Rwandan economic involvement in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo

According to the International Rescue Committee, as many as 3.3 million people have lost their lives, either in direct fighting or from the outbreak of diseases as a result of the war. Despite the formation of a two-year national transition government, composed of representatives of the former Kinshasa regime, the pro-government Mayi Mayi-militias, rebel movements, the unarmed political opposition and civil society, the prospects for durable peace remain bleak. While intensified ethnic strife between Hema and Lendu militias in the resource-rich Ituri province has triggered a massive flow of refugees and the creation of a multilateral intervention force in June 2003, the Kivu provinces have witnessed renewed fighting between rebel forces of the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebel movement and Mayi-Mayi militiamen. Even the south-eastern Katanga province has shown signs of evolving instability: on 8 August 2003, the international relief non-governmental organisation GOAL reported that six different armed groups were occupying the town of Manono, following the ejection of the local RCD-Goma administrator by the 8th Brigade, a mysterious group of 150 men claiming to be members of the former Kinshasa government’s army. Unfortunately, the spiral of violence in Congo’s border regions is not the only source of concern to diplomats involved in overseeing the peace process. The dubious track record of some of the key members of the national transition government does not inspire much confidence in the preparatory work for the country’s first democratic elections since independence. Whereas a Belgian court has sentenced vicepresident Jean-Pierre Bemba to one year’s imprisonment for human trafficking, his colleague Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi has also faced a Belgian judicial inquiry for his inflammatory statements concerning the DRC’s Tutsi population in August 1998. Finally, one of the biggest impediments to the Congolese peace process may be the issue of resource trafficking. According to the UN expert panel investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the DRC, members of the Rwandan and Ugandan regime have developed mechanisms to continue the looting of diamonds, gold, coltan and timber after the official withdrawal of their troops from Congolese territory, as agreed in the Pretoria and Luanda peace accords. Previous reports by the Panel contained a detailed account of the multiple ways in which a selected group of Rwandan and Ugandan military officers, politicians and businessmen have taken advantage of the military presence of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces to secure their stake in the Congolese mining business.