The RDC, the richest country of the world

It is not a coincidence that the RDC is one of the richest countries of the world in mineral resources. His location in the Rift Valley region provides it with a privileged geology that  allows the country  to exploit different minerals highly appreciated  by the international market. In fact, already it was under the Belgian administration that they sold deposits of uranium to the United States to be able to construct the atomic bomb thrown on the Japanese locality of Hiroshima, that was the prelude of the end of the Second World war. Later, and under the context of the conflict, in 1997, American Mineral Fields Inc signed with the rebels a few contracts for the mining development of Shaba.

The plundering of the natural resources of the country (gold, diamonds, wood and coltan) has become  the engine of the war and of the perpetuation of the presence of the governmental and foreign armed forces in  the country, business in which several nearby countries and western multinationals have taken part and the  RDC did not receive any kind of compensation, as  the United Nations emphasized  in a report from 1998. The investigation also demonstrated the narrow relationship between the multinationals that were exploiting the mines and the guerrillas that were fighting in the conflict to control the areas. It is also for this reason that the most difficult zones of the country are Ituri, the North Kivu and the South Kivu.

High Tech Genocide.

According to the UNO, one of the origins of the war was the possession and the exploitation of the mines containing a mineral of an important economic and strategic interest for the telecommunications: coltan. It is estimated that an 80 % of the coltan’s world reserves are in the  RDC, concretely in  the region of  Kivu.

The conflict has received this name because the coltan is used together with the niobio to make the condensers that are responsible for the electrical flow of the mobile phones and other components of high technology. This raw material is found in three billion years old soils. That is the case of the tectonic flaw ( falla tectònica )  that shapes the region of Albertine Rift, that flanks the oriental border of the RDC and separates RDC from Uganda,  Rwanda and  Burundi. These minerals are only found in this region of the world.

Coltan goes from the mines to the commercial key points, where it is bought by foreign merchants who send it abroad, principally across Rwanda. The companies with enough technological capacity turn the coltan into the coveted dust  tantalite ( la cobejada tantalite en pols) . Then, they sell this " magic gunpowder " to Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Sony and other manufacturers, who use it in cell phones, computers and other devices.

 So, the invisible motive of the genocide has been the control (el domini) of these scarce minerals. And the tragedy that the country is living since 1996 is directly related to the patronage  ( el patrocini) of the power of multinationals aiming to control the mining of the region.

Corruption and abuses in the mines

Several organizations like the Briton Global Witness have denounced the looting and the fraudulent exploitation of resources in the RDC, and particularly in the province of Katanga, a region rich in cobalt and copper. Practices as corruption, illicit exports, political interferences in the mining exploitations and extortions in the whole process of extraction have been documented. The tips and taxes are in the whole chain of the business of mining handmade extraction, where about 150.000 miners are currently working. There has been denounced also the safety absence of the miners, which has provoked dozens of mortal accidents, as well as different violations of the human rights and infantile work at the mining regions.

Video where these situations are visualized:

 http://www.pulitzercenter.org/openitem.cfm?id=177

This way of making profit includes the personnel of the Department of Mines, the Police of Mines (a branch of the National Police), the OFIDA (the National Agency of Customs), the ANR (the services of intelligence), the Town hall of Lubumbashi, the traditional chiefs, the officials of EMAK (organization that in theory represents and defends the interests of the handmade miners), and also governmental departments, like the Exterior Commerce or the Congolese Office of Control. There is an authentic international clash for the resources of the RD of the Congo. Only during the 2005 were obtained at the province of Katanga 1.000 million dollars of benefit, which did not improve the life of the katanguenys. Also the heterogenita, with 9 % of content of cobalt, was going out of the RDC to a rhythm of 6.000 tons a month, thing that represents approximately 268 million dollars a month. As a miner interviewed by Global Witness assures, “ we know that the RDC is rich, but do not have nothing for meal; this wealth only benefices a few ones ”. The beneficiaries of the wealth that Katanga hides represent also companies and western multinationals. At the formal mining sector of Katanga are employed George Forrest International, a Belgian company, or Kinross Gold Corporation of Toronto, Canadian. In November 2005 there was an agreement for controlling Tenke Fungurume, the richest mine of copper of the world, that allowed the participation of the North American society Phelps Dodge, with 57,75 %, and the Canadian society Tenke Mining Corp., with a 24,75 %, whereas the Congolese Gecamines takes part with a 17,5 %.

Unsustainable consumption

The conflict of the RD of Congo confirms once again how unsustainable is the unstoppable consumption of the western countries, which goal is to increase the levels of production and financial enrichment exploiting the natural resources of the impoverished countries. The technology that we consume every day (the cell phone, the laptop, the MP3, etc.) causes many collateral damages, in the case of the RD of Congo, more than 4 million deaths.

Sources:

Global Witness. www.globalwitness.org

Revista Mundo Negro. www.mundonegro.com

Red de prensa no alineados Voltairenet. www.voltairenet.org/es