Global Policy Forum

By William MacLean

"I will die in Congo," the Nigerian businessman declared. "I make so much money, I can never leave!" he explained. His Ukrainian colleague grinned in agreement.

It was 2003, and the young African trader was explaining to visitors why he had braved east Congo's violence to develop a local trading firm with European and Congolese partners. Two years on, and Congolese here say there has been no let up in the race for gold and diamonds in northeast Ituri, a mining region that hit the headlines this month when nine U.N. peacekeeping troops were murdered by militia fighters. They say efforts to stabilise this volatile corner of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are doomed as long as its free-wheeling trade and aviation sector remains unregulated.

A British report into gun running in the region said lack of an effective government was a key reason why a 2003 U.N. arms embargo on Ituri district and neighbouring North and South Kivu provinces had failed so dismally. The region is awash in guns, a factor stoking clashes. Fighting between militias from the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups has killed at least 50,000 since 1999, hurting efforts by the former Belgian colony to recover from a wider war.

"Lack of state control in the east means few border controls, no airspace control and no administrative control," the December 2004 report by Britain's All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes said. "This long standing vacuum has been largely filled by a network of private entrepreneurs and military figures...The general breakdown of state control and the importance of aviation in ferrying cargo and passengers have created a free-for-all situation." A pair of binoculars and a radio are the only airspace monitoring gear to be found at most airports, it says.

Handshake Deals

Some of the trade is licensed, some of it plainly illegal, and some is based on handshake agreements of dubious status. All of it reflects the commercial interest the outside world has in Congolese gold, timber, diamonds and other minerals, a lure that helped draw six neighbouring states into Congo's many-sided war from 1998 to 2003.

Congolese say a recent worsening of political and ethnic instability in Ituri has a commercial element, in this case control over customs revenues along part of the Uganda border. Diplomats say militia leaders have links to Congolese businessmen who are in turn backed by African, European and Asian businessmen hunting mineral wealth around Bunia.

In return for protecting mining and other businesses, guns are flown to dozens of unregulated airstrips or sometimes parachuted to the warring parties, the report says. Many aircraft plying east Congo's unmonitored airspace use fake registrations to hide their true ownership or to avoid mandatory but costly airworthiness inspections.

Some aircraft owners or operators seek to avoid overflight and landing fees by using another plane's call sign and another firm's billing address. And some pilots have been forced at gunpoint to carry weapons, the report says. "The economy in east DRC is closely linked to Kampala, Kigali and Bujumbura, and the arms trade is no exception -- arms networks are controlled by businessmen whose interests coincide with those of the combatants," the report said.

Most suspect sanctions-busting aircraft use the main airports at Beni, Bunia, Butembo, Bukavu and Goma, as well as dozens of bush airstrips deep in the interior, it said. Not every businessman strikes it rich. "I lost $40,000 in that bloody country!" moaned a stocky, bearded South African in shorts and desert boots on his way out of Congo after an unsuccessful business trip in 2004.

Lack of the right friends meant that instead of striking it rich in a mining deal he spent several days in prison instead.

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