KEYS TO THE CONGO

a great article found here

...The “Rwanda genocide” began with the 1990 invasion of northern Rwanda by Ugandan forces that brutally targeted everyone in their path. By the time the RPF/A forces—comprised mostly of seasoned Ugandan troops—reached Kigali, more than 800,000 IDPs (internally displaced persons) were hovering around the capital city: they were terrified, they were homeless, they were hungry, they were angry and—justifiably—they took up arms. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) and its Canadian General Romeo Dallaire clandestinely backed the illegal guerrilla war.3

The guerrilla wars in Rwanda and South Sudan were prosecuted much like the CIA-backed low-intensity guerrilla warfare, spawned by Washington, against populist movements in Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile and Guatemala. This is exactly what is playing out in Congo and Sudan today: low-intensity guerrilla warfare prosecuted by powerful shadow forces competing for land and loot.

SPLA leader John Garang received military training at the School of the Americas, Fort Benning, Georgia. Paul Kagame received training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. At the time he was sent for training, Kagame was Museveni’s director of military intelligence; upon his return he assumed command of the army created, financed and trained by Uganda: the Rwanda Patriotic Army.

Both Garang and Kagame likely received “counter-insurgency” training through the Pentagon’s International Military Education and Training Program (IMET). Since 1998, the IMET program has provided training to 318 RDF and 291 UPDF soldiers. Many other IMET soldiers who attended the notorious School of the Americas are today known human rights violators in Latin America...

THAT'S BECAUSE THE TIES ARE BETWEEN SOMALI PIRATES AND PNAC/MOSSAD/CIA

The head of the U.S. military's Africa Command, or Africom, General William Wardsaid that he had no evidence of ties between al-Qaida and Somali pirates, but that the possibility would be a cause for concern.

, who is Nairobi for meetings with Kenyan officials, said the United States is concerned about the rise in piracy, and is involved in multilateral efforts to provide security, but that the issue is not a primary focus for Africom.

"The United States is participating in those activities currently, but again, that is not specifically being controlled by the United States Africa Command," he said.

Ward said Africom's main objectives involve building African military capacity and strengthening security cooperation between the United States and African countries. He said that piracy was a criminal matter, and that legal rules have to be followed in pursuing pirates.

Some of eight suspected Somali pirates when they appeared before the Mombasa, Kenya, Chief Magistrate, 19 Nov 2008
Some of eight suspected Somali pirates when they appeared before the Mombasa, Kenya, Chief Magistrate, 19 Nov 2008
"Piracy is a very complex issue. I don't know if you would ever have enough vessels to have coverage of the entire ocean," he said.

THE ISRAEL OF CENTRAL AFRICA? GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK!

clipped from: www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

And the current crisis needs to be understood, as it was in King Leopold's day, as a battle over Congo's rich natural resources.'

These resentments have been exacerbated by jealousies over vast contracts recently signed between China and the government of President Joseph Kabila. Anger has focused on the likelihood of Kabila and his inner circle, from his base in the southern province of Katanga, skimming off vast sums from these opaque deals.

Chinese businessmen willing to spend vast sums for scarce raw materials. Countries like Zambia or Sierra Leone, long used to relying on aid, have found themselves with unprecedented revenues.two years ago, China promised Congo $5bn in exchange for rights to much of its copper, cobalt, tin and other minerals.

It has also inspired the Tutsi-influenced rebels of the Kivus, led by General Laurent Nkunda, whose insurgency is designed to force Kabila to share the spoils.



The fact that Rwanda supplies weapons, ammunition, manpower and communications to Nkundu’s rebels is one of Africa’s worst kept secrets. The west turns a blind eye, seeing Rwanda through the frame of events in 1994, when 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered by Hutu extremists. Against such a background, the now Tutsi-controlled government of Rwanda can do no wrong.

But Rwanda is the Israel of central Africa, a country forged through suffering, with a far superior military to its neighbours and influence across the Great Lakes region. Our outsiders’ sense of guilt for 1994 should not stop us from criticising it for fomenting the current violence. Nor should guilt about the results of our colonial scramble for Africa more than a century ago prevent us criticising the Chinese for provoking a new cycle of violence.

