An unfortunate accident happened today in the beleagured Congo. In addition to the conflict, previous plane crashes and an earth quake the people have to endure yet another tragedy. One can only hope that the loss of life is limited. Read news below:
Plane crashes in Congo neighborhood
Scores killed in DR Congo plane crash
79 feared dead in Congo plane crash

The Congolese government through its police forces has again targeted the people of Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK); a religio-political organization made up of the Kongo people in the Bas Congo province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government crushed the group in February of 2007 pursuant to protests in Bas Congo stemming from corrupt provincial elections. Again, the Congo government has unleashed the police force on the people killing 100 people according to United Nations sources; many more are missing. Some people are hiding in the bushes and are in desperate need of medical care from injuries incurred during clashes with the police but they are afraid to come out from hiding for fear reprisal by the government.

As the global community is focused on the East of the Congo, the repression of the Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) is yet another example of the crisis of legitimacy that has bedeviled the Congo government under the leadership of Joseph Kabila. The government sees each crisis as an opportunity to unleash violence on the civilian population with the hopes of ruling by fear rather than by consent.

The government accuses the group of attempting to mount a rebellion in the Bas-Congo province, while the Bundu dia Kongo claims it is a peaceful religio-political group that has been in existence for 39 years looking after the welfare of its adherents. The root of the problem however is political in that many BDK politicians have been sidelined or excluded from participation in the provincial government by vote rigging by the Kabila regime. The result has been the marginalization of the Bas Kongo province and reduction in access to resources outlined in Congo's constitution.

Pursuant to clashes with the government, Bundu Dia Kongo was banned. The Congolese parliament has called for an inquiry into the state violence against the Bas Kongo people.

The Bas Kongo region is the home of Joseph Kasavubu, the first president of Congo and Congolese heroine Kimpa Vita.

Click here to read the April 2007 Statement by Human Rights Watch to the DRC Parliamentary Commission Investigating Events in Bas Congo.

Click below links to view contract review reports:
Report One - PDF (French)
Report Two - PDF (French)

1. During the transition process (2003 - 2006) one third of the Congo was sold off to foreign companies without any discernible benefit to the Congo.

2. Mining titles dispensed totaled 4,542 to 642 companies.

3. 90 percent of exports from DRC are either illegal or unregulated.

4. Benefits from existing mining contracts do not account for more than 6% of the national budget. In 2002 when the country was at war the mining sector contributed as much as 30 % to the national budget.

5. Mining companies have realized gains of 600% while discernible gain to the government has not exceeded 5%.

6. Many of the companies involved in the mining review are publicly traded on the Toronto, London or New York Stock Exchanges. Some of them include Freeport-McMoRan, DeBeers, AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton.

7. The Congolese Parliament is silent on the mining contracts and the government has yet to include provincial governments and civil society.

8. Pursuant to the publication of the mining review, on Monday, March 24, 2008 the head of the Ministry of Mines, Martin Kabwelulu announced the set-up of a government panel to follow-up with the review process. It will be lead by the Minister of Agriculture.

9. A few mining companies have already intimated that they will take the DRC to international court to maintain their ill-gotten contracts.

10. As quiet as it is kept many of the government officials who signed these odious and detrimental contracts while pocketing millions of dollars are still in government including president Joseph Kabila himself. Of course the review process and follow-up does not include the pursuit of corruption charges against those involved in selling of the Congolese people's wealth.

11. Contrary to earlier statements by the Mining Ministry, the government is not going to change the Mining Code that was put in place by the World Bank in 2002. The law was clearly written in the best interest of foreign mining companies and not the Congolese people.

The Carter Center released a press release on Congo's Mining Review process. They are one of the participating institutions in the government's contract review process. The essence of their statement reinforces what has been well documented by international NGOs and Congolese civil society.

Key elements from the Carter Center's review include the following:
1. Severe and widespread problems in the contracts.
2. The contracts were made without independent valuation.
3. No provisions to ensure equitable sharing of profits.
4. There has been a lack of support of the mining review from the World Bank and foreign countries where the mining companies originate.
5. Mining companies have been unwilling to acknowledge even those problems that are manifest and undeniable.

John Reboul, of Ropes & Gray, which analyzed five of the major contracts in detail for The Carter Center, described them as "some of the most one-sided agreements I have seen in 30 years of practice."

The Carter Center suggested a number of prescriptions that will ostensibly benefit the Congolese people. Click here to read>>

The Congolese government accelerated the mining review process and gave the 60 odd companies whose contracts were under review until February 26, 2008 to respond to the assessment by the review panel.

Victor Kasongo, Deputy Minister of Mines said all the contracts established during the war and the transition process were flawed and had to be renegotiated.

