Tag: Congo

Anniversary of a Massacre Foretold

This week marks the five-year anniversary of the fall of Bunia, a tiny trading town in northeastern Congo where over five hundred people were massacred by ethnic militia in a blood spree for gold and plunder. Many of those killed were then mutilated and their organs eaten on the killing floor.

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U.S. cell phone addiction drives ore war in Congo

By Simon Barta - 

I was fortunate enough to catch a showing of Pippa Scott's documentary "King Leopold's Ghost" at the human rights forum last week. This powerful film about Belgium's colonization of the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo discusses the oftentimes overlooked human rights violations that occurred in the country at the turn of the 19th century.

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Congo's Diamond Industry Let Back Into Kimberly Process

The Republic of Congo has rejoined the Kimberly Process, a global watchdog group designed to stop the flow of conflict diamonds. Analysts say the move shows controls on the diamond trade in the country are improving, but warn that there is still much to be done to regulate the diamond industry, both in Congo and around the world. Selah Hennessy reports from the VOA West and Central Africa bureau in Dakar.

Confiscated rough diamonds are displayed at the US Customs and Border Protection office in Anchorage, Alaska, 19 July 2007

"This is very, very important for our country," said Alain Akouala, Congo's communication minister. He said the move, which makes it possible for Congo to export diamonds worldwide, will boost Congo's business community.

"This country has an important economic potential and we need to do business, we need to build up our country," he added.

The Kimberley Process was established with diamond industry backing in late 2002. The effort came in response to growing world concern about so-called "blood diamonds" that fueled and funded the bloody 1990s conflicts in Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Republic of Congo was kicked out of the Kimberly Process (KP) in 2004 after it was found that it had smuggled from surrounding nations the majority of its diamonds it was putting on the market each year through Europe and the Middle East.
Akouala says new controls have been introduced so that diamonds can now be easily be tracked and the industry regulated.

Annie Dunnebacke, a campaigner for London-based watchdog Global Witness, says the KP decision shows that Congo has come a long way. But she says there is still great potential for illicit trade in the region, where porous borders and weak controls remain a problem.

"You have situations where although the government has taken steps to step up border control, for instance, or to train customs officials - you have situations where controls still are not strong enough," she said.  "So we will have to keep an eye out and make sure that the borders are strong enough and that diamonds are not being smuggled in or out of the Republic of Congo."

Dunnebacke says KP has served as an important tool for regulating the diamond trade since its launch in 2002, but that there is still much to be done to make regulation effective.

"There is a serious lack of political will in terms of governments agreeing to have proper oversight over their industry, and I think there is also a lack of will on the part of the industry to self regulate the way they should, so there is a lot of work still to be done on the KP to make it effective," she added.

She says there are a few very problematic loopholes in the system. She says, for example, KP only regulates rough diamonds, not those that are polished. "One of the major loop-holes that you can find is conflict or illicit diamonds could be smuggled directly into a cutting or polishing center and come out the other end and have completely escaped KP controls," she explained.

The European Union hosted the four-day Kimberly Process meeting in Brussels. The multi-national body says the Kimberly Process is becoming increasingly effective in the fight against conflict diamonds.

More than 80 percent of the world's rough diamonds pass through the EU, via the Belgium port city Antwerp.

VOA News - Congo's Diamond Industry Let Back Into Kimberly Process

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DR Congo plane crash kills many

Many people are feared dead in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo after a plane crashed into a residential area soon after take-off.

 

There were victims on the ground as well as in the plane

 

The plane landed in Kingsani, a crowded market district of Kinshasa, sending a fireball and thick smoke into the air.

A UN official in Congo told the BBC that 25 of the 27 people on board were killed, and that there were more victims on the ground.

Air accidents are frequent in DR Congo, where many airlines fly ageing planes.

According to the African Airlines Association, the country has accounted for well over half of all the air crashes in Africa over the last decade. One out of every five fatal air accidents happens in Africa.

Hundreds gather at site

The Antonov 26 cargo plane, owned by the Congolese airline Africa 1, crashed shortly after take-off from nearby Ndjili airport. It was bound for Tshikapa, in the central province of Kasai-Occidental.

 

Papy Kangufu, a local resident, said the area had been full of people when the plane ploughed into it, sending a fireball into the air.

Several homes were destroyed in the crash, which happened at about 1030 (0930 GMT). One wing is the largest part of the aeroplane which remains.

The BBC's Emery Agalu Makumeno at the crash site said firefighters were battling to put out the fire from the fuselage, and hundreds of local people were at the scene.

Residents were trying to help the rescue teams retrieve remains from the aircraft, and paramedics and Red Cross workers were trying to get injured people to hospital.

There is confusion about the death toll. The state aviation safety body RVA (Regie Voies Aeriennes) has confirmed 19 deaths.

But a United Nations spokesman in DRC, Michel Bonnardeaux, told the BBC he had heard from local police sources that there were 27 people on board, and that two had survived - an air hostess and a mechanic.

"What we don't have is how many people were injured or dead on the ground. It's an African city with a densely populated area there - almost a shantytown, if you wish - so we're afraid the damage might be great," he said.

A month ago DR Congo's minister for transport banned all Antonovs from flying over Congolese territory, our correspondent says. But the ban was lifted a week ago as it was so unpopular.

EU ban

At least 20 private companies in DR Congo operate mainly old planes built in the former Soviet Union.

Last year, the European Union banned all but one of the country's air companies, including Africa 1, from operating in Europe.

The International Air Transport Association also included DR Congo in a group of several African countries it classed as an "embarrassment" to the industry.

In 1996, more than 300 people were killed when an Antonov 32 aircraft ploughed into a busy market soon after taking off from an airport in Kinshasa.

Aircraft are used extensively for transport in DR Congo, a huge country where there are few paved roads.

BBC NEWS | Africa | DR Congo plane crash 'kills many

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