The ‘illegal’ arms trade in
DRC – do we really want it to end?
May 2006
“Let us choose to unite the power of markets
with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the creative
forces of private entrepreneurship with the needs of the disadvantaged and the
requirements of future generations.”
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations
The Global Compact, Corporate Leadership in the World
Economy
“Because the economic dimensions of civil war
have been largely neglected, both governments and the international community
have missed substantial opportunities for promoting peace”.
Paul Collier, former Director, Development Research Group
World Bank
Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and their Implications
for Policy
Introduction
In this essay I seek to address
unresolved issues in respect of the continued supply of weapons, particularly
light arms, into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The most logical
starting point for undertaking this study was to read the UN’s Report by
the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other
Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (UN: 2002) But
critiques of this document, particularly that by François Grignon, Project
Director, Central Africa, International Crisis Group (ICG), raise challenging
questions that need to be explored.
It is not so much that the UN report
lacks substance or credibility in what it has to say; it is more pertinent to
note that it was marred by political interference, particularly from France and
UK and that there has been a lack of implementation by any European
nations or the USA. (Grignon: 2003) I ask why this is so and attempt an
explanation. The authors of the 2002 report were subjected to political
interference by major powers on behalf of their domiciled corporations; the
report is flawed in its approach to principal offenders from wealthy developed
countries and from major transnational corporations, focusing instead on
African offenders, as François Grignon explains, as she describes the way in
which France and Britain got their way through a process Thomas Pogge calls
“jurying.” (Pogge: 2006)
My proposition is that conflicts generate opportunistic
economies that replicate in places other than the original seat of instability,
driven by supply and demand and promoted by the ideology of neo liberal
economics. The same market forces that drive all commercial transactions
motivate those who have weapons to sell. Furthermore, they will find a way to
conduct their business, whatever impediments; trade embargoes and blockades are
put in their way. If profits are high – the risk is worthwhile.
In this essay I use of the term ‘human security’ as
developed by the UN, in preference to the problematic and poorly defined term
‘security’ that is in common usage. The Commission on Human Security, which
concluded its activities on 31 May 2003, recognises the importance of feeling
safe, unthreatened and ‘free of want’ in a complex and interdependent world.
(UN: 2003) http://www.humansecurity-chs.org/ Military
solutions should be reserved for ‘last resort’ situations, which without doubt
includes the role of MONUK as peacekeepers in Eastern DRC. The ‘Human Security’
of vulnerable civilian populations is often diminished by the presence of
weapons, rather than improved. Only legitimate governments that have the
confidence of civilians and well disciplined personnel can be entrusted with
the ‘management of violence’. In saying this I am aware that these conditions
are rarely met.
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 Women, Peace and
Security 31 October 2000, http://www.un.org/events/res_1325e.pdf
In a globalising world, driven by the liberal economic
paradigm, it is impossible to close borders, to limit trade, to forbid the sale
or supply of weapons, or to prevent gross exploitation or to protect human
rights. The manufacturers of weapons are known collectively as ‘defence
industries’. Trade in all products; commodities and services are considered to
be free of any ‘moral value’ in the liberal ethos. In this scenario it becomes
problematic to discuss “illegal” arms. Major arms manufacturers never mention
on their web sites that their products kill people. I offer Raytheon as an
example of this. (Raytheon: 2006) Weapons traders cannot be judged for the harm
their products might do any more than the makers of junk food. These activities
are as normal as any branch of business.
“We at Raytheon are proud of our reputation for
excellence, a reputation based on our commitment to the highest ethical standards”.
http://www.raytheon.com/about/
The five permanent members of the UN Security
Council, charged with the responsibility of maintaining world peace, are
responsible for 80% of arms sales around the world. (AI & Oxfam: 2003) Key
nations refuse to sign treaties to ban the sale of weapons like cluster bombs
and land mines. Major corporations have legalistic and unenforceable Codes
of Social and Environmental Responsibility.
Even where these codes of conduct exist they are
voluntary and enforcement is intentionally inadequate. An intention to enforce
infers that there is a budget to facilitate enforcement activity. Neo liberal
belief in ‘small government’ leads to non-enforcement or voluntary
self-regulation. Commercial imperatives oblige corporations to ‘push the
envelope’ and this includes the so-called ‘End-user Certificate’ for weapons
sales. There is also a marked reluctance in the wealthy developed nations to
investigate or prosecute named offenders, corporations and individuals who were
mentioned in successive UN reports on the conflict in DRC. It is not good for
the export drive, or the quest for resource security, as I will discuss
further.
I acknowledge too, that Realist grand strategy, resource
security anxieties, as well as the ‘War on Terror’ all play their own
secretive, contradictory and paradoxical parts. The evidence suggests that the
ending of the Cold War ‘liberated’ huge stockpiles of weapons and that the ‘War
on Terror’ has provided governments with a rationale for disseminating more
weapons to ‘friendly’ regimes and to informal ‘partners-of-convenience’, with
the attendant risk of ‘leakage’ of these weapons to ‘unforeseen’ end-users. It
will only be possible in this essay to examine particular aspects and the roles
of several of the major parties, which will serve to illustrate the utility of
my proposition. In discussing the conflict in DRC, I will focus on the roles of
the UN, USA, UK and Uganda, but state very firmly that Rwanda, Zimbabwe,
Belgium, France, China and many others play similar roles in perpetuating this
conflict.
I have purposely set out to situate the conflict in DRC
in the context of world events and the dominant paradigm of our time, neo
liberal economics. By refusing to isolate the war from its externalities in
this way I hope to provide a clearer and more holistic analysis of the
underlying problems whilst rendering full acknowledgement to the part played by
the wealthy nations of the world. I acknowledge the effects of the ending of
the Cold War, the liberal economic imperatives, globalisation, privatisation,
deregulation and the integration of the military industrial complex in the
domestic economy of nations, which all play roles in the flow of weapons into
conflict zones and the flow of resources out. I intend to start many arguments
that others will want to dispute and test.
The conflict in the DRC
The conflict in the DRC has been
seldom reported in the mainstream Western media, although academics,
journalists and NGO investigators have written extensively about the
devastating effects of this war on an impoverished, though resource-rich
country and its population. There are numerous estimates of fatalities from the
war and diseases that resulted from the economic and social disintegration.
These range from 3.5 million to 4.7 million between 1998 and 2005. Displaced
civilians are estimated in millions and refugees seeking protection in
surrounding countries over one million. This is clearly a major
humanitarian disaster and a major conflict in global terms.
This conflict in the Eastern
provinces of DRC exemplifies what constitutes a war in Africa and exposes the
economic drivers that generally underpin wars. If Ituri Province, North
and South Kivu and Katanga Provinces can be described as ‘war lord economies’
then we should also examine the ‘war economies’ of major nations whose
‘military-industrial complex’ plays a significant role in their general economy
and in the nation’s political life. The parallel has seldom been clearly drawn
in academic studies of the conflict in DRC. This is one of the reasons why no
one has found a solution to ‘illegal arms supply’ that would serve as a
universal template.
Some efforts are being made to
address the weapons and resources issues, but rarely is the option of
less resource-dependent, more conserving lifestyles in the developed world
considered as an option. Ted Trainer argues that affluent lifestyles with
inherently high demand for an inequitable proportion of the earth’s resources
inevitably lead to conflict. (Trainer:
2002) This argument complements points made by Thomas Pogge, who argues for a
moral responsibility for the way the wealthy world impacts on the majority of
the world’s people. Thomas Pogge illustrates this with the example of France’s
supply of weapons to Rwanda shortly before the genocide and then insisted on
debt repayment from the post-genocide government. (Pogge: 2006)
The conflict economy, as seen in the DRC, and the
surrounding ‘bad neighbourhood’, creates opportunities to re-distribute weapons
in exchange for anything that is portable and of value. Such weapons, like
those sent by agents of the US government, for example, to the former Sudanese
Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) leader, John Garang, in Southern Sudan, which
are then traded on the Ugandan border north of Kitgum with the Karamojong
nomadic pastoralists, officers of the Ugandan Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF)
and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) headed by Joseph Koney and Vincent Otti.
The weapons are then available to be infiltrated to
militias in Ituri Province, DRC, to allies or clients of the UPDF. During the
course of 2005-2006 persistent reports in Ugandan newspapers and from MONUK say
that the LRA has also relocated one commander, Vincent Otti, and his force of
abducted child soldiers into the Garamba National Park in DRC. This is a most
unwelcome complication for the DRC conflict, offering an excuse for the Ugandan
government to enter DRC in hot pursuit in defiance of UN Security Council
resolutions. The supply of weapons by Uganda’s army through the airfield near
Bunia is routine and well documented.
The campaign to control the arms trade
Amnesty International and Oxfam
UK have jointly produced a campaign and the excellent web site Control
Arms and the book Shattered lives the case for tough
international arms control. (AI & Oxfam: 2003) The campaign
documents where weapons are coming from, explains how the trade operates and
names some of the trading entities. The premise for the campaign is that the
problem can be meaningfully ‘fixed’ by setting up more stringent rules for
weapons trading.
Yet, as I will show, the Treaty on
Small Arms, now belatedly gaining momentum, will not do enough to deter
traders whose profits are high and who are currently able to operate with
virtual impunity. There needs to be determined and sustained enforcement of the
treaty with a substantial budget and robust rules of engagement. The treaty,
though desperately needed, is not comprehensive. It has only been a hard-fought
first step. A further weakness, I believe, is the unresolved issue of the
manufacture, sale and use of anti-personnel land mines and other weapons that
have devastating effects on the post-conflict resettlement of civilians for
many years after the conflict.
