DRC Slips Further in Chaos

• Gold miners in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo : Thousands of kilograms of gold are moved out of the country illegally each year .
  
• Congolese Rebels Laundering Money in Germany, UN Report Reveals
  Spiegel Online - Berlin,Germany . The FDLR "has a far-reaching diaspora network involved in the day-to-day running of the movement; coordination of military and arms-trafficking activities ...
  
• UN peacekeepers have failed in DRC as rebels strengthen positions
  Radio France Internationale - Paris,France , the coordination of military and arms-trafficking activities and the management of financial activities," according to the report. ...
  
• Boat seized smuggling Somali arms into Yemen
  Yemen News Agency - Yemen The Intelligence authorities were monitoring the movement of the boat since it originated in the Horn of Africa country carrying an arms shipment over the ...
  
• Congo Army Helps Rebels Get Arms, UN FindsNew York Times - New York,NY,USA... in the day-to-day running of the movement; the coordination of military and arms-trafficking activities and the management of financial activities. ...

French Judge to Investigate 3 African Leaders for Money Laundering

AP5 May 2009A French judge has decided to investigate three African heads of state for money laundering and other alleged crimes linked to their wealth in France.

The probe follows a complaint by Transparency International France, an association that tracks corruption, against Gabon's Omar Bongo, Republic of Congo's Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea.

Association lawyer William Bourdon claimed Tuesday the decision was "unprecedented" for such a probe against heads of state. A preliminary investigation turned up numerous signs of wealth among the three that Bourdon says belongs to their people.

The prosecutor's office opposed the opening of an investigation April 20 and now has five days to appeal the decision by investigating Magistrate Francoise Desset.

Bongo is among the last of the so-called "African Big Men" who came to power by the gun and resisted the democratic tide sweeping the continent. He faces little political opposition in his oil-rich West African nation, ruling through a mixture of patronage and quiet intimidation.

Last year, Bongo became the world's longest-ruling head of state, not counting the monarchs of Britain and Thailand. He has been in charge since 1967.

• French media have reported his family owns abundant real estate in France — at one time with more Paris properties than any other foreign leader.

Equatorial Guinea is Africa's No. 3 oil producer. Its leader, Obiang, has faced several attempts to topple his government since he seized power in a coup three decades ago.

• His government is considered among Africa's worst human rights violators.

Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo seized power for a second time in 1997 with help from Angolan troops.

Posted by David Barouski at 16:22

The Rest @ African News.com

Civil War in the East covering International Conflict Diamond Activity in the West?

I have not commented in detail to date about DR Congo's current Civil war, because it is not clear to me yet the real objectives of the war. The government does not seem to have any real solutions except the status-quo. The rebels seem to not have any real idea about what they want to do or accomplish.

So the usually suspects are likely to be supplying the arms and logistics to both sides.

-I suspect the real story in the Congos is what is going on in the diamond mines...

• Who is mining, them?
• where are they going to get "Kimberly-ized"?
• Are they just being sold to an emerging non-DeBeers diamond trade being run by the Russians?

I suspect the conflict is really covering other activities meant to arm and resupply other international groups for upcoming conflicts....

so, back to the Civil War....

-Shimron

BULENGO, Congo, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Civilians in Congo's conflict-torn North Kivu province are bearing the brunt of instability there as warring factions step up forced recruitment and a humanitarian crisis deepens.

Jean-Paul Kakuti was attending his village school when he was kidnapped by fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda, who are battling Democratic Republic of Congo's army in the lawless eastern province.

"When they took me, I was with about 30 others. They took lots of school children and teachers," Kakuti said as he waited in a U.N. refugee agency tent in Bulengo, just west of the provincial capital, Goma. "They wanted us to fight alongside them, to become rebels like them."

A tense stalemate reigns in North Kivu after an informal U.N.-brokered ceasefire helped end heavy fighting last month. Intermittent skirmishes continue between Nkunda's fighters, government forces, local militia, and Rwandan rebels.

With no concrete efforts under way to negotiate a settlement to the current situation, North Kivu's civilian population is suffering an intensifying humanitarian crisis.

More than 90,000 people were displaced by last month's fighting and there are worrying signs the situation could soon worsen.

The Congolese army, considered by human rights groups as the country's worst human rights abuser, has poured thousands of extra troops into the province to battle Nkunda.

Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission accuses Nkunda, local militia, and Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebels of forcibly recruiting fighters, in some cases minors. The indications point towards preparations for the next round of fighting.

"It's really an explosive situation that can change overnight," said Philippe Havet, a doctor at a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in the isolated town of Masisi. "We don't know what will happen tomorrow. That much is completely clear."

HUMANITARIAN WOES

Even before the latest round of fighting, more than 270,000 civilians had fled fighting in North Kivu since the beginning of the year. Few dare return home, causing camps to balloon and placing a strain on local communities that have welcomed them.

Uncounted thousands more have been cut off from assistance, as transport routes have been transformed into frontlines.

"Access to people has become a real challenge. North Kivu is divided," said Aya Shneerson, the U.N. World Food Programme's director in North Kivu. "No one is going home, because the situation is unclear. There are places where people urgently need help that we can't get to."

At the hospital in Masisi, one of the few operating in the area, a team from the Belgian chapter of MSF carries out an average of 1,000 consultations per week. The 73-bed facility currently houses 130 patients and medical supplies must be flown in by helicopter to avoid ambushes on the road from Goma.

"They come walking sometimes from 20 km (12 miles) away," Havet told Reuters by phone from Masisi. "There are some who have to wait two days to be treated."

Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission has been pushing for negotiations to end the crisis and former colonial ruler Belgium is calling for the appointment of a special outside mediator for North Kivu.

"It's clear that a political solution is needed, and quickly. The humanitarian consequences of drawn-out instability in North Kivu are pretty dire, maybe a million displaced by the end of the year," said one western diplomat.
"There seems to be a lack of political will from both sides to have meaningful talks.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa

Blood Diamonds: an Ivory Coast Connection?

Prior to 2005, the ROC was removed form the Kimberly process for a massive discrepancy between it's diamond mining and its exports. All this was done through Lebanon.

Historically, diamonds from captured mines have been used to fund armed conflict in Africa, often by child and/or slave labor. The Kimberly process has created a process for tagging legitimate diamonds, and this process that is beginning to take effect.

This success, however, creates a need to launder blood Diamonds. Thus the Lebanon ROC blood diamond laundering process.

Around the first of June, 2007, Someone in the Ivory Coast tried to find email addresses in the Republic of Congo of several Diamond mines, and suspected diamond mine contacts.

The search appears to not come from Abidjan or any large city. They were specifically looking for Congolese diamond contacts, and they were searching in French.