Cell Phone Metal Triggers Strife in Eastern Congo
Pacific News Service, News Analysis, Donal Brown, Posted: Jun 23, 2004
Editor's Note: A prominent Congolese parliamentarian says Rwandan President Paul Kagame is taking advantage of world sympathy for the Tutsi, who were recent victims of genocide, to stir up trouble in bountiful eastern Congo.
A metal used in cell phones, laptops and other electronic gizmos may be causing bloodshed in eastern Congo.
Jacqueline Bisimwa Murangaza, a prominent Congolese parliamentarian visiting San Francisco, accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of fomenting war and rebellion in the eastern Congo province of South Kivu in order to annex a region known for the richest concentration of natural resources in all of Africa.
President Kagame is after the area's abundant coltan, besides oil, diamonds, cobalt magnesium and copper, Murangaza told Pacific News Service. Coltan is a metal used in cell phones, laptops and other electronic devices. A worldwide shortage of coltan has driven its price up to nearly $200 a pound.
The Rwandan army made at least $250 million over 18 months from the sale of coltan, although no coltan is found in Rwanda, according to a recent United Nations Security Council report. Since 2002, when the Rwandan army pulled out officially from the Congo, the volume of illicit trade has been reduced, but the exploitation is continuing, said Amnesty International's Africa Advocacy Director Adotei Akwei.
Akwei is still not certain that Kagame plans to formally annex the eastern Congo. "Why bother," he said, "when all you need to do is to maintain destabilization to get what you want in mineral wealth?"
He agreed with Murangaza, however, that Kagame, a Tutsi, was taking advantage of the fragility of the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo as it tries to restore peace and stability after a devastating civil war that began in 1998.
The Congolese government has yet to build a unified army capable of maintaining order, as recent rebel activity in South Kivu, eastern Congo, indicate.
On May 31, a rebel force made up mostly of Banyamulenge, a tribe related to the Tutsi of Rwanda, took control of Kivu's capital city of Bukavu. Some 70 people reportedly died in the fighting. The insurgents claimed they were merely protecting the Banyamulenge who are hated by other Congolese.
Murangaza said the Banyamulenge have been living in South Kivu for many years -- and in the Congo for several generations -- but are not Congolese citizens and have refused to apply for citizenship.
Murangaza accused Kagame, a Tutsi, of playing on world sympathies for the Tutsi, 800,000 of whom were killed in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Rwanda is receiving large amounts of aid from the West. She resents the aid, given the Rwandans' "role in destabilizing the Congo." The International Rescue Committee reported that 3.3 million have died in the Congo since 1998.
The Congolese army is made up of warlord troops that the government is trying to meld into a unified national armed force. The warlords not included are apt to fight to make their case for inclusion in the national army. General Laurent Nkunda and Col. Jules Mutebutsi, who commanded the insurgents that took over Bukavu, are two of these warlords.
The insurgents appear to be jockeying for position, making their power known as a new non-Tutsi provincial governor assumed power. National elections are also set for 2005, which threaten the warlords.
The insurgents agreed to withdraw from Bukavu on June 3 after negotiations with the U.N. mission in Congo known as MONUC. But neither the U.N. force nor the official Congo army in the area is strong enough to keep the 4,000-strong rebel-force from coming back. MONUC is set up to protect civilians, not to fight battles against other armed troops.
Rwanda sent troops to the Congo in 1998 in support of Congolese rebel groups. But the troops are still there, Murangaza said, in spite of the 1999 Lusaka Peace Accord signed by the rebel groups and the Congolese government, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda and Namibia.
"They [the Rwandan army] may have pulled out formally but came back out of uniform and now use the local warlords as proxies to advance their interests," Akwei concurred.
Murangaza finds the situation exasperating and ironic. "The Congo has been a safe haven for the Rwandans, a traditional protector of people fleeing from war in Rwanda. Why is Kagame now warring with the Congo?"
Both Murangaza and Akwei want the international community to step up efforts to bring peace and stability to the eastern Congo.
Donal Brown (dbrown@pacificnews.org) is a writer for Pacific News Service.
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