A great deal of uncertainty looms over the process however. Although individual companies were given the review results of their respective contracts, no public release of the review has been made to date. The Congolese parliament has not been engaged in the process to serve an oversight role and represent the interest of the Congolese people. No structure has been established for civil society organizations to be engaged. The Financial Times reported that "behind closed door" deals may be being struck as the Congo government seeks more cash. Is the government using this process as a cash grab or is it genuinely interested in the Congolese people finally benefiting from the wealth of their country?

Thus far, there are no benchmarks that would indicate that the acceleration of the review process was done in the interest of the people of the Congo. According to a coalition of Non-Government Organizations, there are a lot of questions yet to be answered. Read about outstanding questions here...

What seems to be unfolding is that the government has its favorites and will sell out the Congolese people's wealth to its favorites while posturing and playing hardball with those companies that are in disfavor or lack the necessary connections to the elite who will undoubtly fill their pockets from the latest shake down in the name of the Congolese people.

The Congolese government recently made details of the mining review available to mining companies in the Congo. According to the deputy mining minister, Victor Kasongo, none of the country's 60-odd mining contracts were found to be properly constituted. The government delivered its findings to the companies ahead of the scheduled February 20, 2008 delivery date.

The government claims it is the next phase in the mining review process, however, no one really knows where this is heading. The report that was produced by a commission made up of international institutions such as the Carter Center and Soros Institute has not been made available to the parliament or the Congolese people. Nonetheless, Kasongo says "We intend to institute a brief and open administrative appeal process, to a specially constituted panel, through which a company can present its case for reclassification, while minimizing confrontation and shortening any delay to renegotiation." Apparently the companies will have one week to analyze the results.

Although much has been written about the Congo's contract review process, the essence of what is really at stake has hardly been discussed.

The central question for the Congo and Africa is who will control the Congo for the next 25 to 50 years? Will it be institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, corporate barons such as George Forrest, Dan Gertler, Benny Steinmetz, Arthur Ditto and Richard C. Adkerson or will it be the Congolese people? This has been the central question for the last 120 years of Congo's history. It is the reason why Lumumba was assassinated in 1961; Mobutu installed; Rwanda's and Uganda's double invasion of the Congo (1996 & 1998), supported by the West; and finally, the reason why the world's deafening silence in the face of 5.4 million dead Congolese and the heinous rape and abuse of hundreds of thousands of women and children.

The question for Kabila, Kasongo, Gizenga and others is will they sell out the Congolese people like Mobutu sold out Lumumba and an entire generation of Congolese?

Will they go down in history as the modern day Tshombe and Mobutu who collaborated with the West to condemn their people to four decades of sheer hell?

For all the students of development and those who lament the poverty on the African continent, this is how it happens. This is where Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine meets John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hitman. What we are witnessing in the Congo today is the impoverishment of yet another generation of Congolese and the institutionalization of dependency under a neo-liberal regime.

One key antidote is to shine a light on one of the greatest heist at the dawn of the 21st century and support the Congolese people who are resisting the theft of their patrimony day and night.
Become a friend of the Congo and support the people >>

Congolese deputy mining minister Victor Kasongo announced last week that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will accelerate the mining review process. The commission set-up to review the contracts submitted the final report to the government since the Fall of 2007. However, the government has yet to move on the prescriptions outlined by the review commission. Leaked reports indicated that the commission recommended that the 61 contracts under review ought to be renegotiated or outright canceled. The mining minster revealed that "We had expected to be able to concentrate our efforts on rectification of a few contracts. We actually found that we had [not a single contract that was properly constituted]. What was meant to be a minor corrective has turned out to be multiple, major surgery.”

The results of the review process will be announced in two weeks according to the government. Companies will have three months to address the concerns raised in the review. Congolese politicians have raised concern that the report has not made it to parliament for its input as this issue is of central concern to the people of the Congo.

Two deadly earthquakes rocked the Congo and Rwanda on Sunday, killing 39 people and injuring hundreds. As if war and displacement was not sufficient, now a natural disaster has plagued the beleaguered people of the Congo.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the one earthquake registered 6.0 on the Richter scale and the second 5.0.

Although a peace accord was signed in the Congo, many fundamental outstanding questions remain. Neither Rwanda nor the Interahamwe participated in the conference. These two entities are critical to sustainable peace in the Congo. Until the Interahamwe (Rwandan Hutus) are able to return to Rwanda and participate in the political process in Rwanda, the Rwandan government under Paul Kagame will continue to have a pretext for either invading the Congo - as it has done twice - or support rebel movements in the Congo as it continues to do to this day.

A peace conference does not equate to justice. Although there is a cease fire and the United Nations troops will patrol a buffer zone providing the population with some reprieve, justice is still being denied not only in the east of the Congo but throughout the entire country. Impunity has reigned throughout the Congo for far too long and a national undertaking is required to bring justice to the hundreds of thousands of women raped and abused along with those families and entire villages that have been devastated by marauding rebels. In addition, the vast mineral wealth of the Congo should be used to restore the people of the Congo rather than going into the pockets of local elites and western multi-nationals.

Click here to read the peace agreement (French)!