I would also mention two
excellent films on these subjects that were shown in late 2005. Hubert Sauper’s
2004 film Darwin’s Nightmare is a documentary that shows the
routinisation of weapons supplies from Europe arriving at the Tanzanian port of
Mwanza, on the shores of Lake Victoria. Russian Illyushin 76 transport planes
arrive to lift 55 - 500 tons of Nile perch, supplied to EU nations on a daily
basis. The film also demonstrates that the presence of a modern export industry
and a few poorly paid jobs still leaves most inhabitants of the town of Mwanza
and surrounding areas so desperately impoverished that they cannot afford to
eat the fish themselves. The weapons were for destinations in Angola and DRC. http://www.darwinsnightmare.com/
The other film was shown as an AI fundraiser for the
Control Arms campaign. Andrew Niccol’s Lord of War, starring
Nicholas Cage, charts the career of a Ukrainian American, Yuri Orlov, who
becomes a major arms supplier to (unnamed) African despots (one probably being
Charles Taylor). Although the story is fictionalised the film accurately
portrays the machinery of the business. A diligent American Interpol
law-enforcement officer hunts Cage around the world, only to find that the
trader is released on the orders of his superiors, as Cage is ‘useful’ to the
US government in some of its covert dealings. http://www.amnestyusa.org/lordofwar/
Treaties and agreements
The Treaty on Small Arms
The Equator Principles
The Kimberley Process
United Nations is not held in
respect
In a global strategic environment in which the United
Nations is not held in respect and finds its role challenged and obstructed by
major powers, especially the USA, it is critically important that the UN, i.e.
MONUK, must succeed in the peacekeeping role the organisation has undertaken in
the DRC. Furthermore, considerable UN resources have been invested in DRC
maintaining MONUK, the largest peacekeeping force anywhere in the world, and
the task of registering voters and supervising, hopefully, free and fair
elections, all represent major expenditure commitments on the part of the world
community of nations. (Bellamy, Williams & Griffin: 2004; Paris: 2004) Yet there is little political will on the
part of these same nations to seek lasting solutions, especially if these may
inflict some economic costs on their own peoples.
MONUK is undertaking a high-risk
operation. The peacekeeping includes war fighting in collaboration with
President Joseph Kabila’s notoriously ill-disciplined army. The situation
compromises MONUK in several ways. They could appear to be reinforcing the
status quo, by working with the DRC army, which has committed numerous
atrocities, and now has former rebels serving in its ranks, who had been
disarmed by MONUK. MONUK’s apparent support for the Kabila government could
give the appearance of legitimising a government that came to power through the
use of force, practises systemic corruption and human rights abuses. Perception
management among a frightened and suspicious civilian population is especially
difficult, especially as wealthy donor nations’ aid contributes to Kabila
government viability.
The elections could still lead to
a renewal of fighting if the outcome fails to please all stakeholders, even if
they are deemed ‘free and fair’ by international observers. While fighting is
still taking place it is arguable that the pending elections may yet prove to
have been premature, although early elections are a specific prescription and
article of faith for some post-conflict reconstruction practitioners. (Paris:
2004) The UN has undertaken the organisation of these elections in spite of
insecure conditions and weak government institutions. This is a task fraught
with risk, including the security of polling booths, election officers,
observers and voters. There is also the risk that, in spite of the expected
high voter turnout, some factions will not be happy with the result and will
return to fighting. Disarmed fighters will have little problem finding fresh
supplies of weapons.
Demand for resources drives
the economic activities in the developing world
Exploration, mining, resource extraction and/or logging
all require large sums in start-up and working capital and usually benefit from
the advanced technology of the developed world. Industries need land, which
generally belongs to indigenous or long-settled people, who are dispossessed
and become displaced. Traditional cultures and lifestyles are not always
compatible with industrial life. These people often own this land communally or
through traditional custom and have difficulties in substantiating their legal
title, as land tenure is informal and poorly documented.
The new industries need labour and security, since the
application of a great deal of physical labour is required. Security is needed,
as the value of the plant and products is substantially greater than
traditional forms of wealth. Resentment is caused by this typical sequence of
events and by the process of repatriation of profits, with little benefit to
local communities. In his 2005 lecture, Tarcissius Kabutaulaka demonstrated
that these phenomena are seen in many regions of the world, calling Melanesia
“the Africa of the Pacific”. (Kabutaulaka: 2005) He could also have described
Aceh before the 2004 Tsunami, for example, as ‘the Congo of the Pacific’.
Many of the world’s resource-rich
regions are sites of extreme poverty and deprivation, as weak and corrupt
governments and their military elites accept/extort
commissions/bribes/facilitations from foreign corporations and keep the money
for their own selfish short-term use. Schools, vocational training, clean
drinking water and modern medical care are conspicuously absent from their
agendas. After years of producing a major share of the world’s oil, Nigeria
remains predominantly impoverished and under-developed with crumbling
infrastructure and no plans for a near future when oil production dwindles and
revenues collapse.
The same can be said in many
other cases. Conflict has resulted from resource extraction, land ownership
issues, ethnic/tribal ‘favouritism’ and environmental impacts and will probably
emanate from the eventual inevitable collapse of these industries, unless
sustainable replacement industries are established and old grievances
settled. In Eastern DRC, where land
titles and mining permits did exist prior to 1998, officers of the
Rwandan and Ugandan armies demanded these be given to them at gunpoint.
The suppliers of weapons are
attracted to such zones of insecurity and conflict, where there is competition
for resources and where they can average down transportation costs by
‘back-loading’ the products of extractive industries in the same vehicles,
aeroplanes or ships. Conflict in the developing world is driven partly or
wholly by demand for products in the rich developed world.
The role of the developed world
There is ubiquitous
consumer-driven demand for the products of strategic rare minerals like coltan
found in DRC. This resource demand enmeshes hundreds of international
companies, some of these household names, in the supply-chain of conflict
resources. “Don’t ask-don’t tell” is a convenient substitute for compliance
with rules like the Equator Principles or the Kimberley Process.(zzz) Consumers
need to acknowledge the contributory role that is played by their demand for
resources and their lack of awareness on origin of ‘conflict goods’ or our role
as suppliers of arms. Tantalum, extracted from coltan, is used in mobile
phones, lap top computers, missile systems jet aircraft and in the mesh that is
inserted into the bodies of people who can afford hernia operations. I include
myself in this and only discovered the composition of the mesh after my hernia
operation.
For most inhabitants of the
developed world there is a distinct disengagement with issues of empathy with
people in distant countries with whom they do not identify. This may also
explain why the media, particularly entertainment oriented commercial media,
also pays so little attention to conflict in places like the DRC. At the same
time they ignore conflict in Africa there is a war in Afghanistan and later
Iraq in which military personnel from their own country are combatants.
Setting standards for business
A number of organisations,
including the UN, OECD and those like Lifeworth, UK and Transparency
International campaign for the introduction of universal standards for
corporate governance and social/environmental responsibility. Whilst I support
these efforts, and believe that these standards must be in place, it must be
acknowledged that such rules will always be weaker than the drive for profits
and shareholder interests. Although such restrictions are urgently needed, they
run counter to the spirit of free enterprise and deregulation and require
robust enforcement (Molander: 1987) Australian companies, like Anvil Mining in
Katanga Province, DRC, Woodside Petroleum in Mauritania and AWB in Iraq
demonstrate that these corporations, and others like them, have a strong
incentive and a willingness to routinely pay bribes “as part of doing
business”.
Yet this willingness to pay
bribes is a two-edged matter. The corporation may get the business, but they
also create an expectation that they will always do this. Asian business people
are known for their willingness to pay bribes and kidnap ransoms, so they are
always asked. American business people can be prosecuted in the USA for bribing
officials. So, corrupt officials are wary and do not always ask for bribes.
I would include in this
assessment of the impact of the developed world a reminder of the Millennium
Development Goals that are not being met by most of the developed world. Then
there are the ‘odious loans’ by the IMF and World Bank, which were a gift from
wealthy nations to client dictators, like Mobutu Sese Seko President of the
former Zaire, now DRC. Hopeless indebtedness helps to make a convincing
argument for Structural Adjustment Programmes, cutbacks to social investment
and ‘fire-sale’ privatisations. These prescriptions have often had detrimental
effects on developing countries. The ‘aid industry’, in its role as aid
providers and implementation partners, distorts local economies and often delivers
aid for poorly researched out-of-scale projects into the hands of corrupt
officials.
Military aid, like that given
to the Museveni government in Uganda, by the USA and UK ignores the illegal
incursions into the DRC as well as torture and extra-judicial killing. (Frank
Nyakairu: 2006; US State Department 1999) Military aid has a tendency to
entrench unhealthy co-dependent, neopatrimonial relationships between insecure
dictators and entrepreneurial military officers, especially when family,
kinship and tribal connections are contributory factors. Lt General Salim
Saleh, half brother to President Museveni and Major General James Kazini,
former ‘Historical’ and Army Commander are both listed as major war criminals
in the three successive UN reports on the plundering of the DRC. The powerful
aid donors that control three-quarters of Uganda’s budget make no attempt to
persuade the government to send these people to the ICC in The Hague.
Whilst the UN is trying to
feed the hungry of the world, Secretary General, Kofi Annan is also
advocating for the same neo liberal values and economic prescriptions that
jeopardise all efforts to achieve sustainable and equitable development and
genuinely end poverty. Much of the UN’s work is very commendable but is made
more difficult by member states that do not contribute as much as they promise
at donor conferences. UNHCR sets the standards for dealing with refugees; UN
OCHA carries out vital humanitarian work; WFP feeds some of the hungry, when
they have the food and when they can gain access to conflict areas. But the IMF
and World Bank, with their disastrous out of scale big projects and odious
loans to some of the world’s worst dictators are also part of the UN. Even the
UNDP’s Millennium Goals are permeated with neo liberal terminology.
Supplying the weapons
The supply chain for military hardware also has
particular functions in source-countries, which governments come to regard as
indispensable. Defence industries, as they are known, are beneficial for
employment creation. Privatisation and mainstreaming of weapons manufacture and
the manipulation of political processes all make contributions to the economy.
They are export-oriented growth industries. Little thought is given to their
contribution to making the world a more insecure place. Weapons manufacturers
like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems create highly skilled and
well-paid workforces and contented constituents help get political
representatives re-elected.
