty-one mining contracts established during the war in the so-called transitional period from 2003 to 2006. The review is complete, but the government has yet to publish the results. When a Congolese newspaper published in November what it claimed were leaked results of the review, several publicly traded mining stocks in the New York, London and Toronto exchanges plummeted. The leaked report indicates that the contracts could be renegotiated or even cancelled.
Maurice Carney is with us in Washington, co-founder and executive director of Friends of the Congo, an advocacy group that seeks to raise awareness about the crisis in the Congo. Nita Evele is a Congolese activist and co-chair of Congo Global Action, a coalition of humanitarian, human rights and other groups advocating for justice in the Congo. Maurice Carney and Nita Evele join us from Washington, D.C.
Can you, Nita, lay out the crisis right now on the ground?
NITA EVELE: OK. Good morning, Amy, and thank you for having us. The crisis on the ground is that the rebel group of Nkunda and the Mai Mai and all those people attack the population in villages. And right now we have almost 800,000 people displaced in the Congo. They were fleeing the conflicts between the army of FRDC—I mean, the Congolese army, who are fighting the militia of General Nkunda. So there’s a big crisis, and people are suffering on camps without food and water. Kids are dying of cholera and other diseases.
AMY GOODMAN: Maurice Carney, the International Rescue Committee calls this the worst conflict since World War II. You’ve written extensively about the involvement of multinational corporations in fueling the unrest. Can you talk about this?
MAURICE CARNEY: Certainly. When you look at the Congo, you have to look at the corporate influence and everything that takes place in the Congo. When you look at the situation as it currently is, people usually talk about rape occurring at horrendous scales. However, there are basically two types of rape taking place in the Congo. One is the rape of the women and children, and the other is the rape of the land, the natural resources. And the Congo has tremendous natural resources. We’re talking about thirty percent of the world’s reserves of cobalt, ten percent of the world’s reserve of copper, eighty percent of the world’s reserve of coltan. And these multinational corporations are profiting at enormous rates while the Congolese people are suffering tremendously.
AMY GOODMAN: Which companies?
MAURICE CARNEY: Well, there are a number of companies. From 2001 to 2003, the United Nations did a report on the illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the Congo. There are a number of American companies. We have Cabot Corporation, for example, out of Boston, Massachusetts, that was named in that report. Cabot—the former CEO of Cabot Corporation is Samuel Bodman, current Secretary of Energy in the Bush administration. We have the OM Group out of Cleveland, Ohio, is another company, American company, named in the report. We also have Freeport-McMoRan, who acquired mining rights from Phelps Dodge out of Phoenix, Arizona, who have been involved in copper exploitation in the Congo. And Global Witness said the copper mines, the Tenke Fungurume mine that Freeport-McMoRan has, represents one of the richest deposits of copper in the world. However, the Congolese government and Congolese people are not benefiting from the contracts that were established and that provided Freeport-McMoRan with those resources.
We have a number of Canadian companies. Almost every Canadian prime minister since Pierre Trudeau has been involved in the mining company in the Congo. We’re talking about Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien, all of them profiting from the natural resources of the Congo while the Congolese people suffer. The reports from the Congolese government state that eighty percent of the population live on thirty cents or less a day, while you have billions of dollars going out the back door and into the pockets of mining companies.
AMY GOODMAN: Maurice Carney, you write how the $500 million investment in assuring, well, then-President Kabila’s ascendancy to power “was the beginning of the pay off for the West’s investment. It is for this reason,” you say, “that many Congolese surmised that Kabila was summoned to Washington in October 2007 because he may have strayed from the game plan when he signed a $5 billion deal with China.” Even as he ventured there, you say, to Washington, “he first had to stop in Phoenix, Arizona to visit Tim Snider (recently replaced by Richard Adkerson), CEO of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.” Talk more about this relationship. Yes, corporations are there, but what exactly are they doing? Who are they making these deals with?
MAURICE CARNEY: Well, they’re making these deals with the Kabila government. In fact, Kabila was put in place by the Western powers because he was pliant leader. He was going to facilitate access to Congo’s vast geostrategic resources. So that’s the reason why Kabila—the main reason why Kabila was put in power. The International Crisis Group had done a study in 2007 which stated as much, where it documented that Western ambassadors were celebrating that Kabila won the elections, because they now knew that they would have the legitimate access to the natural resources of the Congo.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Maurice Carney, co-founder and executive director of Friends of the Congo, and Nita Evele, co-chair of Congo Global Action. Nita, how aware are people on the ground of these large multinational corporations and their relationship to what’s happening?
