The Business of War in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Dena Montague and Frida Berrigan
“This is all money,” says a Western
mining executive, his hand sweeping over a geological map toward
the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is explaining
why, in 1997, he and planeloads of other businessmen were flocking
to the impoverished country and vying for the attention of
then-rebel leader Laurent Kabila. The executive could just
as accurately have said, ‘This is all war.’
The interplay among a seemingly endless supply
of mineral resources, the greed of multinational corporations
desperate to cash in on that wealth, and the provision of arms
and military training to political tyrants has helped to produce
the spiral of conflicts that have engulfed the continent – what
many regard as “Africa’s First World War.” These
minerals are vital to maintaining U.S. military dominance…”
For further detail, here’s Project
Censored’s 2003 report:
American Companies Exploit the Congo:
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
has been labeled “the richest patch of
earth on the planet.” The valuable abundance of minerals
and resources in the DRC has made it the target of attacks
from U.S.-supported neighboring African countries Uganda and
Rwanda.
The DRC is mineral rich with millions of tons
of diamonds, copper, cobalt, zinc, manganese, uranium, niobium,
and tantalum also known as coltan. Coltan
has become an increasingly valuable resource to American corporations.
Coltan is used to make mobile phones, night vision goggles,
fiber optics, and capacitors used to maintain the electrical
charge in computer chips….
The DRC holds 80% of the world’s
coltan reserves, more than 60% of the world’s cobalt
and is the world’s largest supplier of high-grade copper.
With these minerals playing a major part in maintaining US
military dominance and economic growth, minerals in the Congo
are deemed vital US interests.
Historically, the U.S. government identified
sources of materials in Third World countries, and then encouraged
U.S. corporations to invest in and facilitate their production.
Dating back to the mid-1960s, the U.S. government literally
installed the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, which gave
U.S. corporations access to the Congo’s minerals for
more than 30 years. However, over the years Mobutu began to
limit access by Western corporations, and to control the distribution
of resources. In 1998, U.S. military-trained leaders of Rwanda
and Uganda invaded the mineral-rich areas of the Congo. The
invaders installed illegal colonial-style governments which
continue to receive millions of dollars in arms and military
training from the United States. Our government and a $5 million
Citibank loan maintains the rebel presence in the Congo. Their
control of mineral rich areas allows western corporations,
such as American Mineral Fields, to illegally mine. Rwandan
and Ugandan control over this area is beneficial for both governments
and for the corporations that continue to exploit the Congo’s
natural wealth….
San Francisco based engineering firm Bechtel
Inc. established strong ties in the rebel zones as well. Bechtel
drew up an inventory of the Congo’s mineral resources
free of charge, and also paid for NASA satellite studies of
the country for infrared maps of its minerals. Bechtel estimates
that the DRC’s mineral ores alone are worth $157 billion
dollars. Through coltan production, the Rwandans and their
allies are bringing in $20 million revenue a month. Rwanda’s
diamond exports went from 166 carats in 1998 to 30,500 in 2000.
Uganda’s diamond exports jumped from approximately 1,500
carats to about 11,300. The final destination for many of these
minerals is the U.S.”
And to close this out, let me return to “The
Business of War” report by Dena Montague and
Frida Berrigan. As you will see, you always have to follow
the money, the bankers and our friends at the IMF are always
at the root of global death and destruction, and are the
true Masters of War:
“Today, the United States claims that
it has no interest in the DRC other than a peaceful resolution
to the current war. Yet U.S. businessmen and politicians are
still going to extreme lengths to gain and preserve sole access
to the DRC’s mineral resources. And to protect these
economic interests, the U.S. government continues to provide
millions of dollars in arms and military training to known
human-rights abusers and undemocratic regimes. Thus, the DRC’s
mineral wealth is both an impetus for war and an impediment
to stopping it….
During his historic visit to Africa in 1998,
President Clinton praised Presidents Kagame and Musevini as
leaders of the ‘African Renaissance,’ just a few
months before they launched their deadly invasion of the DRC
with U.S. weapons and training….
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and World Bank have knowingly contributed to the
war effort. The international lending institutions praised
both Rwanda and Uganda for increasing their gross domestic
product (GDP), which resulted from the illegal mining of
DRC resources. Although the IMF and World Bank were aware
that the rise in GDP coincided with the DRC war, and that
it was derived from exports of natural resources that neither
country normally produced, they nonetheless touted both nations
as economic success stories….
In January 2000, Chevron – the corporation
that named an oil tanker after National Security Advisor Condoleezza
Rice – announced a three-year, $75 million spending program
in the DRC, thus challenging the notion that war discourages
foreign investment…. As one investor put it, “It
is a good moment to come: it is in difficult times that you
can get the most advantage.”….
In April 2001, a scathing UN report argued that
Presidents Kagame and Museveni are “on the verge of becoming
the godfathers of the illegal exploitation of natural resources
and the continuation of the conflict in the Democratic Republic
of Congo.” The two leaders, the report alleged, have
turned their armies into armies for business….
According to East African media reports, U.S.
diplomats continue to view Rwanda and Uganda as “strategic
allies in the Great Lakes region” and “would not
want to upset relations with them at this time.” ….
The IMF and World Bank have also indicated that their policies
toward Rwanda and Uganda will remain unchanged….”
Famed two-time Congressional Medal of Honor
recipient US Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler accurately
summed up the situation when he said: “I spent 33 years
in the Marines, most of my time being a high-class muscle man
for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short,
I was a racketeer for Capitalism…. The
general public shoulders the bill. This bill renders a horrible
accounting. Newly placed gravestones, Mangled bodies. Shattered
minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Back-breaking
taxation for generations and generations.”
Sing it with me:
“Come you masters of war…
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know,
I can see through your mask…”
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