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UN report on Rwanda fuelling Congo conflict ‘blocked by US’
(Guardian) June 20, 2012 – Claims that Rwanda’s military has been aiding a mutiny in eastern Congo led by the renegade general Bosco Ntaganda have been gathering momentum in recent weeks, with a leaked UN report followed by allegations from Human Rights Watch.
The UN’s group of experts on Congo submitted its latest report to the security council on Monday, but an annex believed to deal with the Rwanda claim was held back and its publication remains uncertain. Lambert Mende, a Congolese government spokesman, blamed Rwanda and its backers, including the US, for the delay. “I think [the report] confirms everything that has been said,” he told Reuters. “I don’t think the Rwandans are at all happy that it should be officially endorsed by the UN.”
Atoki Ileka, the Congolese ambassador to France and special envoy to the UN, said: “It seems the panel tried to submit the report and annex to the security council. I have no proof but from what I’m told one delegation, which seems to be the US, asked them to delay for two weeks. If it was the US, it would be trying to protect one of its allies, Rwanda. I think that would be a mistake because it would also be protecting Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the international criminal court.”
Ileka added: “There is a risk of the security council losing any credibility. We don’t understand the position of the US. This will do nothing to protect the people of eastern Congo and will not bring stability to the region. The path they are taking is not intelligent.”
Rebel fighters captured in eastern Congo, and interviewed by Congo, Rwanda and the UN peacekeeping mission, revealed a Rwandan network supporting the mutiny, Ileka claimed. “It might go to the head of the Rwandan government.”
Kagame has long been a darling of western donors and Rwanda is almost guaranteed a seat on the UN security council next year. Congo’s accusation has been given credence by diplomatic sources and international rights organisations.
Blood in the mobile – Colton mining in Kivu province, Congo
Philippe Bolopion, UN director of Human Rights Watch, said: “The US government’s reluctance to allow the publication of the UN group of experts’ findings of Rwandan military support for Bosco Ntaganda’s rebels is counterproductive.
“Stifling information will only hinder attempts to put an end to the atrocities committed by ICC (internatinal criminal court) war crimes suspect Ntaganda and other abusive commanders who have joined his mutiny. The US and other security council members should be doing everything they can to expose violations of UN sanctions and the arms embargo, including by Rwanda, and not attempt to cover them up.”
UN rights chief Navi Pillay names Congo war crimes suspects
GENEVA — The U.N.’s top human rights official named five Congo rebel leaders who she says may be responsible for war crimes, a rare step prompted by concerns that their group — known as M23 — could continue to rape and kill civilians in the east of the country.Ntaganda is already wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges for recruiting and using child soldiers between 2002 and 2003.
Makenga, too, recruited child soldiers and is suspected of involvement in a 2008 massacre in which his then group, the CNDP, executed at least 67 civilians in Kiwandja in Congo’s North Kivu region. The U.N. also linked him to the 2007 killing by another rebel group, the FARDC, of 14 civilians in Buramba, North Kivu.
Fighting between rebels and the army has flared up again in North Kivu since April, causing more than 200,000 people to flee their homes.
Abuses attributed to Ngaruye include recruitment of child soldiers and involvement in the killing of up to 139 people in Shalio, North Kivu, in April 2009. The FARDC troops believed responsible also abducted about 40 women, some of whom were gang-raped and mutilated, the U.N. said.
Zimurinda is also alleged to have had command responsibility for the Kiwandja and Shalio massacres. The U.N. Security Council placed him on a sanctions and travel ban list in Dec. 2010.
Conflict Minerals of Eastern-Congo Mines
(Global Witness) – Conflict minerals are used by armed groups to fund violence and insurrection. Global Witness’s work on conflict minerals currently focuses on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where fighting has continued for over 10 years, driven by the trade in valuable minerals. Millions of people have died, and many more have been displaced.
There are four main minerals being mined in the Congo: cassiterite (the ore for tin), coltan (the ore for a rare metal called tantalum), wolframite (tungsten ore), and gold. The illicit trade provides rebel groups and units of the national army with tens of millions of dollars a year that they use to buy guns and shore up their rival campaigns.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
