coupures 12 juin 07 (eng)

Tuesday June 12, 9:16 AM
U.N. probes torture allegation by Congo peacekeepers
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Monday its mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was investigating allegations that peacekeepers beat and killed prisoners in reprisal for an ambush in eastern Congo in 2005.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said William Lacy Swing, in charge of the mission, had called in the U.N. watchdog from New York, the Office of Internal Oversight, to look into the 2-year-old incident again.
Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, also recently provided additional information, she said.
"There had been a number of investigations into this case," Montas said.
She said the U.N. mission, which supervises more than 17,000 peacekeepers, had found in an earlier probe that "excessive force was used against detainees who were reportedly trying to escape" in the eastern Congo region of Ituri, where fighting between ethnic militias continued after the official end of a 1998-2003 war.
Still, a new investigation was scheduled on the allegations, reported in Monday's Financial Times, which said that U.N. peacekeepers captured 30 suspected militia men in February 2005. Bangladeshi soldiers detained 15 of them in makeshift cells, and allegedly beat and killed some of them.
When the original internal inquiry was completed in 2005, it was not sent to U.N. headquarters or to Bangladeshi authorities, as is the usual practice, the paper said.
Nine U.N. peacekeepers, all from Bangladesh, were killed February 25, 2005, after a U.N. patrol was ambushed in northeastern Congo. Days after the attack, U.N. soldiers killed at least 50 militiamen in a fierce battle.
The Congo mission has had a series of scandals with peacekeepers facing harsh conditions in the vast central African country.
Two years, the world body found sexual abuse of children by peacekeepers and civilian staff.
More recently, Reuters and other media reported that Pakistani peacekeepers had traded gold for funds with militia.
These accusations stem from late 2005, when Pakistani peacekeepers were stationed in the mining town of Mongbwalu in the Ituri district.

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Congo launches mining contract review
KINSHASA, June 11 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's government launched a review of around 60 mining contracts on Monday aimed at ensuring the deals are legal and fair.
Most of Congo's mining contracts were agreed during a 1998-2003 war or under a three-year transitional government, which included the various factions from the six-year conflict.
"The experts will have the delicate job of exposing all irregularities that taint these contracts," Congo's Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu told journalists and diplomats in the capital Kinshasa.
"They will highlight the dishonesty in each contract, and then we will make propositions to each partner," he said.
Congo, which holds a tenth of the world's copper reserves and a third of its cobalt, suspended all negotiations on future mining deals on March 27, pending the completion of the review.
Local and international watchdogs have criticised many of its existing deals for not conforming to international norms.
A shake-up of the sector had been widely expected since President Joseph Kabila took office in December after winning the mineral-rich but cash-strapped central African nation's first democratic elections in more than 40 years.
CONTRACT CANCELLATION WORRIES
With the return of stability in much of Congo, investment by major mining companies has boomed over the past few years.
Since the review process was announced in March, ministry officials have sought to reassure investors by saying the review panel is not planning a widespread overhaul of the contracts.
However, Kabwelulu stopped short of saying no contracts would be dissolved as a result of the findings.
"I don't want to say just yet if there will be any eventual cancellation of contracts. We are confident that the partners we've signed contracts with want to see our country develop. I hope no contracts will be cancelled," he said.
Peter Rosenblum, a lawyer with U.S.-based Carter Center brought in to advise and monitor the panel's work, said some cancellation of contracts could be unavoidable.
"The revisitation that they are speaking of does not imply cancellation or renegotiation and doesn't exclude cancellation or renegotiation in extreme circumstances," he said.
"If there are agreements that are patently illegal, then I don't see how anyone is going to avoid some kind of cancellation," he told Reuters.
Rosenblum said he expects all mining contracts reviewed during the process to be made public in order to ensure transparency.
Companies operating or prospecting in Congo's fast-expanding mining sector include the world's largest diversified miner BHP Billiton and the world's third-biggest gold producer AngloGold Ashanti .
U.S. major Phelps Dodge, recently purchased by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc , and London-listed Nikanor Plc are investing heavily in projects in Congo's southeastern Katanga province, the country's mining heartland.
Ministry officials have said they want the entire review of contracts to be completed within 90 days. However, Rosenblum said he expected the process to take around six months
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Congo-Kinshasa: Monuc Determined to Assist Govt in Ending the Presence of Armed Groups in the Country