CHINA-CONGO-LAURENT NKUNDA. HMMM, NOW I GET IT

clipped from: www.energy-daily.com

China on Tuesday defended its presence and investments in the Democratic Republic of Congo after Laurent Nkunda demanded commercial contracts between the two nations be reviewed.

"China's business activities and investment programmes in DR Congo are based on mutual benefit and joint development," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

Qin's comments came after Laurent Nkunda, a rebel leader who claims to be protecting the Tutsi population in the country's war-torn east, asked the contracts be reviewed as part of a list of demands put to a special UN envoy.

The country has increasingly been reliant on borrowing money from China -- a situation that drew the concern of the International Monetary Fund in September.

Beijing has been investing heavily in the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent years.

It lent the central African country an estimated nine billion dollars in May to restore its infrastructure and revive the mining industry.

It also made a 35 million dollar investment into the Congolese postal service last January.

KIVU IS NOW THE WEAKEST LINK OF THE GLOBALIZATION'S CHAIN

clipped from: www.blackcommentator.com

This is a reprint of a recent interview conducted by Pambazuka News with Congolese leader Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba

Introduction by --Bill Fletcher, Jr., BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor

Wamba, as he is generally known, is a is a leading Marxist thinker and activist who spent many years in exile in the USA during the reign of the notorious Mobutu Sese Seku

the world's attention has suddenly turned to the current sweeping of Laurent Nkunda's forces around Goma. What's brought about this kind of attention?



I think that the change of the balance of forces on the terrain is part of the reason
we have to add also the need for Western capitalists, after the Chinese contract with the DRC government, to re-assume their control over the Congolese resources. We hear that the idea of a Kosovo is being played, but, if it materialises it will be not for Congolese peoples’ interest but to have control over very important mineral and agriculture potential resources of the area.

What are the political and economic factors behind the conflict?

There are of course many unresolved issues since the Rwandese genocide took place and many, including genocidaires, moved massively to the DRC
Nkunda, for example does use the presence of the FDLR [Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda], still committed to retake power in Rwanda and perhaps carry out genocide, as one reason for his war
we have to distinguish between the main objective, access and control over the resources, and the conditions facilitating that objective, the existence of genocidaires creating havoc on innocent people, the sentiments of exclusion still felt by the Tutsi Congolese, the involvement of the DRC government with those genocidaires – used as the government's marines, according to some – and the possible alliances between business people aligned with government officials of states in the region. Most of our regional governments are actually led by security officers allied to businessmen. It is said that Rwandese businessmen, among others, have been financing Nkunda to keep control of the mines and continue exploit minerals – coltan, niobium, etc – very much sought by transnational enterprises producing or distributing mobile phones, satellites, etc.

The subsoil of the whole of the DRC has almost been sold out with contracts to so-called partners

In a sense, Kivu is now the weakest link of the globalisation’s chain. We need to identify the different contradictions converging there. The absence of a real state authority, apparently willed by some who are in the State, facilitates the agents of the world economy of crime.

Rwanda has an interest it uses contradictorily: the presence of the genocidaires to claim that its security is threatened and to keep a situation of anarchy to have access to resources on which its businessmen have been enriching themselves

The rebels are occupying an area of about 3 territories. It is not clear whether in negotiations they will accept to give it up. If the DRC government does not succeed in getting that territory back and if external forces support the keeping of the territory by the rebels, a small but very rich country will be formed and the impact on the rest of the country may lead to a real balkanisation

What is needed even for democracy to be built in the area is that people agitate to really build a post-neoliberalist developmentalist State.

MORE HERE:

You Know What We Don't Talk About Enough Around Here? The Congo.

AND HERE

DRC: Rwanda and the Doomed Cease-Fire

CASSITERITE ORE AND LAURENT NKUNDA

clipped from: africannewsanalysis.blogspot.com

Transcript of David Barouski's 10/19/08 Presentation for Congo Week in Chicago, IL.
October 21, 2008

Mr. Kambale Musavuli,

main sponsors of Congo Week,
the Friends of the Congo (who generously supplied us with the video),
the African Faith and Justice Network,
Global Congo Action,
the Hip Hop Caucus,
Global Ministries,
the Institute for Policy Studies,
Jubilee USA Network,
Resist AFRICOM,
People to People Liaison, and the
Women for the Development of the DRC
Mr. Kisuule Magala

Cassiterite ore trade in the Congo, particularly in the North Kivu Province.