These industries also affect the way these representatives
vote, the decisions they make and become an ongoing conflict of interest
through lobbying and corporate funding of political campaigns. The promotion of
these industries in export drives, with government incentives; skilful
marketing and trade exhibitions are encouraged by governments. These
deregulated private corporations engaged in the ‘defence industry’ are part of
the free trade and globalisation paradigm. Exports help to balance trade
deficits. It is all in the (perceived) national interest. St John Kettle
describes these benefits in his study Australia’s Arms Exports.
Though Kettle is a Quaker, he advances liberal economic arguments in support of
Australian arms manufactures. (Kettle: 1987)
In an increasingly high technology society the ‘defence
industries’ have become integral to the civilian economy, with civilian
applications for a number of their products and extensive links with the
research community, think tanks and academia. Computers and software often have
both civilian and military applications. (Hooker (1), (2) & (3): 2005;
Wikipedia: 2006) In the USA the major defence contractors also fund policy
think tanks; Rand Corporation is an example of this. (US Department of State:
2002) The British corporation Reed Elsevier that organises military equipment
expositions also publishes several academic journals. (Esposito: 2004)
Foreign policy objectives, which
are closely kept secrets, play a major role in the movement of weapons. I
endorse the view that developed countries with democratic institutions and
educated electorates have less need for secrecy in their foreign policy. Kate
Burton’s studies of DFAT secrecy in Australia illustrate this point well.
(Burton: 2005)
We will wait an interminable
period of time for document declassifications to discover why the USA sold more
weapons in 1998 and 1999 to the dictators of Uganda and Zimbabwe after these
governments illegally sent their armies into the sovereign territory of the DRC
without any provocation. (US State Department: 1999) The US government has also
allowed Kalashnikovs to be sent from Bosnia to Iraq, where their end-users are
not clearly identified and where these people are very likely to be pointing
these weapons at American soldiers. (Traynor: 2006)
# Realist IR conventional
wisdom is that the Cold War maintained forty-four years of relative peace –
but the Cold War was also a period when many proxy wars were fought and
numerous covert actions. For the purpose of this essay I have not dealt with
the stockpiling and proliferation of nuclear weapons. William Blum and Zoltan
Grossman have both complied lists of military interventions carried out by the
USA. (Blum: 1999; Grossman: 1999) These stockpiles and transportations
of weapons by both sides in the Cold War have left the world with huge
quantities of surplus weapons from both the former East bloc and the NATO
allies. Additionally, the collapse of the Soviet empire led to a breakdown of
governance and disintegration of armed forces in the East bloc and to a huge sell
off of surplus arms to private traders (as enacted in the film Lord of
War). The hypothesis that the Cold War was ‘won’ and that this would
lead to peace has proven to be misplaced optimism. Furthermore, every conflict
leaves behind thousands of weapons that can be recycled to be used again in
another place or another context. The 2003 war against Iraq will not be an
exception.
The UN Report
The most logical task in this
study was to read the UN’s Report by the Panel of Experts on the Illegal
Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic
Republic of Congo and ask the questions that F G asked regarding the
political agendas, the limited objectives and the lack of political will that
signify this and the other UN reports. It is possible to make connections
between the pressures to limit the scope of the enquiry, mainly by Britain and
France, and the lack of any action to arrest war profiteers, arms dealers and
recipients of conflict minerals in any European jurisdiction. It is also
necessary to understand that these nations are also among the top five weapons
traders in the world.
“At this early stage, the organisers of the
International Conference have given no indication that they will put the issue
of illegal exploitation of resources on their agenda and the methodology
adopted for the Conference is unlikely to allow it. Key culprit states will
most definitely oppose it. Moreover, neither the UN nor the international
community at large enjoys sufficient moral credibility to dictate to regional
countries the inscription of the exploitation of resources on the agenda of the
Conference. The publication of the last panel report was surrounded by
controversy, as Security Council members rushed to exonerate their national
companies of any wrongdoing and have their names removed from the public
documents.10”
Grignon: 2003)
As she further comments:
“Yet, for the international community to take the moral high ground
towards its African friends, it would need to exert maximum pressure on its own
companies to at least respect the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) guidelines on economic activities in conflict zones and
develop its own legal framework for the prosecution of white collar crimes by
its nationals in African countries. The regulation of resource exploitation in
the Congo is a shared responsibility. It is for the Congolese themselves, their
regional neighbours and their western friends to take their responsibilities
and find the necessary partnership that will promote win-win economic
situations in the region. Unfortunately, if donor countries refuse to take the
lead in this respect and to establish more even-handed policies that will place
the interests of the Great Lakes populations before those of their leaders,
this is unlikely to
take place”.
(Ibid: 2003) 267
France in particular, did not
want non-Africans tried for war crimes in relation to activities in the DRC.
The UN report should focus on African war criminals.
The Lubanga case follows this
pattern. (ICC: 2006?) Much has been written about war crimes committed
by various parties to the conflict, and at last one militia leader, Thomas
Lubanga Dyilo has been arrested to appear before the International Criminal
Court (ICC) in The Hague. Yet many others repeatedly named in UN reports,
guilty of supplying weapons and forcibly ‘recruiting’ children to be trained as
combatants and other war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been allowed
to retain their proceeds of crime and their passports and are not under threat
of arrest.
Major General James Kazini,
former Army Commander, UPDF
Child-soldiers.org, November 2004
http://www.child-soldiers.org/document_get.php?id=801
http://www.child-soldiers.org/document_get.php?id=801
“Neither Rwanda nor Uganda have seen the direct
budget support delivered by the European Commission or the UK threatened
because of their active involvement in the exploitation of resources in the
DRC”.
(Grignon: 2003) 34
Victor Bout has numerous mentions
in the UN reports and may have been one of the dealers who were developed into
the Orlov character in Lord of War. Amnesty International has
focused studies of his activities and the way these relate to other actors.
“In a detailed study,
Amnesty International reveals the role played by arms dealers, brokers and
transporters from many countries including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Israel, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, the UK and USA.
The study traces the supply of weapons and ammunition to the governments of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda and their subsequent
distribution to armed groups and militia in the eastern DRC that have been
involved in atrocities amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Millions have already lost their lives during seven
years of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Armed men are still
raping, looting and killing civilians – as arms deliveries continue. If the
international community, the UN and neighbouring states fail to halt this
proliferation, the fragile peace process will collapse with disastrous
consequences for human rights," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of
Amnesty International's Africa Program.
The new report, Democratic
Republic of Congo: Arming the east, documents evidence that during the
entire peace process in the DRC, military aid has been provided from agents
close to the Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC governments to armed groups and militia
in eastern DRC. The report also provides evidence of the continuing role of
Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout and his close associates, using local
operators, who have secretly armed all sides in the DRC conflict”.
Amnesty International, 5
July 2005, News Service No 178
Democratic Republic of
Congo: Illegal arms exports fuelling killings, mass rape and torture 249
Background
#The long-running war
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been much studied and
described by UN agencies, academics, human rights organisations and NGOs. The
conflict has been debated in the British Parliament and other European
parliaments concerned with the large number of casualties and the refugee flows
to neighbouring countries. Some of these debates have concerned the influx of
weapons into the region, keeping the conflict supplied with the modern,
efficient means of killing.
Various estimates claim that
between 3.5 and 4.7 million people have been killed or have died from
preventable diseases, as a result of the conflict in the DRC. Large numbers of
people have dispersed into surrounding countries as refugees or are internally
displaced by the conflict and resultant insecurity. Civilians have been
targeted by all combatants, and women and children are most severely impacted.
Entire districts have been laid to waste. Every superlative applies to the
devastation, the carnage, and the scale of civilian casualties. This war, which
began in 1998, has been described as “Africa’s world war”, due to the
complexity of this conflict, and the roles of numerous stakeholders, the
shifting and sometimes reversing alliances and the number of neighbouring
nations’ armies participating in the conflict.
#Conflict is incompatible with
development of social infrastructure and a functioning economy.
- Large refugee flows destabilise neighbouring countries, creating ‘bad neighbourhoods’.
- Conflict destroys the social structure, governance, civil society, environment and economy of conflict-involved countries.
- Conflict in poor countries increases the risk of return to conflict following peace settlements – usually because mediators inadequately address socio-economic issues. The causes of conflict remain unresolved.
#The weapons, ammunition
and military equipment necessary for the continuation of the fighting have
almost unfailingly reached the various combatants through various means of
delivery, often involving weapons recycled from the East Bloc’s Cold War
stockpiles, Western military aid, both official and clandestine and military
officers from nations with which Western nations have the closest military
co-operation. UN Security Council – five permanent members are biggest weapons
sellers with 80% of all sales. Other nations trade in the same manner with
relative impunity.
# Global military expenditure
and arms trade form the largest spending in the world at over $950 billion in annual expenditure,
as noted by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SPIRI:
2003),
# Key UNSC permanent members are
partly responsible for many of the world’s conflicts. They are also non
signatories to key Conventions, including provisions against nuclear, chemical,
biological weapons, missile-systems, land mines, treatment of prisoners,
torture, trials of war criminals etc.
#All of these powerful nation
states have supplied weapons to other governments and other parties whilst
these parties are engaged, sometimes as proxies, in conflict, often aggression
against neighbouring nation states. Support for dictators, engineering of coup
d'états, sponsorship of assassinations, terrorist acts, death squads and rebel
groups have also generated arms donations and sales. These activities undermine
respect and legitimacy for international law, international institutions and
the UN. Human security and stability of governance are also diminished.
# Technological advances
create obsolescence for existing arms stockpiles. It becomes profitable, and a
powerful diplomatic tool, to sell these weapons to selected nation state allies
and to less formal actors, often through private traders with end user
certificates that are likely to be dubious. ‘Official’ wars always leave behind
large quantities of weapons that can be recycled to other ‘tasks’. The liberal
economic model makes this trade legitimate.