United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)
PRESS RELEASE11 June 2007Posted to the web 11 June 2007
The presence of foreign armed groups on DRC territory was discussed during the tripartite (plus one) meeting which was completed in Lubumbashi on June 7 2007, including delegations from the governments of Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
With the completion of this meeting, it is now an opportune time to give a progress report on MONUC's efforts in assisting the DRC government to resolve the issue of armed groups still active on Congolese soil.
At the beginning of MONUC's Disarmament, Demobilization, Repatriation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRRR) process in 2002, the estimated number of armed elements and their families, pertaining to the ex Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and the Rwandan Interahamwe militia, as well as Ugandan and Burundian rebels, totaled almost 18,000.
To date, besides those who returned home themselves, or who died in exile or were killed in combat, there are nearly 10,000 combatants with 5,000 family members who left the DRC, and whose repatriation was completed thanks to MONUC's DDRRR programme. The return of such a great number of ex-combatants and their dependents to their countries of origin is a demonstration of the effectiveness of these DDRRR activities.
This MONUC programme of voluntary repatriation has always been active, and allows members of foreign armed groups based in the DRC to join the process at any time. MONUC ensures their safety and transports them to their countries of origin where World Bank reintegration programmes continue to operate.
Due to increasing resistance from the hardest and most extreme elements, in particular their commanders, it became necessary, for some time, to accentuate the pressure exerted on these groups by increasing the military and political aid MONUC provides to the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
MONUC estimates that approximately 6,000 to 7,000 foreign armed combatants remain on the ground in the RDC, figures in accordance with the actual estimates of the Congolese Government. MONUC will continue to act, in cooperation with the Congolese authorities, in order to put an end to the presence and activities of foreign armed groups on Congolese territory.
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Congo's Bemba to remain in Portugal over safety
09 Jun 2007 13:29:28 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA, June 9 (Reuters) - Congolese opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba will remain in self-imposed exile in Portugal and not return to Congo as planned because he fears for his safety, an adviser to the former rebel chief said on Saturday.
Bemba, elected a senator after losing landmark presidential elections in 2006, was granted a 60-day leave of absence by the Senate leadership in early April to seek medical treatment in Portugal after heavy fighting between his personal guard and government troops in Kinshasa in which hundreds of people died.
Bemba left Democratic Republic of Congo on April 11 after nearly three weeks holed up in the South African embassy, saying troops loyal to President Joseph Kabila were trying to kill him. The deadline for his return was Saturday.
"He is not coming back today," Fidel Babala told Reuters, adding that necessary measures to ensure Bemba's security had not been put in place.
"You saw what happened in March. What is there to ensure that doesn't happen again?" he said.
Fighting erupted on March 22 after fighters loyal to Bemba, who headed the rebel Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) during a 1998-2003 war, defied an army order to report for demobilisation.
IMMUNITY QUESTIONS
Kabila and his government have placed blame for the violence and subsequent widespread looting on Bemba, who as a senator enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution.
Public Prosecutor Tshimanga Mukeba wrote to the provisional head of the Senate on March 10 requesting that Bemba's immunity be lifted so that he could be prosecuted as the "intellectual author" of the violence.
Accusations cited by Mukeba included threatening internal state security, murder, armed robbery and destruction of property, according to the letter seen by Reuters.
However, the Senate, which held its first session late last month and was in session on Friday, has yet to take a decision on Bemba's fate.
"His name wasn't mentioned once," said Evariste Mabi Mulumba, a former prime minister who is now a senator.
Bemba's refusal to return to Congo within the 60-day period granted him means he may risk losing his seat in the Senate and the immunity that comes with it. Babala said he was not worried by that possibility.
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DRC to open up public companies to private capital
Sat Jun 9, 5:16 PM ET
KINSHASA (AFP) - The government of the
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Democratic Republic of Congo has decided to gradually open up state-owned companies to private partners to help boost economic growth, a top government official said Saturday.
The reform of public enterprises will help modernise the institutions and disengage the state from market activities in targetted sectors, including mines, water and electricity, hydrocarbons, transport, and telecommunications and finances.
The goal is to promote the public-private partnerships in sectors which drive the economy "in terms of contributing to the gross national product, to public finances, to foreign resources and employment," said Jeannine Mabunda, the minister of portfolio.
The state will disengage from a certain number of enterprises and proceed with "partial handovers," while excluding "any total privatisation at this stage," Mabunda said.
The steering committee for the reform of state companies, created in 2002 and supported by the
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World Bank, is charged with proposing the overall strategies, by sector and by company, and to assist the institutions in carrying out the reforms.
"The public enterprises must perform" and for that "competent representatives are needed," Mabunda said.
She criticised the "politicalisation" of the management of state companies during the DRC's period of political transition from 2003 until general elections last year.
During the transition, all the positions in the public institutions and companies were assigned by quotas set by the ruling parties of the former fighters during the country's five-year civil war who took part in the interim government.
Mabunda did not indicate how long it would take to institute these reforms, which must be directed by an inter-ministerial commission that is to expected to be created at a cabinet meeting next week.
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Deforestation accelerating in Central Africa