I will discuss the various actors involved in the trade, and how their roles have changed over time. I will show how the cassiterite trade is directly linked to warring factions in the Congo and how it financially sustains their activities.

Let us begin with two obvious but important questions: What is cassiterite ore and why is it desirable? Its value comes from the fact that it yields tin after smelting. In 2004, new environmental laws were enacted in Japan and the European Union (E.U.) that forced all lead-based solder to be replaced with tin as soon as possible, raising its market demand considerably. Solder is used extensively in the electronics industry to connect wiring components to circuit boards. According to a December 2007 report by Finnwatch, the global solder market accounts for nearly half for the world's tin consumption, and 70% of the world's solder is sold to the electronics industry. I will expand on this point later. Cassiterite also has applications in the automotive industry and can be used as a coating on metal to prevent corrosion.
Exponential growth in China's booming industrial sector also contributed to a greater market demand for tin.

The Congo is important to the world market because it contains roughly a third of the world's cassiterite ore reserves and produces about 4% of the world's tin supply.'

The tin trade eventually rebounded in 2004, in large part due to the aforementioned environmental laws.'

the North Kivu Division of Mines office in Goma registered exports of 938 tons in 2003, 4,672 tons in 2004, 3,599 tons in 2005, and 2,904 tons in 2006. Again, keep in mind this is only the registered exports, and does not include smuggled ore, or ore handled directly by the Congolese military. United Nations' investigators estimate that 70% of the cassiterite mined in the Congo is smuggled out of the country. To my knowledge, Rwanda has not publicly released official data on its cassiterite exports since 2004. In that year, Rwanda exported 1,800 tons more cassiterite than they actually produced, demonstrating large-scale smuggling occurred.



Cassiterite is most often found in the same general mining areas as coltan. Coltan was the most coveted ore in the Congo from 1998 until 2001
are found in Walikale Territory.

The most coveted deposit in Walikale Territory is located in Bisie
In Bisie, there are roughly 167 individual mining areas
At least 29 of these pits are controlled by elements of the Congolese National Army, or FARDC
traders meet the artisanal miners in the village of Mubi or Ndjingala to appraise each dig's value.
From Mubi and Ndjingala, wealthy traders and comptoir owners have the ore flown out of Walikale Territory by hiring small charter planes to fly it back to Goma or Kigali.

The Kilambo airstrip was originally a road connecting Mubi, Walikale town, and Kisangani, but it degraded

Rebuilding this road is a priority of President Joseph Kabila's administration to facilitate better access to the mines and eventually connect Kisangani to Goma.

the supply chain

planes offload the ore in Goma
Once the purified ore is ready for export, a transporter is hired by the comptoir to move the shipment by land.
They drive the ore to a port, either Mombasa, Kenya, or Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Mombasa is the preferred destination,

Most drivers get there by travelling through Uganda via the Bunagana-Kasese-Kabale route

Since mid-2007, General Laurent Nkunda's National Congress of the Defense of the People (CNDP) has controlled the Bunagana border post.

The CNDP uses it as part of a supply route to smuggle in weapons, supplies, and military reinforcements from Rwanda.
It is comprised of several Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF)
The same sources also claim General Nkunda's main arms caches are held in two of Rwanda's largest military bases: Gabiro (in the Mutura region of Northeast Rwanda) and Kanombe.

By controlling the Bunagana border post, the CNDP is able to tax exporters on North Kivu's busiest transportation route.

Ore transporters can take the Ishasha-Kabale route, but the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda/ Forces Combattantes Abacunguzi (FDLR-FOCA) and the FARDC periodically clash in this area. They can also travel up north to Vitshumbi, but then they have to take their chances with the Mai-Mai, FDLR/FOCA, and government soldiers who inhabit the area. The other option is to go to Rwanda through Goma unhindered. However, travelling through Uganda is much cheaper than travelling through Rwanda.

look in depth at the comptoirs in Goma. Senator Edouard Hizi Mwangachuchu, owns a comptoir called MHI. In 1996, Mr. Mwangachuchu was a political refugee in the United States after leaving the country following the invasion by Laurent Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL-CZ) and the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)

Currently, CNDP soldiers reportedly inhabit the mining site. 600 to 900 artisanal miners and forced laborers work the area under their watch.