# The fine line between legal and illegal arms sales
is the existence of an ‘End User Certificate’, which is easily falsified or
circumvented. Arms traders can sometimes work for governments and at other
times independently, enabling them to act with impunity. Back loading is a
logical strategy for traders to reduce transport costs. This was well portrayed
in the recent film ‘Lord of War’ starring Nicholas Cage.
# Demand
for resources and products from the developing world are an inevitable outcome
of the affluent consumer lifestyle of the developed world. I have an annex
listing the uses of tantalum that includes mesh used to support hernia
operations (such as the one I had in early February 2006). If we are not
inclined to ask where materials are from or wonder why they are so cheap we are
part of the problem of the conflicts generated by globalisation.
#I have drawn from
impeccable sources, the United Nations, business and academia, but also from a
range of nationalities, including African researchers, women and from a range
of countries which have high technology industries. I have also included
references from radical politics, where their clear, polemic message cuts
through the obfuscation and diplomatic ‘weasel words’ often required for other
writers.
Main
List of Regulatory
instruments:
OECD – UK National Contact Point,
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) (Robert Box)
World Bank
UNDP Millennium Goals, Human
Development Index
Equator Principles
Kimberley Process – diamonds
Transparency International
Treaty on Small Arms
More
Conclusion
UN Reports – critiques, interference, omission
Proposition
Human security – definitions
Neo liberal economics
UNSC
Realist ‘grand strategy’
‘War on terror’ – ‘partners of convenience’
Holistic approach
Consumerism vs moral obligations to the world’s poor
Conflict economy – ‘bad neighbourhoods’
Weapons supply
** supply of soldiers
Campaign to control the arms trade
UN not held in respect
MONUK
Demand for resources
Role of the developed world
Setting standards for business
Military aid
UN feeding a hungry world
Supplying the weapons (from the 1st world)
To quote from their website,
‘Thales people around the world are committed to making your high-tech world a
safer place and your future more secure.’ Tell that to the people in Iraq and
Darfur.
ADI is Australia’s leading defence,
engineering and systems contractor. It has annual sales of AUD$700 million and
employs about 2500 people. Among a host of military products (including ground,
maritime and air systems), ADI manufactures rifle and small-arms ammunition,
grenades, bombs, anti-missile shells, demolition charges, propellants,
explosives, chemicals and missile warheads. It also produces reliable handcuffs
and stun guns.
And
The Managing Director of ADI is one Lucio Di Bartolomeo (also Director of Thales Australia). Lucio is a qualified civil engineer, an Australian citizen and he has three children. Chris Jenkins is Director of Operations and enjoys sailing, the beach and time with his family, Mary-Lou and son, Tom. Kerry Irwin is Director of Human Resources, and her personal interests include horses, reading, skiing and tennis. Darryl Page is Director of Land-Ordnance (which includes the manufacture of ammunition, small-arms weapons, bombs, handcuffs and demolition devices). He enjoys fishing, fine food and the family. Alan Ball is Director of Finance. From the UK, he recently became an Australian citizen and his interests include golf, soccer, kayaking and relaxing with his family.
Thus, ADI is in the hands of upright, hard-working, family-orientated, sports-loving people.
ADI is very much concerned with ethics. They deliver ‘maximum shareholder value.’ They say that ‘doing business demands ethical behaviour.’ And they care for the environment. Their statement on ethics does not include anything about manufacturing products that kill and maim human beings.
The locals in Benalla and Mulwala have welcomed ADI’s expansion in their districts. ADI have provided employment in the area, and have put Benalla and Mulwala ‘on the map.’ ADI Bendigo (Victoria) has helped raise over $13,000 as part of the town’s campaign to help Leanne Galtieri in her courageous fight against breast cancer. At the Bendigo plant, ADI manufactures mounts for machine guns and medium-calibre guns for British Aerospace.
ADI has strong affiliations with the CSIRO and leading
tertiary institutions. Notable partners include Lockheed Martin, General
Electric, Raytheon, BAE Systems and Steyr Mannlicher — all large arms manufacturers.
ADI is an expert in major gun systems.
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African names have not been re-ordered, due to ambiguity of
‘surnames’
I have left annotations in for additional information, as
this will assist readers making a choice in detail required.
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globalization was practiced then) to the current destruction observed in the
DRC, in Africa, in the USA and many other places on the planet, we can learn
more quickly from our specific histories if we approach them from a perspective
which reveals the similarities: the search for resources be they slaves,
rubber, diamonds, coltan, oil, timber, water or uranium shall always trigger
conflicts. Conflicts and wars of conquest will erupt in order to access
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“A UN panel of experts
investigated trade by European companies in DRC coltan, but the Security
Council last year declined to take action. "European countries have a
special responsibility, they must take emergency initiatives," he said.
"Front-line European companies such as Alcatel, Nokia and Siemens must be
certain that the coltan arriving from war zones is eliminated from their
production lines." “There is a direct link between the war in the Congo
and the coltan trade," said DRC university professor Apollinaire
Malu-Malu. The NGOs said they based their
call on studies by the London-based International Peace Information Service
(IPIS) which "demonstrated that European companies buying coltan from
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Annex A
From:
Hayes Karen,
Burge Richard, 2003?, Coltan Mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
How tantalum-using industries can commit to the reconstruction of the DRC, Fauna
& Flora International, Global e-Sustainability Initiative (UNEP &
International Telecommunication Union (GeSI) http://www.durbanprocess.net/downloads/FFIColtanReport2.pdf
accessed 18 April 2006
“The
Economics of Tantalum, 8th Edition
2.2
Uses
Tantalum
was discovered in 1802 but was not used commercially
until the next century when the metal
was
briefly employed in wire form as lamp filament before
the advent of cheap tungsten wire. The 1940s
saw
the introduction of tantalum to its key role in the production
of capacitors and demand for the metal
increased
dramatically concurrent with the 1
In 1801 a heavy black mineral discovered in America was found to
contain a new mineral, which was named ‘Columbium’. A Swedish
scientist named Eckberg, one year later, discovered an oxide
of another new element. This was very difficult to dissolve in acids
and frustrating to work with so Eckberg named it ‘Tantalum’, after
the Greek God Tantalus, for whom food and water were just out
of reach (tantalizing). In 1844, Rose discovered another element
in the Swedish mineral, which he named ‘Niobium’ after ‘Niobe’,
the daughter of Tantalus. This was found to be identical to Columbium
and, although Niobium was officially designated the correct
name by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
in 1950, arguments over which name should be used still
persist. The two elements were first separated in 1866 by taking
advantage of their differing solubilities. (Tantalum-Niobium
Study
Centre, 2001.a; U.S.Geological Survey, 2001) development
of radar and military radio communications.
Since then, its range of applications
has ballooned. Tantalum
capacitors are now found in mobile phones,
video cameras, notebook computers, pagers,
automotive electronics and playstations
where
they buffer and smooth the flow of electricity. Tantalum’s
unique capacitance allows the design of
progressively
smaller, more powerful and more reliable
electronic products. In high -performance
integrated
circuits, tantalum wafers prevent molecular
‘bleeding’ in the silicon-copper join. Tantalum
is an important addition to superalloys, particularly
those used for turbine blades for jet engines.
Tantalum carbide is added to cemented carbides
to improve the mechanical properties of metal
cutting tools. High
corrosion resistance makes tantalum an ideal material
in the fabrication of chemical process equipment,
heat exchangers, instrument protection devices,
reactor lining, laboratory ware and prosthetic
devices.
(Commerce
Resources Corp., 2001; Roskill, 1999; Roskill,
2002; Roulston, 2001; SOG, 2001.a; TIC,
2001;
U.S.Geological Survey, 2001; U.S.Geological Survey,
2003; Uganda Gold Mining Ltd., 2001)
2.3
Sources of tantalum
(a)
Mine production (58%): Mining to obtain tantalum
-bearing minerals is carried out in a variety
of
ways ranging from artisan mining of surface alluvial
deposits using pick and shovel in Cent ral
Africa,
to large-scale open-cut operations in Australia,
to underground room-and-pillar mines in
Canada.
Much of this mining is associated with tin deposits.
Mine production of hard rock tantalites has
increased
in recent years, particularly as alluvial deposits
have been worked out (Roskill, 2002).
(b)
Synthetic concentrates (9%): In the past, the tantalum
associated with tin was considered a
nuisance
and thus removed and discarded, but increased
prices in 1979/80 resulted in the excavation
of very large tonnages of tantalum bearing tin
slag from landfill in south-east Asia (TIC, 2001.a).
The tin slag is treated to form a ‘synthetic concentrate’
in which the natural ores are ‘concentrated’
to increase the percentage of Ta205
to save
on transporting huge weights of quartz or sand that
are surplus to requirements (TIC, 2002b). In 1985,
this source accounted for around 77% of 10 primary
tantalum shipments, but, due to diminishing returns
from the decreasing volume and grade of tin slag,
this percentage fell to 57% in 1990, 32% in 1995
and its current level of around 20% (Roskill, 1999;
TIC, 2002). There is also a problem with
radioactive
elements in the slag, which inhibit tantalum
recovery (Roskill, 2002).
(c)
Recycling (24%): About a quarter of tantalum production
is recycled from processors’ own internal
waste,
consumer scrap and tantalum-bearing residues.
2-5% of tantalum remains in concentrates after
chemical extraction and these residues are added
to tin slag and treated a second time to reclaim
‘internal’ scrap. ‘External’ scrap refers to tantalum
reclaimed from cemented carbides and the electronics
industry (TIC, 1996).
(d)
Stockpiles (9%): From 1952-1958, the US Government
pursued a worldwide programme of
purchasing
tantalum with the intention of encouraging
increased prospecting for and production
of columbium -tantalum ores and concentrates
(Cunningham, 1998; Uganda Gold Mining,
2001). The Defence Logistics Agency’s policy
is now to reduce the strategic national stockpile,
which it does under an annual material
disposal
plan. Producers, processors and manufacturers
also carry inventories in all forms of tantalum
intended to balance fluctuations in supply demand. Current
inventories are estimated to total over
3,000 tonnes Ta2O5 (Roskill,
2002).
