Illicit gold finances weapons

2005-08-04 09:52

Kinshasa - Rwanda and Uganda are undermining an arms embargo by siphoning off profits from an illicit trade in gold and tin from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a report by United Nations experts released on Wednesday.

The report, which established a link between pillaging of DRC's natural resources, illegal trading and arms smuggling, was the basis of a UN security council decision on July 29 to prolong an arms embargo in the region until July 31 2006.

Major discrepancies

"While armed groups in eastern DRC continue to create terror, the economic dimension of the pillage of natural resources, profiting especially Rwanda and Uganda, continues to be the key to their presence and justifies the decision adopted by the security council to maintain the arms embargo," said a spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission Monuc, Mamadou Bah.

In their report the experts noted major discrepancies between the mining resources of Uganda and Rwanda, and their exports of tin and gold.

In 2004, the DRC exported just 647kg of gold worth $7.4m, whereas Uganda exported 6 000kg of DRC gold worth $60m.

Yet the Ugandan National Bank's 1994 to1995 annual reports stated Ugandan gold production was so insignificant it was not worth mentioning in the country's economic statistics, the UN experts said.

Contradicting statements

"These exports and income drawn from the world gold market totally contradict the statements of the authorities in Kampala who claim the Ugandan gold is nationally produced," Bah said.

The DRC, an established tin producer, exported just 6 000 tons of the metal worth $5m in 2004. This income was much less than Rwandan exports, which according to contradictory Rwandan government figures, increased in value to more than $15m in 2004, yet totalled just 3 550 tons.

Kigali told the experts all tin exports came from local production, but the information did not tally with documentation that was supplied, the UN report said.

The group appealed for co-operation between African states in the Great Lakes region to thwart violations of the arms embargo and recommended more resources for the UN mission to help frontier authorities fight smuggling.

- AFP