Not coincidentally, the initial increased demand for cassiterite ore coincided with the beginning of General Laurent Nkunda's insurrection.

On May 26, 2004, Colonel Jules Mutebusi, a Tutsi officer who mutinied from the Congolese army, led an attack on government forces in the city of Bukavu. Days later, General Nkunda led a large group of mutineers and Rwandan Army soldiers south to Bukavu. They claimed they were intervening to stop a genocide against Banyamulenge civilians in Bukavu, but subsequent investigations were unable to turn up any evidence that genocide took place. General Nkunda occupied Bukavu for several days, drawing Congolese army and UN military reinforcements to South Kivu. ...

LAURENT NKUNDA

clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk

others see him as a Rwandan stooge and the biggest reason why DR Congo is yet to benefit from landmark elections in 2006

Human Rights Watch says his troops have been implicated in numerous killings, torture and rapes.

Gen Nkunda says there is a "state of war" in eastern DR Congo and especially his home region of North Kivu.

His force, estimated to be several thousand strong has remained in Goma



He fought in both the Rwandan and Congolese conflicts but first came to widespread notice when he led his forces into the Congolese town of Bukavu in 2004.

He said he was protecting Congolese Tutsis, known as the Banyamulenge, from "genocide"

there had been some attacks on Banyamulenge in Bukavu,
Most local people believed it was all a pretext

Although he was born in DR Congo, he fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the rebel movement formed by Rwandan Tutsi exiles, which took control of Rwanda in 1994, ending the genocide.

After that Laurent Nkunda returned home to join Rwanda's adventures in DR Congo.

He was a commander in the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) - the main rebel group which controlled most of eastern DR Congo during the five-year civil war.

He was accused of committing atrocities in 2002 as a commander in the diamond-rich town of Kisangani.

Rwanda has twice invaded DR Congo, saying it wants to stop these rebel groups from staging cross-border attacks.

Some accuse Gen Nkunda of still following orders from his former comrades-in-arms in Kigali.

AFRICA'S BIGGEST RESOURCE WAR

from Tony Karon

clipped from: www.thenational.ae

For the warlord commanders, control of land means ownership of its resources – the gold, diamonds, coltan and other minerals for which mining companies are willing to pay anyone capable of delivering security.

The Congo’s borders were drawn by Europeans at the Berlin Conference of 1884
The Congo was the personal fiefdom of the venal King Leopold II of Belgium, whose system of forced labour and savagery halved the population from 20 million to 10 million in 40 years

In the early 1960s, then Colonel Joseph Mobutu overthrew the popular independence leader Patrice Lumumba with the support of the CIA,

• THE CIA ASSASSINATED PATRICE LUMUMBA

Mobutu ruled for more than three decades, but his regime collapsed spectacularly in 1996, as rebel forces swept from the eastern border to the capital.

(photo: Laurent Kabila, Joseph Mobutu, Patrice Lumumba)

The rebels, led by Laurent Kabila, were backed by Rwanda and by Mobutu’s enemies in Uganda and Angola.

The rebel movement that ousted Mobutu quickly devolved into competing fiefdoms, and the rebel leader Kabila, with the support of Angola and Zimbabwe, turned on Rwanda and Uganda

• THE CIA ASSASSINATED LAURENT KABILA

(photo: Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Joseph Kabila (DR Congo)

Those countries accused by the UN of plundering mineral resources and timber
a charge underscored by a notorious firefight that broke out among their forces at Kisangani, over the control of the local diamond trade.



A 2003 truce and elections held in 2006,

Like his father, the election winner Joseph Kabila reneged on his promise to eliminate the FDLR, the Hutu nationalist force that had killed nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in neighboring Rwanda in 1994.



Congolese government forces collaborate with the Hutu FDLR, and also with a pro-government ethnic militia known as the Mai Mai, against which are ranged the rebel General Laurent Nkunda’s better trained and more disciplined Tutsi CNDP.