Sources
of Tantalum, 2002
The
key tantalum producing countries (Roskill, 2003; Roskill,
2002; U.S.Geological Survey, 2000) are:
Australia:
The Australian firm, Sons of Gwalia (SOG)
is the world’s largest producer of tantalum,
accounting for at least 50% of global primary
supply (or 30% of total global supply) from
its Greenbushes and Wodgina mines in Western
Australia. Significant expansion is under
way. There are several other important producers
in Australia, such as Tantalum Australia.
Brazil:
Brazil is the world’s second largest producer
of tantalum after Australia with a large proportion
of its production generated by garimpeiros,
small-scale individual miners. Paranapanema’s
Pitinga mine is the largest tin producer
in the world with significant associated tantalite
extraction.
Burundi:
the tantalite deposits in Burundi are directly
related to the resources in eastern DRC and
artisanal mining has occurred since the 1930s.
Small-scale miners are now employed by COMEBU,
a joint venture between local and Belgian
organizations. It is hoped to attract investment
in order to expand production.
Canada
: Tantalum Mining Corp. (Tanco), wholly owned
by US firm Cabot Corp., produces the
majority
of Canadian tantalum at its Bernic Lake underground
mine in Manitoba. All of Tanco’s
production
is shipped to Cabot Corp. for processing.
There are also several other large producers
and numerous exploration projects but,
in general, Canada’s global market share of tantalum
production is falling.
China:
In 2001, China produced 6% of the world’s
tantalum. Only a quarter is exported, however,
and this is likely to decrease as China’s
electronics industries grow and the country
becomes a net importer. It is estimated that
China accounts for around 12% of the total world
reserves.
Democratic
Republic of the Congo: Tantalite bearing
ores occur in many areas of eastern DRC.
Much of the country’s production is by artisanal
miners under conditions described in this
report. It is estimated that the DRC may contain
significant reserves, but current political instability
and the difficulty of access have
suspended
most commercial activity.
Ethiopia:
The Ethiopian government both produces
and processes tantalite concentrates at
a plant in Kenticha. Investment is being sought
to expand operations.
Malaysia:
Production of tantalum in Malaysia is primarily
related to tin mining and slag generated
Synthetic concentrates 9% Inventories 9% Secondary material 24% Mines 58% 11 by
tin smelters, which are reducing in importance.
Nigeria:
There is considerable disparity between reports
of Nigerian tantalite production from several
companies operating in the country. The government
is seeking to control illegal production
and attract investment to increase production.
Russia:
The former Soviet Union possessed some
of the largest tantalum reserves in the world
with 98% of these in Russia. Over half these
reserves are not exploited as the industry lacks
infrastructure and development.
Rwanda:
Rwanda’s national boundaries encompass
some of the tantalite deposits that also
occur in the DRC and Burundi. Most production
is carried out by artisanal miners for the
government-owned REDEMI.
Thailand:
Columbite and tantalite are mined with cassiterite
ores along the west coast. Coupled
with
recovery from tin slag, this makes Thailand an
important producer, although its global share,
like
that of Malaysia, is falling. The main companies
involved are HC Starck (Thailand) and
Thaisarco.
Tantalum
production by country 2001
Other
countries that either have tantalum-bearing deposits
or produce tantalite are: Angola, Armenia,
Argentina,
Bolivia, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Egypt, Equatorial
Guinea, Estonia, Finland, France, French
Guiana,
Ghana, Greenland, Guyana, India, Ireland, Ivory
Coast, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Mozambique,
Namibia,
Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone,
South Africa, Spain, Uganda, Ukraine, USA,
Venezuela
and Zimbabwe (Roskill, 2002). Of these countries,
the main developments have been in:
Mozambique:
the Marropino tantalum project
is in the final stages of commissioning,
and could produce upwards of
100,000 lb per year of metal contained in tantalite.
This could become the third largest tantalite
mine in the world.
Namibia:
Camec has started mining, and has
a contract to supply 5tpm to Hong Kong.
Saudi
Arabia: Tertiary has enormous resources
and is forecast to produce 600,000
lb per year (Roskill, 2003)
Producers
of raw materials
Angus
& Ross plc
(20%
owned by Cabot who have rights to buy
50%
of its production)
UK
BEH
Minerals Sdn Bhd Malaysia
Cambior
Inc Canada
CBMM
Brazil
Commerce
Resources Corp Canada
Ethiopian
Mineral Development Enterprise Ethiopia
Haddington
International Resources Ltd Australia
Leo
Shield Exploration Ghana Ltd Australia
Malaysia
Smelting Corp Malaysia
Mamore
Mineracao e Metalurgica Ltda Brazil
Metallurg
International Resources USA
Mineracao
Catalao de Goias Ltda Brazil
New
Millennium Resources Australia
Nigerian
Mining Corp Nigeria
SA
Minerals Ltd Partnership Thailand
Sons
of Gwalia Australia
Tanco
(Tantalum Mining Corp of Canada) Canada
Tantalum
Australia Operations Pty Ltd Australia
Tertiary
Minerals plc UK
Thailand
Smelting & Refining (Thaisarco) Thailand
(Commerce
Resources, 2003; TIC, 2002; TIC, 2003)
2.4
Supply chain: traders
Traders
operate between producers and processors
as
well as between processors and manufacturers. It
has
proved difficult to estimate the scale of this
aspect
of the industry and therefore the best source
of
information is the Tantalum-Niobium International
(TIC)
Study Center’s membership list. It is
reasonable
to assume, however, that large numbers
of
traders are not members.
B r a
z i l
2 1 %
C a n
a d a
4 %
B u r u n d i
1 %
C h i n a
6
%
A
u s t r a l i a
4
1 %
D
R C
4 %
E t h
i o p i a
3 %
N i g
e r i a
4
%
M
a l a y s i a
3
%
R
w a n d a
1
%
T
h a i l a n d
1
2 %
(Roskill,
2002)
12
Tantalite
traders – TIC Members
A&M
Minerals & Metals Ltd UK
Chori
Co Ltd Japan
Di
Assets UK
Euromet
UK
Metherma
GmbH Germany
MIC
Japan Japan
Osaka
Trading Co Ltd Japan
Pacific
Ores Metals & Chemicals Ltd China
Plazaminerals
Switzerland
Sogem
Belgium
Speciality
Metals Company SA Belgium
Standard
Resources Corp USA
Trademet
Belgium
(TIC,
2003)
2.5
Supply chain: tantalum processors
The
extraction and refinement of tantalum from ore produces
the metal as a powder, which is then
processed
into wire or strip (Michaluk et al, 2000). The
primary companies involved in refining ore into
metal
are American firm Cabot Corporation, German firm
H.C.Starck (a subsidiary of Bayer) and Chinese
government
-owned firms (Michaluk et al, 2000). Again,
reference to the TIC membership, with some
additions
from Commerce Resources, helps to build a
clearer picture of the number of companies
involved
(2003).
Processors
of tantalum
AS
Silmet Estonia
Cabot
Supermetals USA
Cabot
Supermetals KK Japan
Conghua
Tantalum & Niobium China
Duoluoshan
Sapphire Rare Metal Co China
Exotech
USA
F&X
Electro-Materials Ltd China
HC
Starck – V Tech Ltd Japan
HC
Starck (Thailand) Co Ltd Thailand
HC
Starck GmbH & Co KG Germany
HC
Starck Inc USA
Juijiang
Tanbre Smelter China
King
Metallurgical Industry Co Ltd China
Metallurg
International Resources USA
Mitsui
Mining & Smelting Co Ltd Japan
NAC
Kazatomprom (Ulba Metallurgical) Kazakhstan
Ningxia
Non-ferrous Metals Smelter China
Niotan
Inc USA
NW
Inst. Non-Ferrous Metals Research China
Reading
Alloys USA
Reference
Metals Company Inc USA
Solikamsk
Magnesium Works Russia
Treibacher
Industrie AG Austria
Wah
Chang USA
WC
Heraeus GmbH Germany
ZhuZhou
Cemented Carbide Works China
(TIC,
2003)
2.6
Supply chain: end users
The
electronics industry is by far the largest
consumer
of tantalum (up to 60%), using powder,
wire
and foil in the production of electrolytic
capacitors
(Roskill, 1999; Roskill, 2002; TIC, 1998).
Applications
are widely varied and include medical
appliances
such as hearing aids and pacemakers as
well
as laptop computers, mobile phones, playstations
and
digital cameras (TIC, 2003).
Tantalum
capacitors are manufactured by a range of
different
processes and have differing applications:
Dry
electrolyte capacitors, both solid
tantalum
and tantalum chip: the cheapest, most
widely used type, which permit a high degree
of miniaturization and are found in automobile
engine management systems, computers,
cameras, VCRs and phones
Wet
electrolyte capacitors: smaller volume applications,
used in aerospace and weapons
management systems and the offshore
oil industry, becoming rare
Foil
capacitors: the least common type, used
in high voltage applications Increased
demand for capacitors has not had an equivalent
impact on general tantalum consumption as
processors have been increasing the capacitance of
tantalum powder leading to smaller units using less
metal per unit. There is some indication, however,
that this has levelled off at present (Roskill, 2002).
World
production of tantalum capacitors was estimated
at a peak of 24,000 m units in 2000. In line
with
the market trend, capacitor production fell in 2001,
rallied in 2002 and is expected to average 9-
10%
growth per year until 2005 (Roskill, 2002).