Abiose Adelaja 8 June 2007Source: SciDev.Net
Central Africa is steadily giving way to industrial logging, a new research report shows.
The report, published today (8 June) in the journal Science, highlights the rapid expansion of the logging frontier in the Congo Basin, including Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo. It shows the need to conserve forested landscapes while also sustaining timber production crucial for Central African nations.
Central Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo, contains the last frontiers for logging expansion in Africa, Nadine Laporte, a scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center in the United States and one of the authors of the report, told SciDev.Net.
In Central Africa as a whole, 600,000 square kilometers of forest –– 30 per cent — has been conceded for logging, whereas only 12 per cent is protected.
Laporte and colleagues use satellite remote sensing to track the expansion of logging roads for the three decades preceding 2003. Road development provides a measure of the amount of logging that is taking place in forested areas.
They analysed four million square kilometres of the region, using over 300 Landsat satellite images.
The highest densities of logging roads are in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, where 15 per cent of the forest has been disturbed. The most rapidly changing area is in northern Republic of Congo, where the rate of road construction roughly quadrupled between 1976–90 and 2000–02.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which contains 63 per cent of the remaining forest of the region, only one per cent of forest has been disturbed by logging trails and tree-felling. But the analysis also reveals evidence of a new, expanding logging frontier, with an increasing rate of logging-road construction since 1986.
Laporte says that the impact of logging on the forest of Central Africa has not been recorded on such a scale before.
“It has never being timelier to monitor forest degradation in Central Africa because there’s still an opportunity to make a significant difference in reducing the amount of deforestation,” Laporte told SciDev.Net.
She says the ‘average citizen’ will be the one to determine the future of the forests in Central Africa.
“If the average citizen decides he only wants to buy certified wood, the industrial company will have to comply. If they do not care, the forests of the world, not just Africa, could be damaged beyond recovery.”
Demola Omojola, from the geography department at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, said people must become more aware of their environment.
“[People] believe in the concept of having inexhaustible natural resources, and the implication is that we are reckless to our environment and it is showing in the way we are losing biodiversity.”
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DRC halts power supply to Zim over debt

Johannesburg, South Africa
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) severed power supplies to Zimbabwe over an unpaid debt of US$5-million, it emerged on Tuesday.Zimbabwe, which is already experiencing chronic shortages of power, was importing 100MW of electricity from DRC's Snel power company.The DRC power utility has suspended its power exports to Zimbabwe, an official from Zimbabwe power utility Zesa told the official Herald newspaper."Zesa has failed to pay about $5-million dollars to the DRC and the company has since cut off supplies," the source said."Despite the imports, we had a [power] deficit and now it's worse because of the [DRC] debt," the unidentified source said.Zimbabwe's towns and cities have been experiencing daily power cuts of up to 14 hours. Last week, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse after a breakdown at the country's main thermal power station.Scarce supplies of electricity are reportedly being directed to farming districts to irrigate the country's small wheat crop in a bid to stave off imminent food shortages.It emerged last week that Zimbabwe was only importing 200MW of power from regional suppliers -- usually the source of 35% of the country's electricity -- due to a shortage throughout Southern Africa.Despite the cuts, Zimbabwe's Zesa Holdings has raised its tariffs by more than 50%, causing outrage among consumers. -- Sapa-dpa
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DRC reopens border with Republic of Congo to boost trade