European analogy

brutal Thirty Year War in Germany that ended in 1648, fought largely by mercenary armies commissioned by foreign powers killing 20 per cent of Germany’s population and devastating its economy.

the post-colonial African state has collapsed, and amid the global economic slowdown
versions of its grotesque experience will be repeated in other fraying polities at the margins of a faltering globalisation.

__________________________________________________________________________________

from Race and History. Com

1994 - Mobutu agrees to the appointment of Kengo Wa Dondo, an advocate of austerity and free-market reforms, as prime minister.

1996-97 - Tutsi rebels capture much of eastern Zaire while Mobutu is abroad for medical treatment.

Aftermath of Mobutu

1997 May - Tutsi and other anti-Mobutu rebels, aided principally by Rwanda, capture the capital, Kinshasa; Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo; Laurent-Desire Kabila installed as president.

1998 August - Rebel forces, backed by Rwandan and Ugandan troops, advance towards the capital, Kinshasa; the intervention of troops from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola turns the tide and the rebels are pushed back.

1998 September - Kinshasa, comes close to running out of food, while rebels face defeat in the west and thousands of the rebels who narrowly failed to reach Kinshasa are captured. Despite this, rebels in the east continue fighting.

1998 October - Rebels capture the government stronghold of Kindu in the east as more peace talks break down, this time in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

1999 February - Rebels say they have launched a major new offensive on three fronts in the north and the southeast as refugees flee the fighting.

1999 August - All rebel groups sign a peace agreement in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

1999 October - Amid allegations of ceasefire violations, rebel groups turn down an invitation from President Laurent Kabila to take part in a national dialogue on reconciliation.

2000 February - Ethnic fighting erupts between communities in the rebel-held east. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council authorises a 5,500-strong UN force to monitor the ceasefire.

2000 August - Leaders of the countries involved in the Congolese civil war - Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe - as well as President Kabila meet in Lusaka to assess implementation of the previous year's peace agreement.

2001 January - Some three thousand Congolese soldiers held in camps in Zambia are sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The troops fled into Zambia following an upsurge of fighting with Rwandan-backed rebels in the border area in December.

2001 January 17 - Congo president Laurent Kabila is killed by one of his bodyguards. The assassination came at a time of mounting discontent in the army, which had recently suffered setbacks in the civil war. Three generals were arrested the previous week. The Belgian Foreign Ministry was the first to claim that they had been reliably informed of the president's death while Congo officials were reporting he was alive. Congo officials confirmed his death on January 18.

WHAT ARE THESE MONSTERS DOING THAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT?

Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Joseph Kabila (DR Congo)


KEITH HARMON SNOW RESOURCE

Marcelle Cendra said on November 25th, 2007 at 10:18 am #

Keith should be given a lot of respect for risking his life on the ground in Africa to bring us reports…for which he receives no personal compensation. In addition, his ability to make connections between horrors in Africa and U.S. interests/abominations elsewhere is very worthwhile. He is not about “debating,” but rather DOING something regarding the atrocities. In that vein, he tries to educate one and all. Thanks, Keith. — Marcelle



DARFURISM, UGANDA & U.S. WAR IN AFRICA The Spectre of Continental Genocide
Keith Harmon Snow

PROXY WARS IN CENTRAL AFRICA?Profits, Propaganda and Luxury Goods for the West --
Pacification, Rape and Slavery for the Rest

HOTEL RWANDA: Hollywood and the Holocaust in Central Africa
by Keith Harmon Snow
Global Research, October 16, 2005


Oil in Darfur? Special Ops in Somalia?
The New Old "Humanitarian" Warfare in Africa
by Keith Harmon Snow

Congo’s President Joseph Kabila: Dynasty or Travesty?
Written by keith harmon snow
Tuesday, 13 November 2007

keith harmon snow talks with Paul Rusesabagina, the ordinary man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda.

All Things Pass - Keith Harmon Snow

Articles by Keith Harmon Snow - Global Research

All Articles by Keith Harmon Snow - ZNET

All Articles by David Barouski - ZNET

Articles by Keith Harmon Snow - Dissident Voice


(Click for larger image)