Major
tantalum capacitor manufacturers
AVX
Ltd AVX
Corp
UK
USA
Distributor
for Kyocera;
Japan
manufactures at 27
facilities
worldwide
Bourns
Inc USA Manufactures in Taiwan
Elna
Japan JV with Lelon Electronics of
Taiwan;
manufactures in
Japan
& China
Epcos
AG Germany
&
Japan
JV
between Siemens &
Matsushita;
manufactures
in
Germany, Portugal,
Czech
Rep &China
13
Fujitsu
Media
Devices
Ltd
Japan
Also has US subsidiary;
manufactures
in Japan
Hitachi
AIC Japan Manufactures in Japan
Kemet
Electronics
Corp
USA
World’s largest producer of
solid
tantalum capacitors;
manufactures
in USA &
Mexico
Matsushita
Electronic
Corp
Japan
Manufactures in Japan
NEC
Tokin Japan Manufactures in Japan &
Thailand
Nichicon
Corp Japan Also has US subsidiary;
manufactures
in Japan &
USA
Ningxia
China Manufactures in China
Nippon
Chemi-
Con
Japan
Manufactures in Japan
North
American
Capacitor
Co
USA
Manufactures in USA
Panasonic
Industrial
Partsnic
Ltd Manufactures in Korea &
Vietnam
Sanyo
Electronic
Components
Japan
Manufactures in Japan
Shenzen
Capacitors
Industrial
Ltd
China
Manufactures in China
Vishay
Intertechnology
Inc
USA
Co-operative agreement
with
China Non-Ferrous
Metals
Industry Corp;
manufactures
in USA,
Czech
Rep, France,
Germany, Israel, Mexico,
Taiwan, Japan & Portugal
(Roskill,
2002; TIC, 2003)
The
telecommunications industry is an important consumer
of tantalum capacitors, accounting for
approximately
18% of demand units, but it has not been
possible to determine how this share compares
with
other tantalum capacitor consumers (Global Sources,
2001). Tantalum capacitors support
handset
miniaturization and long battery life. Ericsson
pioneered handsets that do not use any tantalum
and the actual number of capacitors used per
handset by other manufacturers, including Motorola
and Nokia, is decreasing, though this is offset
by the increase in the global volume of handset
production. Also Global System for Mobile communications
(GSM) phones that use multi-slot transmission
and third generation (3G), which require
the high capacitance conferred by tantalum, have
triggered a resurgence in demand (Roskill, 2002).
Drivers
of growth in capacitor demand in the personal
computing market include the replacement
of
traditional monitors with LCD flat screens as well as
demand for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)
with
voice recognition and improved displays (Roskill,
2002). Mass storage units are a growth area,
as are digital cameras and video recorders. 14
Major
Information and Technology Companies
Acer
Computers, peripherals Taiwan
Affiliated
Computer
Services
Services
USA
Alltel
Telecommunications USA
America
Movil Telecommunications Mexico
Amphenol
Semiconductors USA
Anteon
International Services USA
Asustek
Computer Computers, peripherals Taiwan
AT&T
Wireless
Services
Telecommunications
USA
Automatic
Data
Processing
Services
USA
Bell
Canada
Enterprises
Telecommunications
Canada
Bellsouth
Telecommunications USA
Benchmark
Electronics
Computers,
peripherals USA
Benq
Computers, peripherals Taiwan
Canon
Computers, peripherals Japan
Casio
Computer Computers, peripherals Japan
Centurytel
Telecommunications USA
CGI
Group Services Canada
China
Mobile (HK) Telecommunications China
China
Unicom Telecommunications China
Cisco
Systems Communications
Equipment
USA
Compal
Electronics Computers, peripherals Taiwan
Dell
Computer Corp Computers, peripherals USA
Electronic
Arts Software USA
Elitegroup
Computer
Systems
Computers,
peripherals Taiwan
First
Data Corp Services USA
Fiserv
Services USA
France
Telecom Telecommunications France
Hewlett-Packard
Co Computers, peripherals USA
Hon
Hai Precisions
Ind
Co Ltd
Computers,
peripherals Taiwan
Hutchinson
Technology
Computers,
peripherals USA
IBM
Corp Services USA
Infosys
Technologies
Services
India
Intel
Semiconductors USA
Intuit
Software USA
Japan
Telecom Telecommunications Japan
KDDI
Communications
Equipment
Japan
KT
Free Tel Telecommunications Korea
Level
3
Communications
Communications
Equipment
USA
Lexmark
International
Computers,
peripherals USA
LG
Electronics Computers, peripherals Korea
Lite-on
Technology Computers, peripherals Taiwan
Logitech
International
Computers,
peripherals Switzerland
Microsoft
Software USA
Mobile
Telesystems Telecommunications Russia
MSI
Computers, peripherals Taiwan
Neopost
Communications
Equipment
France
Nextel
Communications
Telecommunications
USA
Nokia
Corp Communications
Equipment
Finland
NTT
DoCoMo Telecommunications Japan
Oracle
Corp Software USA
Orange
Telecommunications France
P
T
Telekomunikasis
Telecommunications
Indonesia
Pioneer
Computers, peripherals Japan
Qualcomm
Communications
Equipment
USA
Quanta
Computer Computers, peripherals Taiwan
Ricoh
Computers, peripherals Japan
Rodgers
Communications
Telecommunications
Canada
Samsung
Electronics
Co Ltd
Computers,
peripherals South Korea
Sandisk
Computers, peripherals USA
SAP
Software Germany
SBC
Communications
Telecommunications
USA
Seagate
Technology
Computers,
peripherals Cayman Islands
Sharp
Computers, peripherals Japan
SK
Telecom Telecommunications Korea
ST
Microelectronics Semiconductors Netherlands
Steth
Hellas
Telecomms
Telecommunications
Greece
Storage
Technology Computers, peripherals USA
Sungard
Data
Systems
Services
USA
Symantec
Software USA
Synnex
Technology
Intl.
Computers,
peripherals Taiwan
Taiwan
Semiconductor
Semiconductors
Taiwan
TDC
Telecommunications Denmark
Tele2
Telecommunications Sweden
Telecom Italia Telecommunications Italy
Telefonos de
Mexico
Telecommunications Mexico
Telenor Telecommunications Norway
Teliasonera Telecommunications Sweden
Telstra Telecommunications Australia
Telus Telecommunications Canada
TPV Technology Computers, peripherals Hong Kong
Turkcell Iletisim
Hizmetleri
Telecommunications Turkey
Unisys Services USA
Utstarcom Telecommunications USA
Verizon
Communications
Telecommunications USA
Vimpelcom Telecommunications Russia
Vodafone Group plc Telecommunications UK
Western Digital
Corp Computers, peripherals USA (Info
Tech 100 – Business Week online (biggest,
fastest growing, most profitable, best
returns) based on information supplied by
Standard & Poor’s – as of 23.05.03 not
including
distributors, some services, or internet
companies) 15
Automotive
electronic features including engine management
systems, driver monitoring devices, Global
Positioning System (GPS) navigation systems,
collision avoidance systems as well as traffic
control road-side devices will all increase demand
for tantalum capacitors (Roskill, 2002).
Other
electronic applications include surface acoustic
wave (SAW) filters, dynamic random access
memory
chips, ferro-electric memory chips, semiconductor chips
and liquid crystal displays. Key
corporations
in these fields include Mitsubishi Materials, Fujitsu Media devices, Epcos, Texas
Instruments,
Applied Materials Inc., Samsung, NEC, Hitachi,
Toshiba, Matsushita, and Advanced Micro
Devices
(Roskill, 2002).
Tantalum
is increasingly used as an additive in a variety
of alloys where its properties of heat and corrosion
resistance are of particular value. Superalloys
are designed for use at temperatures >800oC
where tensile, thermal shock and vibratory resistance
are encountered.
Major
superalloy manufacturers & their product
brand
names
Allegheny
Teledyne Inc USA
Aubert
et Duval France
Cannon-Muskegon
Corp USA CM
Carpenter
Technology
Corp
USA
Pyromet
Changcheng
Special Steel
Works
China
Daido
Steel Japan
Electrometal
Brazil
Electrostal
CIS
Firth
Rixon Glossop UK
Foroni
Italy
General
Electric USA Rene
Haynes
International USA Hasteloy, HM
Howmet
Exeter Alloys UK
Krupp/VDM
Germany Nimofer,Nicrofer
Metal
Imphy France
Midhani
India
Pratt
& Whitney Aircraft USA Waspaloy
PRP/VDM
USA
Rolled
Alloys Inc USA RA
Ross
& Catherall Ltd UK
Shanghai
#5 Steelworks China
Special
Melted Products UK
Special
Metals USA Udimet, Inco,
Incoloy,
Monel,
Nimonic
Sumitomo
Metal Industries Japan
Western
Australia
Speciality
Alloys
Australia
(Roskill,
2002)
Key
applications for tantalum superalloys are landbased turbines
for electricity generation and turbine
blades
for aircraft engines – the latter account for 75%
of global demand for superalloys, with civilian
applications
outstripping the military sector. Growth in
demand for superalloys is predicted to increase at
3%
pa until 2009 (Roskill, 2002).
Leading
aircraft engine manufacturers
Allied
Signal USA
General
Electric USA
Honeywell
USA
Ishikawazima-Harima
Heavy Industries Japan
Kawasaki
Heavy Industries Japan
Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries Japan
Motoren
& Turbinen Union Germany
Pratt
& Whitney USA
Rolls
Royce / Allison UK / USA
Snecma
France
Teledyne
Continental Motors USA
Turbomeca
France
Volvo
Aero Sweden
(TIC,
2003)
The
chemical industry employs tantalum due to its property
of corrosion resistance. Heat exchangers,
reactor
lining, and piping all use tantalum. This
property also has relevance to medical applications
where surgical clips, screws, implants and
instruments incorporate tantalum in their manufacture.
Key companies include Plansee GmbH of
Austria and Ultramet of California. Specific applications
include (Roskill, 2002):
tantalum
mesh for corrective surgery of hernias
tantalum
plates to occlude holes in the skull
perforated
strips and screws to hold broken
bones
together
V-clips
and surgical staples to close blood
vessels
surgical
and dental instruments
dental
implants
tantalum-coated
carbon foam to replace
vertebral
discs in the spinal column
joint
replacement components
bone
scaffold void filling
Tantalum
oxide’s high index of refraction coupled with
its ability to reduce x-ray exposure and enhance
image
quality means it is used in camera lenses, xray film
and ink jet printers (TIC, 2003).
