Almost daily reports from the Democratic Republic of the Congo describe the human carnage in the central African nation. Death, rape and mayhem seem the norm in the country that can’t protect its people, even with the largest U.N. peacekeeping force in the world. People in the western world wonder why such horrors continue unabated and demand answers and solutions to this desecration against humanity.
The root causes are many and no single blog post or book on the subject, for that matter, can completely explain the whys of this tragedy. Nor, for that matter, can easy solutions be articulated, much less implemented. But it is worth noting who profits from the horrors in the region.
There are, of course, the ethnic and tribal conflicts pitting governments and rebels against each other. Hostilities stemming from the regional conflict between warring tribal factions of Hutus and Tutsis as exemplified by the neighboring Rwandan genocide is part of the story. Payback will remain on the collective agenda for generations to come. But for anybody paying any attention to what is happening in the Congo, one thing is clear: the mineral wealth in the region motivates everybody to act in the most venal manner imaginable.
Recent news reports tell the story of a recent episode involving a Canadian mining company, Quantum Minerals, Ltd. According to the company’s web site, “First Quantum also holds a 65% interest in the Kolwezi copper-cobalt tailings in the DRC and strategic investments in Mopani Copper Mines (16.9%), operator of the Nkana underground copper mine and cobalt refinery . . .”
In recent months, the company became embroiled in a dispute with the DRC government over problems with its agreement to extract copper at its Kolwezi facility. “[The] Democratic Republic of Congo shut First Quantum’s US$750-million KMT copper project at Kolwezi last September, after a review flagged contract irregularities and production delays at the site.” According to Stockhouse.com .
Stockhouse.com, citing an article first appearing in Reuters, noted that the apparent victor in this dispute was the Kazakh mining group ENRC. Interestingly, an Israeli diamond mogul, Dan Gertler acquired a stake in ENRC. In addition, the Congo mines minister handed the Kolwezi licence to Highwinds Properties, controlled by Israeli investor Dan Gertler.
As reported by Canada’s Financial Post, the London-listed ENRC purchased 50.5% of Camrose Resources Ltd., which is controlled by Mr. Gertler, for US$50-million and US$125-million of promissory notes. “Camrose controls five copper and cobalt exploitation licences, including for Kolwezi, but does not own the infrastructure at the project left by First Quantum” the Financial Post noted.
Interestingly, Mr. Gertler is close to the DRC President, Joseph Kabila, having been invited to his wedding. SourceWatch.com tells an interesting tale about Mr. Gertler, who apparently has extensive ties not only with the Congolese president but with political leaders in the state of Israel.
The irony in this sordid fight for the country’s resources is that the millions siphoned off from the exploitation of this country’s natural resources is in the midst of the worst human rights tragedy in the last 20 years.
They are few people who are understanding the truth about the crisis in the Congo. Actually Congolese all over the world understood that they are the only one who can change things in the Congo, that why you see all those movements of congolese demostrators around the world big towns.
This awakenness of consciencious of congolese is not welcome by the multinationals and world governements who are benefiting a lot from that crisis who is one of the biggest loss of human the world recorded.
The world decided to close their eyes and lost humanity values because of profit in the congo and congolese people lives mean absolutly nothing to anyone.
This congolese consciencious is even fight and they employing all the forces to shout it down:
1. In the Congo, Kabila is using firearms and tanks to intimidate and kill the people, using the police, while him and the world knows that he cheated openly and did not win the election. If democracy is the power of the people by the people, a value clain by the world, they decided to make it” a power of the string man by guns to controle the people in the congo” and no one is condamning KABILA.
2. The congolese around the world are arrested illegaly and even beaten, intimidate so they can not protest, those countries who are claiming human rigt and freedom of expression are just shouting and hitting congolese without respect(BELGUIM,SOUTH AFRICA…)
I can better talk about south africa where Zuma the president is having personnal business and friendship with Kabila, his family members are running personnal businesses in the Congo to feed his many women and kids as he cant steal from the SA governement well organized, Zuma police arrested many congolese just because they are congolese and protesting against KABILA cheating and in JOHANNESBURG congolese refugees are treated like underhuman( beaten, shout with plastic boolet, refigees asylum paper destroyed…) and the xenophobic police is making lies stories to validate those arrests.
THE CONGO AND CONGOLESE ARE FACING THE MOST DIFFICULT TIME OF THEIR HISTORY AND WE ARE VERY LIMITED IN MEANS AND WAY TO TELL THE WORLD AVERAGE CITIZEN THE TRUTH, THE MEDIAS ARE SAYING WHAT IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS, I WISH I CAN HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE A BIG STAGE TO EXPRESS MYSELF, IT IS SAD AND SHAME WHAT THE WORLD IS DOING! GOD HELP THE CONGO.