NITA EVELE: Oh, the country knows about all that. We see, since Kabila is in power, all the multinationals are there thriving. The Congolese people know about all the contract-reviewing commission. We had one in 2006 by Lutundula, who never had been publicized to the population, but it was leaked to the internet, and everybody saw how all those companies made a deal with Kabila to plunder the country. They sold MIBA, for example—MIBA is the diamond company in the Kasai—for only $14 million, while the company was making a hundred times more than that. So the country knows about what’s going on.
And usually, the people in the Congo used to do diamond—like an artisanal miners, but since those company bought all these lands, they cannot mine those lands anymore. Some villages were sold to the Russians, for example, and the people were kicked out of their land. So it’s a big mess, big, big mess. And people know about that. There are rivers who were sold to multinational company, and people cannot go take—have water to drink. So it’s something that people know about, and people are talking about it. And everybody know how those companies are benefiting and Kabila’s people are benefiting, and the country and the population are getting poorer and poorer every single day.
AMY GOODMAN: Maurice Carney, the role of the international financial institutions, like the World Bank?
MAURICE CARNEY: Yes, there’s really four entities that are involved in keeping the Congo dependent, and one of those entities are international financial institutions, multinational institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank. In fact, Antonio Guterres had given an interview earlier in January to the Financial Times where he stated that the International Monetary Fund had set up financial rules that pretty much restrict the Congolese government. At least they prevented the Congolese government from having the necessary resources to pay its soldiers. And as a result of the government not having the resources to pay its soldiers, the soldiers then feast on the population through—by stealing, by raping. So you see how the constriction that’s put on the government by the international financial institutions feed the violence that is there in the Congo.
In addition to that, you have the World Bank, for example, which went into the Congo much in the fashion as Naomi Klein describes in her disaster capitalism: they went in after the conflict in 2002, established the mining laws, and the mining laws provided the legal framework for the multinational corporations to come in and establish contracts with the government. Now, even though the mining laws were in place and they required transparency and adherence to the OECD laws, the mining companies came in, and the contracts were opaque. They weren’t transparent. And World Bank studies clearly document this, but they have refused to publish those studies which demonstrate how the mining contracts that’s been established by multinational corporations are actually odious contracts and absolutely do not serve the interests of the Congolese people, but serve the interest of investors from the West.
AMY GOODMAN: Maurice Carney, can you talk about the foreign fighters? It’s often described as a civil war, and yet the fighters from Uganda and Rwanda, what role do they play?
MAURICE CARNEY: Right, a “civil war” is a misnomer. Congo has been invaded twice, first in 1996 primarily by Rwanda and Uganda, when they installed Kabila in power, and they did this with the backing of the United States. They could not have invaded the Congo without the backing of the United States, as Cynthia McKinney documented in her congressional hearing in 2001. Then, when Kabila did not serve the interests of the Rwandans and the Ugandans and the US, then he was gotten rid of. He was assassinated on January 16, 2001.
The Rwandans and Ugandans then invaded the Congo a second time in 1998. And it was this second invasion that the study from the IRC—it has been documented—where 5.4 million Congolese have died. Fifty percent of those Congolese are less than five years old. And the main cause of death is not so much of violent conflict, but from treatable diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia, all diseases that can be treated. So you have basically Rwanda and Uganda playing a destructive role in the Congo.
When they established peace deals to get—to be removed from the Congo, they left proxy forces in the Congo who were controlling areas that were endowed with gold and tin and diamonds. So even though the Rwandans and Ugandans backed out, and even though they profited tremendously while the were in the Congo with their own forces, they left proxy forces in the Congo. And this started in the Clinton administration and extended into the Bush administration. And if you recall, Amy, during this time, they were saying that Kagame of Rwanda—
AMY GOODMAN: We have ten seconds, Maurice.
MAURICE CARNEY: OK. Kagame of Rwanda, Museveni of Uganda were the future leaders of Africa, and one thing they all had in common is that they’ve invaded other African countries.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to leave it there right now, but we will come back, because this is a critical discussion, the worst conflict since World War II. Maurice Carney, co-founder and executive director of Friends of the Congo, and Nita Evele, co-chair of Congo Global Action.
