International Remedies for Resource-Based Conflict

Rarely have so many petitioners lined up at the mahogany doors of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's president to present their credentials with brokers and company heads in tow. India's minister of external affairs renewed his respects not so long ago, accompanied by promises to build a cement plant outside of Kinshasa. The Chinese court Congolese officials weekly. Canadians are frequent visitors. Australians and Thai and Pakistanis and South Africans are among those with credentials in hand, trying to edge their way past the Americans, who have recently urged Paul Wolfowitz to back off a bit from barring, as he threatened a few weeks ago, the soft loan to the DRC for reasons of pervasive corruption.Few of these petitioners or their expectant investors are interested primarily in peace in this country, where conflict has flared for almost a decade. Few of them probably even know much about the history of the conflict, the invasion by Rwanda 10 years ago and more recently by Uganda, the occupation of the country by as many as six national armies-and how their military efforts were soon diverted from whatever cause drew them to the Congo in the first place to pillaging the countryside. Few would know how many millions of families have fled their homes. What is paramount for the visitors is not the price the Congo has paid for the conflict, but the price of the minerals they hope to extract and sell in a bull market.1The number of permits to research and explore in important mineral rich areas of the DRC increased fourfold in the second half of 2005 over the previous half-year and again increased by the same amount in the first half of 2006. Some of the petitioners are new and some old, but what is important is that among those prospective companies is a number of rogue and junior mining companies that will access the Congolese approvals by corrupt means, by granting special favours or lucrative company shares in exchange for discreet agreements that reprisals will be spared in the event that the company exercises inappropriate force exploiting its stake. These Congolese power brokers care little about monitoring the behaviour of their foreign partners in commerce once the favours are paid.Congolese officials have an unsavoury reputation. It is symptomatic that the international community has waited months for the government report that examined contracts signed during the worst of the war years, a committee headed by the reputable Christophe Lutundula. There are powerful politicians or power brokers who do not want the international community to know about the favours they have received for expeditiously granting approvals to companies that paid handsomely during the war years, and these are the same power brokers who will continue to benefit from the upsurge in mining interest nowadays. Rogue companies that are not scrutinized sometimes have few scruples when securing properties or protection, or in obtaining resources in ways that detract from Congolese public resources or use communities in harmful ways or in ways that infringe on their economic and human rights. A plague of possible abuses can be expected from these commercial partners coming to operate in the DRC.Arms will continue to flow. The monitors who occasionally report on the United Nations embargo have little leverage apart from the reports they prepare every six months for the security council. Some corporations have done their part to reduce the level of conflict in and around their properties, but it is important to understand that others are boorish and may-as many have done-simply appease local leaders with payments and turn a blind eye to the consequences.2As new commercial ventures with fresh money to spend aim to secure their lucrative stakes, there is the risk that the trickle-down criminality-extortion, fraud, and corruption-that has plagued the Congo will simply continue. Politicians will be more compromised than before, local power brokers will receive their booty, and instead of being reinforced, the government in Kinshasa may be even less cooperative in regulating commercial ventures than before

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