D.R. Congo: Gold Fuels Massive
Human Rights Atrocities
Leading international corporations
established links to warlords
www.hrw.org/, June 2, 2005
The lure of gold has fuelled massive human rights atrocities in
the northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Human
Rights Watch said in a new report published today. Local warlords
and international companies are among those benefiting from access
to gold rich areas while local people suffer from ethnic slaughter,
torture and rape.
The 159-page report, "The Curse of
Gold," documents how local armed groups fighting for the
control of gold mines and trading routes have committed war crimes
and crimes against humanity using the profits from gold to fund
their activities and buy weapons. The report provides details
of how a leading gold mining company, AngloGold Ashanti, part
of the international mining conglomerate Anglo American, developed
links with one murderous armed group, the Nationalist and Integrationist
Front (FNI), helping them to access the gold-rich mining site
around the town of Mongbwalu in the northeastern Ituri district.
The Human Rights Watch report also illustrates the trail of tainted
gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to neighboring
Uganda from where it is sent to global gold markets in Europe
and elsewhere. The report documents how a leading Swiss gold refining
company, Metalor Technologies, previously bought gold from Uganda.
After discussions and correspondence with Human Rights Watch beginning
in December 2004, and after the report had gone to press, the
company announced on May 20 that it would suspend its purchases
of gold from Uganda. The Metalor statement was welcomed by Human
Rights Watch.
"Corporations should ensure their activities support peace
and respect for human rights in volatile areas such as northeastern
Congo, not work against them," said Anneke Van Woudenberg,
senior researcher on DRC at Human Rights Watch. "Local warlords
use natural resources to support their bloody activities. Any
support for such groups, whether direct or indirect, must not
continue."
In contravention of international business standards and the company's
own code of conduct, AngloGold Ashanti provided meaningful financial
and logistical support - which in turn resulted in political benefits
- to the FNI and its leaders, a group responsible for some of
the worst atrocities in this war-torn region. In correspondence
with Human Rights Watch, AngloGold Ashanti stated there was no
"working or other relationship with the FNI" but it
said that it had made certain payments in the past to the FNI,
including one in January 2005 that was made under "protest
and duress." AngloGold Ashanti also said that any contacts
with the FNI leadership were "unavoidable."
Human Rights Watch researchers documented meetings between the
company and the armed group leaders. The self-styled president
of the FNI, Floribert Njabu, told Human Rights Watch, "The
government is never going to come to Mongbwalu. I am the one who
gave [AngloGold] Ashanti permission to come. I am the boss of
Mongbwalu. If I want to chase them away, I will."
AngloGold Ashanti started preparations for gold exploration activities
in Mongbwalu in late 2003. The company won the mining rights to
the vast gold concession in 1996 but, hampered by the ongoing
war, postponed activities there until a peace agreement was signed
and a transitional government was established in Kinshasa. The
central government failed to establish control of Ituri, however,
and the areas around Mongbwalu remained in the hands of the FNI
armed group.
"As a company committed to corporate social responsibility,
AngloGold Ashanti should have waited until it could work in Mongbwalu
without having to interact with abusive warlords," said Van
Woudenberg. "Congo desperately needs business investment
to help rebuild the country, but such business engagement must
not provide any support to armed groups responsible for crimes
against humanity."
From 1 - 3 June, Anglo American is co-chairing the Africa Economic
Summit in Cape Town, aimed at promoting business investment and
engaging business as a catalyst for change in Africa.
The gold concessions of northeastern Congo, some of the richest
in Africa, could help to rebuild Congo's shattered economy. But
according to Human Rights Watch researchers, fighting between
armed groups for the control of the gold mining town of Mongbwalu
cost the lives of at least two thousand civilians between June
2002 and September 2004. One miner told Human Rights Watch: "We
are cursed because of our gold. All we do is suffer. There is
no benefit to us."
Throughout the conflict, artisanal mining has continued. Millions
of dollars worth of gold are smuggled out of Congo each year some
of it destined for Switzerland. The Swiss refining company, Metalor
Technologies, bought gold from Uganda. Asked about these purchases
by Human Rights Watch on April 21, 2005, Metalor stated it believed
"the goldwas of legal origin." But since Uganda has
almost no gold reserves of its own, a significant amount of the
gold purchased by the company was almost certainly mined in Congo.
In its public statement of May 20, Metalor said it would not accept
any further deliveries from Uganda until the company could clarify
Uganda's position and statistics on gold production and export.
"We hope other companies will follow the lead set by Metalor,"
said Van Woudenberg. "The problems we have documented are
not unique to Congo, nor to one international company. Rules governing
corporate behavior must be enforced, otherwise they are meaningless."
In August 2003, a group of United Nations experts adopted a set
of draft human rights business standards, known as the U.N. Norms,
which signaled a growing consensus on the need for standards on
corporate responsibility, but they have not yet been widely implemented
by companies. The international community has also failed to effectively
tackle the link between resources exploitation and conflict in
Congo, choosing to ignore previous U.N. reports that highlighted
the issue.
Northeastern Congo has been one of the worst hit areas during
Congo's devastating five-year war. Competing armed groups carried
out ethnic massacres, rape and torture in this mineral-rich corner
of Congo. A local conflict between Hema and Lendu ethnic groups
allied with national rebel groups and foreign backers, including
Uganda and Rwanda, has claimed over 60,000 lives since 1999, according
to United Nations estimates. These losses are just one part of
an estimated four million civilians dead throughout the Congo,
a toll that makes this war more deadly to civilians than any other
since World War II.
"Efforts to make peace in Congo risk failure unless the issue
of natural resource exploitation and its link to human rights
abuses are put at the top of the agenda," said Van Woudenberg
"Congolese citizens deserve to benefit from their gold resources,
not be cursed by them."
Congo watch
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