Vol. 72/No. 46      November 24, 2008

The fighting in eastern Congo near the Rwandan border is part of the ongoing scramble for control of the country’s mineral resources by the fractured alliance that overthrew the proimperialist regime of Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, as well as by rival capitalist regimes in neighboring countries and imperialist mining interests. Congo is rich in cobalt, copper, gold, cadmium, and diamonds. In the eastern part of the country, where the fighting is centered, are the world’s largest reserves of coltan, a mineral used in manufacturing cell phones.

Since August rebels of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), led by Congolese general Laurent Nkunda, have routed Congolese government troops. On October 8 the CNDP captured the Rumangabo military camp near Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

The Congolese army, known more for its atrocities against civilians than its capacity for a real fight, put up little resistance. Tons of weapons and ammunition were captured, including rocket launchers, mortars, and antiaircraft guns, according to press reports. Nkunda’s forces were poised to capture Goma October 30 but instead called a cease-fire.

An emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Community November 9 decided to send advisers to aid the Congolese military and to send troops later if necessary. The 14-member body of African governments also called for a cease-fire and the opening of safe corridors to supply food and medicines to hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called November 4 for sending 3,000 additional UN troops to Congo. A spokesman for MONUC, the French-language initials of the UN mission already in Congo, said the reinforcements would include two infantry battalions, two Special Forces companies, and 18 helicopters.

Alan Doss, a British diplomat who is the UN special envoy to Congo, urged the Security Council to provide MONUC with “a surge capacity, some additional troops and air mobility assets,” reported Agence France-Presse. French foreign minister Bernard Koucher and Belgian foreign minister Karel De Gucht have urged the deployment of a European Union military force to Congo. Koucher suggested perhaps a French and Belgian force. Belgium is the former colonial ruler in Congo.

In a 2005 UN investigation, MONUC officials and troops were found to be involved in rape and sexual abuse of Congolese women and girls as young as 12 or 13 years old. The investigation concluded that “peacekeeping” officials and soldiers took part in sexual abuse in 16 of its missions around the world.

Nkunda left the Congolese military in 2004. He says the CNDP is needed to protect the Tutsi ethnic minority from militias of the Hutu ethnic group that fled Rwanda in the mid-1990s. The capitalist media also portrays the conflict as rooted in decades of age-old “tribal rivalries.” But the underlying cause of the conflict is Congo’s legacy of colonial and imperialist domination and the fight between government forces and their opponents over land and mineral wealth since the overthrow of Mobutu.

In 1997 the Rwandan government backed the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, led by Laurent Kabila, in overthrowing Mobutu. A year later Kabila ordered the mostly Tutsi Rwandan military forces that had helped overthrow Mobutu to leave the country.

The alliance fractured into an assortment of groupings along ethnic lines. The governments of neighboring Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi backed these forces, which they also relied on to defend their borders from opposition groups launching incursions against them from eastern Congo.

By late 1998 rebel forces were on the verge of taking the Congolese capital but were turned back after troops from Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia intervened in support of Kabila’s government. Kabila was killed by one of his bodyguards in January 2001. His son Joseph Kabila is now president.

In 1998 Ugandan troops invaded Congo. They aided ethnic militia opposing the Congolese government in exchange for help in looting Congo’s gold, diamonds, and timber, according to a UN report. In 2004 the Bank of Uganda reported that its country’s gold production was 1.4 tons, but gold exports were 7.3 tons. The difference is accounted for by gold taken from Congo, according to the UN report.

A UN report also names some 100 international corporations, among them Anglo-America, Standard Charter Bank, and De Beers, that are benefiting from gold, diamonds, and other minerals looted from Congo.
 
 
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