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Deadline for DRC Looters

The Daily News (Harare)
NEWS
January 31, 2003
Posted to the web January 31, 2003

By Luke Tamborinyoka Political Editor

THE United Nations Security Council last week unanimously resolved that all
individuals and companies implicated in the criminal plunder of natural
resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must respond by 31
March this year.
Top officials in the Zimbabwean government and the army were implicated in the
trading of "blood diamonds" and benefiting illegally from the DRC civil war,
which sucked in six African countries including Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean officials, including the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, and the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Vitalis
Zvinavashe, are among the 54 people a UN panel recommended for travel bans and
financial restrictions for their alleged shady deals in the DRC.
Resolution 1457, adopted unanimously by the Security Council last week,
extended the terms of the investigating panel by a further six months.
The panel will be required to further review its findings and the action taken
by governments in response to previous recommendations and that all those
implicated be required to send their reactions to the UN secretariat by 31
March.
Mnangagwa, Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, Zvinavashe and others in the
military top brass were alleged to have illegally exploited diamond resources
during Zimbabwe's four-year intervention in the DRC.
The government has outrightly dismissed the allegations. At a parade to welcome
back the troops from the DRC, held in Harare in December, President Mugabe
rejected reports of illegal activities by his government.
He described the accusations of looting as "malicious, puerile and libellous",
saying Zimbabwe was solely driven by the desire to protect the territorial
integrity of the DRC.
It remains to be seen whether the government will respond to the latest calls
by the UN.
But while the Zimbabwean government was dithering over the damning looting
report, President Joseph Kabila of the DRC fired several of his ministers and
recalled his envoy in Harare, who had been implicated in the report.
The UN resolution says all states implicated in looting should take immediate
steps to end the illegal exploitation, which had worsened the living conditions
of the suffering people of the DRC.
The UN panel was given the mandate to review its previous report. The
resolution gives the panel the mandate to collect information on the "actions
taken by the governments in response to the panel's recommendations" and to
"assess the actions taken by all those implicated in the reports".
The resolution reads in part: "In the interests of transparency, the Council
invited individuals, companies and states named in the panel's last report to
send their reactions to the secretariat by 31 March."
Companies alleged in the UN report to be involved in underhand deals include
Oryx Natural Resources and OSLEG, a company with links to the Zimbabwe National
Army.
Oryx Natural Resources jointly owns a diamond mining concession in Mbuji-Mayi
with the governments of Zimbabwe and the DRC. The company's chief executive,
until recently, was Thamer Said Al Shanfari, the playboy son of an Omani oil
minister.
Recent media reports alleged Mnangagwa and Shanfari were the key players in the
illegal transfer of money and the purchase of "blood diamonds" in the former
war zones of the DRC.

   

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