ZAIRE-ECONOMY: Rebels Seek Total Control Over Mining Fields

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Dec 30 1996 (IPS) - Foreign companies that have abandoned mining fields in the wake of fighting in the eastern part of the country have been given until early January by the rebels to reclaim their fields or risk losing their investment.

The rebels, known as the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL), are seeking to benefit from the mineral wealth in the area.

They have demanded that foreign mining companies negotiate with and pay taxes directly to them, bypassing the government in Kinshasa.

So far, the rebels control several thousand square kilometres of land in the goldmining concession of the Societe Miniere du Kivu in the troubled east of Zaire.

This “rebel-held” territory, located on the border with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, is said to contain a total gold reserve worth an estimated 1.5 billion U.S.dollars.

Laurent-Desire Kabila, leader of the rebel forces in eastern Zaire, has given the companies until Jan. 3 to resume activities in the “liberated zones” or risk losing their licences.

He told journalists last week in Goma, a Zairean town on the border with Rwanda, that the “Americans, Belgians, Germans and French” who fled the mining fields should deal directly with the AFDL.

“They should contact us immediately or we shall call in other investors,” he warned.

If the government loses total control over the revenue which is generated by mining in the rebel-held areas, this would be a serious blow to its coffers.

According to recent government statistics, mining, mineral processing and petroleum extraction accounts for about 17 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and around 60 percent of Zaire’s total export earnings.

Zaire’s reported gold production in 1995 was about 1,200 kilogrammes, according to mines minister Mutombo Bakafwa Nsenda. He said that the total would be 10 times larger if illegal production were included.

The rebels, dominated by Zairean Tutsis, have also set their eyes on Okimo, the Office des Mines d’Or de Kilo-Moto’s concession of 83,000 square kilometres, with an estimated reserve of over 100 tonnes of pure gold.

Okimo lies west of Bunia and extends to the Ituri forest, Zaire’s largest. Bunia, a town on the border with Uganda, fell to the rebels last week, according to an AFDL statement.

The rebels are also eyeing the mineral fields of Shaba and Kasai provinces. Andre Kisase Ngandu, the ADLF’s commander, comes from Kasai.

Kasai produces about 98 percent of Zaire’s diamonds. Until 1986, Zaire was the world’s leading producer of industrial diamonds before it was overtaken by Australia. Diamonds made up 47 percent of Zaire’s exports in 1995, with a value of 1.5 U.S. billion dollars.

And in neighbouring Shaba province, on the border with Zambia, cobalt has catapulted Zaire to the position of being the world’s leading producer.

Since the country attained independence from Belgium in 1960, both Kasai and Shaba provinces have been the hotbeds of secessionist movements. But President Mobutu Sese Seko, who has been in power since 1966, succeeded in putting down these rebellions by calling in foreign mercenaries.

Kabila, a veteran of some of the secessionist rebellions, says the ADLF is attempting to persuade the people in Kasai and Shaba to join the rebellion.

In November, Zaire’s government sent over 1000 soldiers of the presidential elite guard to protect the mines around Kolwezi in the Shaba province. The troops have reinforced “a group of South African ex-soldiers” recruited to protect the strategic zone.

The ADLF, which took up arms in October, is fighting to introduce multi-party democracy in Zaire and combat corruption, Kabila says.

President Mobutu has more than four billion U.S. dollars in bank accounts in Switzerland, according to recent Swiss media reports. The Zairean leader, who returned home mid-December from Europe following treatment for prostrate cancer, has been accused for years of siphoning off funds from government coffers for his personal use.

Zaire, with a population of about 40 million, lacks basic infrastructure — road, rail and river transport and telecommunications — and the majority of its people live in abject poverty.

In 1995, the external debt stood at about 10 billion U.S. dollars, of which nine billion was long-term public debt. In February 1994, the World Bank closed its office in the capital, Kinshasa, and in June 1994, Zaire was suspended from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for non-payment of arrears.

The government said in August that the IMF was ready to resume co-operation. But there was no word from a Fund team which visited Zaire in November to take the economic temperature of the troubled Central African state.