Annex B
See Annex A (after references)
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): A List of Combatants 2003:
Hutu Interhamwe militia - mostly from Rwanda
and responsible for 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda
Former Hutu members of the Rwandan military - also responsible for 1994
genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda
Mayi Mayi - group of traditional Congolese local security forces These groups operate inside
the DRC supporting the government "often as guerrillas operating inside
territory held by anti-government forces" (U.S. State 2001)
Libya - provides arms and logistical support but no troops
North Korea - sent advisors to train government troops
Rwanda - supports Congolese Rally for Democracy based in Goma
(RCD/Goma) and Congolese Rally for Democracy based in Bunia (RCD/Goma); majority Tutsi
Uganda - supports the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC); mainly non-Tutsi Burundi - fights against various Hutu
groups based in the DRC that are against the Tutsi-led Burundi government
Angola - supports the government of the DRC
Namibia - supports the government of the DRC
Zimbabwe - supports the government of the DRC
Sudan - supports the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF); Ugandan
expatriates against the government of Uganda
Prices of rare minerals quoted from the Porter Inquiry, Kampala,
2002-2003
(note discrepancies in Uganda’s production and export figures – not
including smuggling)
Coltan: Production, 1994=0.435 tons, 1995=1.824 tons
(subsequently NIL) - export 1997=2.57 tons, 1998=18.57 tons, 1999=69.50 tons
80% of production in Australia
80% of reserves in DRC
Niobium: Production =NIL - export 1997=US$13,000,
1998=US$580,000, 1999=US$782,000
Diamonds:
Production =NIL - export 1996=NIL, 1997=US$198,302, 2001=US$2,539,000
Gold: Production, 2000= 0.0044 tons - export,
2000=10.83 tons
Jan. 2000:
Coltan fetches $40/lb
Dec. 2000: Coltan fetches $380/lb
Annex A
I have included some charts on US military ‘aid’ for further
interest. Note that both Zimbabwe and Uganda were the recipients of the most
military aid when they were both sending their military into DRC to plunder its
resources, rigging elections and practising torture.
African Militaries Trained by the U.S., 1997-98
Angola*
|
Ghana
|
Rwanda*
|
Benin
|
Guinea
|
Sao Tome & Principe
|
Botswana
|
Guinea-Bissau
|
Senegal*
|
Cameroon
|
Ivory Coast
|
Seychelles
|
Cape Verde
|
Kenya
|
Sierra Leone*
|
Central African Republic
|
Lesotho
|
South Africa
|
Chad*
|
Madagascar
|
Swaziland
|
Comoros
|
Malawi
|
Tanzania
|
Congo (Braz.)*
|
Mali
|
Togo
|
Cote d’Ivoirie
|
Mauritania
|
Tunisia
|
Djibouti
|
Mozambique
|
Uganda*
|
Eritrea*
|
Namibia*
|
Zambia
|
Ethiopia*
|
Niger
|
Zimbabwe*
|
* Engaged in conflict
1997-98 - The above table includes IMET, JCET, and ACRI
TABLE 1: Post-Cold
War U.S. Arms Transfers to Governments Involved in the Congo War, 1989-1998(in
constant 1998 dollars)
Country
|
Foreign Military Sales
|
Commercial Sales
|
TOTAL
|
Angola
|
0
|
31,000
|
31,000
|
Burundi
|
74,000
|
312,000
|
386,000
|
Chad
|
21,767,000
|
24,677,000
|
46,444,000
|
DRC
|
15,151,000
|
218,000
|
15,369,000
|
Namibia
|
2,311,000
|
1,934,000
|
4,245,000
|
Rwanda
|
324,000
|
0
|
324,000
|
Sudan
|
30,258,000
|
1,815,000
|
32,073,000
|
Uganda
|
1,517,000
|
9,903,000
|
11,420,000
|
Zimbabwe
|
567,000
|
828,000
|
1,395,000
|
TOTAL
|
71,969,000
|
39,718,000
|
111,687,000
|
TABLE 2: Post-Cold
War International Military Education and Training (IMET) to Countries Involved
in the Congo War, 1989-1998 (constant 1998 dollars)
Country
|
IMET $ Value
|
No. of STUDENTS
|
Angola
|
177,000
|
5
|
Burundi
|
1,324,000
|
53
|
Chad
|
1,968,000
|
115
|
Congo
|
1,229,000
|
50
|
Namibia
|
1,589,000
|
111
|
Rwanda
|
1,425,000
|
66
|
Sudan
|
154,000
|
0
|
Uganda
|
3,856,000
|
154
|
Zimbabwe
|
2,661,000
|
176
|
TOTAL
|
14,383,000
|
730
|
Source: Department of Defense, Foreign Military Sales,
Foreign Military Construction Sales and Military Assistance Facts,
Foreign Military Sales, Construction, and Assistance Facts as of September
1998, (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Defense, 1999).
Letter to Alex Bellamy
Wednesday 15 March 2006
Dear Alex
Following our discussion of this project I wrestled with the
question “why does it matter”? I also decided that I would not like to merely
reiterate the ‘hand-wringing’ reports from the DRC, which have not advanced any
solutions that go to the heart of the problem. All of these statements are
supportable with references:
POLS 3802
Independent Study
- Define
(short) legal and illegal weapons sales
· UN Security Council – five permanent members are biggest weapons sellers with 80% of all sales. Other nations trade in the same manner with relative impunity.
- Technological
advances create obsolescence for existing arms stockpiles. It becomes
profitable, and a powerful diplomatic tool, to sell these weapons to
selected nation state allies.
- ‘Official’
wars always leave behind large quantities of weapons that can be recycled
to other ‘tasks’.
·
All of these powerful nation
states have supplied weapons to other governments and other parties whilst
these parties are engaged in conflict, often aggression against neighbouring
nation states. Support for dictators, engineering of coup d etats, sponsorship
of assassinations, terrorist acts, death squads and rebel groups have also
generated arms donations and sales.
·
These activities undermine
respect and legitimacy for international law, international institutions and
the UN. Security and stability are also diminished.
- The
universal feature of arms production is that it involves both civilian and
military applications. Many civilian industries manufacture components
that have military applications, making them more difficult to identify.
- The
arms industry is integral to the economy of the developed world,
government policies and policy-making bodies (Think Tanks and
academia). This ‘war economy’ is a
mirror of the ‘warlord economy’ of conflicted developing nations.
- Through
the process of providing local employment these industries receive
political support and enjoy powerful lobbying influence
· Key UNSC permanent members are non signatories to key Conventions, including provisions against nuclear, chemical, biological weapons, missile-systems, land mines, treatment of prisoners, torture, trials of war criminals etc.
- The
fine line between legal and illegal arms sales is the existence of an ‘End
User Certificate’, which is easily falsified or circumvented.
- Arms
traders can sometimes work for governments and at other times
independently, enabling them to act with impunity.
- Back
loading is a logical strategy for traders to reduce transport costs.
- Demand
for resources and products from the developing world are an inevitable
outcome of the affluent consumer lifestyle of the developed world.
- Realist
IR conventional wisdom is that the Cold War maintained 44 years of
relative peace – but the Cold War has left the world awash in surplus
weapons from both the former East bloc and the NATO allies. Additionally a
breakdown of governance and disintegration of armed forces in the East bloc
led to a huge sell off.
- Why
does it matter?
- It
matters because around 4.7 people have been killed or have died in DRC,
large numbers of people dispersed into surrounding countries.
- Conflict
in inimicable with development of social infrastructure and a functioning
economy.
- Large
refugee flows destabilise neighbouring countries.
- Conflict
destroys the social structure, governance, civil society, environment and
economy of conflict-involved countries.
- Conflict
in poor countries increases the risk of return to conflict following peace
settlements – usually because mediators inadequately address
socio-economic issues. The causes of conflict remain unresolved.
- The
war economy is self-perpetuating – this is universally true.
- Weapons
supplied to state and non-state actors for a conflict in one place tend to
migrate, recycling weapons to other conflicts and criminal/terrorist uses.
- Conflict
is a contributory factor that encourages corruption – this is universally
true.
- Why
should they stop?
- Because
‘they’ (the ‘others’) inhabit the same planet ‘we’ live on.
- Human
security is diminished by the presence of weapons, which affects everyone.
- Because
refugee numbers require a solution that includes resettlement, peace in
their country of origin.
Because ‘we’ need to acknowledge the contributory role
played by our demand for resources and lack of awareness on origin of ‘conflict
goods’ or our role as suppliers of arms.
References
African names have not been re-ordered, due to ambiguity of
‘surnames’
I have left annotations in for additional information, as
this will assist readers making a choice in detail required.
