Global Policy Forum

Reaction to the addendum of the April report by the UN panel of experts on the illegal exploitation of wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has, so far, been mixed.

DRC Information Minister Kikaya Bin Karubi said his country rejected any suggestion that Angola, Namibia, or Zimbabwe - allies to the Kinshasa government since war erupted in August 1998 - were looting the resources of the Congo, saying that these were "countries that came to our rescue in this war of aggression".

"Zimbabwe, Angola, and Namibia are here at the request of the government and the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in the process we have signed legitimate agreements to go into business ventures, and these agreements exist with countries throughout the world," he told the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Company on Wednesday. "On the other hand, Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi invaded our country and they are looting the resources of the country, of the Congo, and at the same time, killing our people."

He added: "More than three million have died as a result of this war. So you cannot put Zimbabwe, Angola, and Namibia on par with Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda."

According to its report, however, the panel "found no evidence directly linking the presence of Burundi in the DRC to the exploitation of resources".

Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said on Wednesday that the UN report lacked balance, and ignored the fact that Zimbabwe intervened in the war at the invitation of a legitimate DRC government, which faced an external and internal military threat. According to PANA news agency, he accused the authors of the report of succumbing to pressure from powers such as Britain, which is at loggerheads with Zimbabwe over its land reform, to condemn Harare's intervention. He said that the UN report of April found Zimbabwe not guilty of looting.

"There is no prize for guessing what is in the report. I can tell you before reading it that it's guaranteed to be heavily opinionated, false and malicious," Moyo was quoted by PANA as saying.

In Kampala, the head of a committee established following the UN's first report accused Uganda of involvement in DRC resource exploitation has asked the reconstituted UN panel of experts to hand over to his team proof about allegations against Ugandan military officers mentioned in their report, the Uganda government-owned New Vision newspaper reported on Thursday.

"The new allegations made in the addendum are matters we should also investigate and include in our final report. The necessary summons are in the course of being issued for this," British expatriate judge David Porter told The New Vision on Wednesday.

Porter said his team would travel to the DRC to interview witnesses before they submit their final report in December.

The new panel commended the Ugandan government for setting up the Porter probe, but named top UPDF officers including army commander Lt-Gen James Kazini, Lt-Gen Salim Saleh and Col. Kahinda Otafiire in what they called disguised "commercial networks put in place by Ugandan army commanders". The report also cited Congolese rebel leaders Jean Pierre Bemba, of the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo, and John Tibasima Ateenyi and Mbusa Nyamwisi of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie - Mouvement de liberation, as "conduits".

For his part, Otafiire, now the Ugandan state minister for foreign affairs in charge of regional cooperation, told The New Vision "it was sad that the UN Security Council could accept the report based on rumours".

Otafiire, who is also a presidential adviser on DRC affairs, said: "I challenge the UN or any other group to produce evidence of my dealings in Congo or the alleged document I am purported to have signed." The panel's report said Congolese rebel leader Robert Lumbala had signed two commercial agreements bearing Otafiire's signature and those of Belgian and Austrian parties.

Belgium, the former colonial ruler of the Congo, is the non-African nation most often cited in the report. Nevertheless, Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Michel Malherbe said on Wednesday that his government deemed to report to be "balanced", describing Belgium's implication as resulting from the "intensity" of commercial relations between his country and the DRC and as demonstrating the "high degree of transparency" of Belgium and Belgian enterprises, the official news agency Belga reported.

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