Amnesty International, IANSA, Oxfam, Monday 9 January 2006, The call for tough arms controls, voices from the Democratic Republic of Congo, http://www.amnestyusa.org/regions/africa/document.do?id=ENGAFR620012006 accessed 12 January 2006
Anjan Sundaram, 20 December
2005, AP, Congo Reconsiders Damages Owed by Uganda, http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=387&sid=654152
accessed 21 December 2005
Asimina-Manto Papaioannou, 2004-2005, NYU School of Law, Transnational
Corporations and Human Rights, New York, USA
Boege Volker, Tuesday 31 May 2005, Making Sense of Corporate
Responsibility: Corporate Conduct in Zones of Conflict, lecture at UQ,
Brisbane, Australia
Cuvelier Jeroen and Raeymaekers Tim, January 2002,Supporting
the War Economy in the DRC: European companies and the coltan trade, IPIS
Report, International Peace Information Service http://www.broederlijkdelen.be/MimeObjects/SharedContento/1000037/ipisrapportwareconen_1009691.pdf
accessed 20 February 2006
Frank Nyakairu, 22 March
2004, The3 Monitor, New Report Pins Profiteering Firms In Congo Conflict
http://www.why-war.com/news/2004/03/22/newrepor.html
accessed 3 March 2006
Frank Nyakairu, 8 April 2006, The Monitor, Uganda, DR Congo
negotiations stall, http://allafrica.com/stories/200604100633.html,
accessed 8 April 2006
Grignon François, undated, International Crisis Group,
International response to the illegal exploitation of resources in the DRC,
www.un.org/depts/dhl/peacekeepers/toc/toc4.pdf
accessed 23 March 2006
Hartung William, 2001, The
New Business Of War: Small Arms and the Proliferation of Conflict,
Ethics & International Affairs, Volume 15, No 1 (Spring 2001) http://www.cceia.org/viewMedia.php/prmID/488
accessed 12 March 20006
Hayes Karen T, 14 January 2002, ISS??, Fauna & Flora
International, Coltan Mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo: The
implications and opportunities for the telecommunications industry http://www.durbanprocess.net/downloads/FFIColtanReport.pdf
accessed 15 February 2006
IRIN News, 11 March 2003, DRC: Focus on the proliferation of
small arms in northeast http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32761&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes
accessed 15 March 2006
IRIN News, 18 March 2005, DRC:UN seizes weapons in Ituri http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46189
accessed 15 March 2005
Hooker John, Wednesday 13 April 2005, NewMatilda, Corporations and war, http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetail.asp?ArticleID=581&CategoryID= accessed 15 April 2006
OXFAM, 27 January 2006, Five
million people face daily terror in Northern Uganda, DRC, Burundi: UN must act,
Oxford, UK http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/drc_uganda270106.htm
accessed 12 February 2006
Reno William, 1 August 2002,
Uganda's politics of war and debt relief, Review of International
Political Economy, Volume 9, Number 3 / August 01, 2002, p415-435, http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/(rukrfc55sta4d4uy1rncp0rv)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,1,8;journal,16,37;linkingpublicationresults,1:101485,1
(Abstract) accessed 15 February 2006
Robert Muggah, Peter
Batchelor, UNDP, April 2002, “Development Held Hostage”: Assessing the
effects of small arms on human development, New York, USA
St Clair Jeffrey, November
2005, Grand Theft Pentagon, Tales of Corruption and Profiteering in the
War on Terror, Common Courage Press, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1567513360/002-3850464-0035204?v=glance&n=283155
accessed 21 January 2006
Sam AmAnyire, 19
February 2006, The Monitor, We will not pay DR Congo, says Otafiire, http://www.unep.org/cpi/briefs/2006Feb22.doc
accessed 20 February 2006
Thokozani Thusi, 2003, ISS, Assessing
Small Arms Control Initiatives in East Africa, The Nairobi Declaration, African
Security Review, 12(3) 2003
UN, (Expert panel appointed
by the Secreatry-General) 16 October 2002, Final report of the Panel of
Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of
Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, http://www.afrol.com/Countries/DRC/documents/un_resources_2002_intro.htm
accessed 20 March 2006
UNDP, April 2002,
Reducing Small Arms in the Great Lakes
Vehnamaki Mika, 2002, Diamonds
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Sierra Leone, Nordic Journal of African Studies 11 (1): 48-74 (2002),
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“Coltan, short for
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tech boom caused the price of Coltan to rocket to as high as US$600 per
kilogram at one point, compared to a previous value of US$65 per kilogram,
although it has settled down to around US$100 per kilogram at the moment. A
Coltan miner can earn as much as US$200 per month, compared to a typical salary
of US$10 per month for the average Congolese worker” “The main area where
Coltan is mined also contains the Kahuzi Biega National Park, home of the
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influence on warring parties; private arms trade, arms brokering and
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for its unfortunate neighbours." Alison Des Forges Senior Advisor at the
Africa Division of Human Rights Watch
"Children are being abducted and sent to
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(New York, May 29, 2001) The major rebel group in eastern Congo
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globalization was practiced then) to the current destruction observed in the
DRC, in Africa, in the USA and many other places on the planet, we can learn
more quickly from our specific histories if we approach them from a perspective
which reveals the similarities: the search for resources be they slaves,
rubber, diamonds, coltan, oil, timber, water or uranium shall always trigger
conflicts. Conflicts and wars of conquest will erupt in order to access
resources. The resulting violence will end with destruction. Conquering states,
colonizing states, pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial, have been the central
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certain that the coltan arriving from war zones is eliminated from their
production lines." “There is a direct link between the war in the Congo
and the coltan trade," said DRC university professor Apollinaire
Malu-Malu. The NGOs said they based
their call on studies by the London-based International Peace Information
Service (IPIS) which "demonstrated that European companies buying coltan
from these zones are contributing to the financing of the DRC war." The
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intricate and interlocking alliances. Domestic conflicts in the Central African
Republic, Sudan, Uganda, Angola, Rwanda, and Burundi have at various times
created bilateral and regional tensions. The current crisis in eastern D.R.C.
has its roots both in the use of the Congo as a base by various insurgency
groups attacking neighboring countries and in the absence of a strong Congolese
Government with a military capable of securing Congo’s borders. The war has
been exacerbated and prolonged by the exploitation of Congo’s resources by
neighboring countries”.
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weapons. The report provides details of how a leading gold mining company,
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Annex A
Supporting the War Economy in the DRC: European Companies and the Coltan Trade
Jeroen Cuvelier & Tim Raeymaekers, January 2002 |
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): A List of Combatants 2003:
Hutu Interhamwe militia - mostly from Rwanda
and responsible for 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda
Former Hutu members of the Rwandan military - also responsible for 1994
genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda
Mayi Mayi - group of traditional Congolese local security forces These groups operate inside
the DRC supporting the government "often as guerrillas operating inside
territory held by anti-government forces" (U.S. State 2001)
Libya - provides arms and logistical support but no troops
North Korea - sent advisors to train government troops
Rwanda - supports Congolese Rally for Democracy based in Goma
(RCD/Goma) and Congolese Rally for Democracy based in Bunia (RCD/Goma); majority Tutsi
Uganda - supports the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC); mainly non-Tutsi Burundi - fights against various Hutu
groups based in the DRC that are against the Tutsi-led Burundi government
Angola - supports the government of the DRC
Namibia - supports the government of the DRC
Zimbabwe - supports the government of the DRC
Sudan - supports the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF); Ugandan
expatriates against the government of Uganda
Prices of rare minerals quoted from the Porter Inquiry, Kampala,
2002-2003
(note discrepancies in Uganda’s production and export figures – not
including smuggling)
Coltan: Production, 1994=0.435 tons, 1995=1.824 tons
(subsequently NIL) - export 1997=2.57 tons, 1998=18.57 tons, 1999=69.50 tons
80% of production in Australia
80% of reserves in DRC
Niobium: Production =NIL - export 1997=US$13,000,
1998=US$580,000, 1999=US$782,000
Diamonds:
Production =NIL - export 1996=NIL, 1997=US$198,302, 2001=US$2,539,000
Gold: Production, 2000= 0.0044 tons - export, 2000=10.83
tons
Jan. 2000:
Coltan fetches $40/lb
Dec. 2000: Coltan fetches $380/lb
Annex B
I have included some charts on US military ‘aid’ for further
interest. Note that both Zimbabwe and Uganda were the recipients of the most
military aid when they were both sending their military into DRC to plunder its
resources, rigging elections and practising torture.
African Militaries Trained by the U.S., 1997-98
Angola*
|
Ghana
|
Rwanda*
|
Benin
|
Guinea
|
Sao Tome & Principe
|
Botswana
|
Guinea-Bissau
|
Senegal*
|
Cameroon
|
Ivory Coast
|
Seychelles
|
Cape Verde
|
Kenya
|
Sierra Leone*
|
Central African Republic
|
Lesotho
|
South Africa
|
Chad*
|
Madagascar
|
Swaziland
|
Comoros
|
Malawi
|
Tanzania
|
Congo (Braz.)*
|
Mali
|
Togo
|
Cote d’Ivoirie
|
Mauritania
|
Tunisia
|
Djibouti
|
Mozambique
|
Uganda*
|
Eritrea*
|
Namibia*
|
Zambia
|
Ethiopia*
|
Niger
|
Zimbabwe*
|
* Engaged in conflict
1997-98 - The above table includes IMET, JCET, and ACRI
TABLE 1: Post-Cold
War U.S. Arms Transfers to Governments Involved in the Congo War, 1989-1998(in
constant 1998 dollars)
Country
|
Foreign Military Sales
|
Commercial Sales
|
TOTAL
|
Angola
|
0
|
31,000
|
31,000
|
Burundi
|
74,000
|
312,000
|
386,000
|
Chad
|
21,767,000
|
24,677,000
|
46,444,000
|
DRC
|
15,151,000
|
218,000
|
15,369,000
|
Namibia
|
2,311,000
|
1,934,000
|
4,245,000
|
Rwanda
|
324,000
|
0
|
324,000
|
Sudan
|
30,258,000
|
1,815,000
|
32,073,000
|
Uganda
|
1,517,000
|
9,903,000
|
11,420,000
|
Zimbabwe
|
567,000
|
828,000
|
1,395,000
|
TOTAL
|
71,969,000
|
39,718,000
|
111,687,000
|
TABLE 2: Post-Cold
War International Military Education and Training (IMET) to Countries Involved
in the Congo War, 1989-1998 (constant 1998 dollars)
Country
|
IMET $ Value
|
No. of STUDENTS
|
Angola
|
177,000
|
5
|
Burundi
|
1,324,000
|
53
|
Chad
|
1,968,000
|
115
|
Congo
|
1,229,000
|
50
|
Namibia
|
1,589,000
|
111
|
Rwanda
|
1,425,000
|
66
|
Sudan
|
154,000
|
0
|
Uganda
|
3,856,000
|
154
|
Zimbabwe
|
2,661,000
|
176
|
TOTAL
|
14,383,000
|
730
|
Source: Department of Defense, Foreign Military Sales,
Foreign Military Construction Sales and Military Assistance Facts,
Foreign Military Sales, Construction, and Assistance Facts as of September
1998, (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Defense, 1999).
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