The border between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo in Luozi, Lower- Congo, which has remained closed for almost 10 years, reopened Sunday to the greater satisfaction of the people of the two countries.
The decision to reopen this border was taken by Simon Mbatshi Batshia, governor of Lower-Congo, in consultation with interior, decentralization and security minister Denis Kalume Numbi, in a bid to facilitate trade between the border populations of the two countries.
The region of Luozi in the DRC borders four departments in the Republic of Congo, notably Pool, Banza, Bouenza and Niari covering a total of 218 km. Out of the 10 administrative sectors in Luozi, six share a common border with the Republic of Congo.
The move is expected to contribute to the improvement of the socio-economic situation of the border populations of the two countries through enhancement of trade.
Source: Xinhua
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South Africa: DRC to Further Solidify Ties and Support

BuaNews (Tshwane)
11 June 2007Posted to the web 11 June 2007
Michael AppelPretoria
South Africa is to solidify its ties with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and continue its support to one of Africa's newest democracies when talks between the two nations' presidents kick off this week.
President Thabo Mbeki will be hosting his Congolese counterpart President Joseph Kabila at Tuynhuys in Cape Town, on Thursday and Friday.
The state visit will encompass bilateral discussions on South Africa's commitment to consolidate relations with the DRC, support the political economic, reconciliation and nation building processes in the country.
The Department of Foreign Affairs says issues on the agenda include "the status of bilateral political and economic relations between both countries including future and sustained co-operation."
Mr Kabila will be speaking on the "vital security sector reform" process in aid of creating a unified Congolese defence force.
Military analyst with the Africa Security Analysis Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, Henri Boshoff, wrote that Security sector reform "is the transformation of the security system, which includes all the actors, their roles, responsibilities and actions, so that it is managed and operated in a manner that is more consistent with democratic norms and sound principles of good governance."
Also on the agenda are discussions regarding support from the United Nations (UN) and the international community in pursuing political and economic reform.
Mr Mbeki is also expected to discuss the "recently concluded G8 + 5 and African outreach session", says the department.
Foreign Affairs says "South Africa's assistance to the DRC is informed by its vision of an 'African Renaissance' of peace, stability and security and sustained renewal, growth and socio-economic development for the African continent."
Government spokesperson Themba Maseko, recently said Mr Kabila's visit will be a pertinent moment for the world to take cognisance of "a country whose emergence from decades of civil war has highlighted the advances being made on the continent".
South Africa has been heavily involved in post conflict reconstruction and development in the DRC, and was one of the key players in fostering the DRC's first democratic election held on 30 July 2006.
South African organisations printed the ballots, distributed them across the vast, resource rich nation and assisted with ICT support for the monitoring and counting process.
A 108-member National Observer Team was deployed to the country to observe both rounds of the elections.
The department says South Africa welcomes the "renewed MONUC mandate which has been extended to December 2007".
With over 17 000 blue helmets stationed in the DRC, MONUC - the UN's mission in the DRC - is the largest deployment of UN forces anywhere in the world.
Mr Kabila will also be addressing a Joint Sitting of the South African Parliament and interacting with South African Business sectors.
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Uganda: Minister Kiyonga Warns Congo On ADF

New Vision (Kampala)
10 June 2007Posted to the web 11 June 2007
John Nzinjah & John ThawiteKampala
THE UPDF is prepared to re-enter the DR Congo and flush out Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels if the Congolese authorities fail to do so.
This was the message of the defence minister, Crispus Kiyonga, during the World Environmental Day national celebrations in Kasese.
He said about 100 ADF rebels recently entered the country through Bundibugyo district but 81 of them were killed by the army.
"We have many times told the Congolese leadership to check the rebels. But if they don't heed, we can re-enter that country and end the rebel menace," Kiyonga vowed.
The UPDF in 1996 crossed into Congo to pursue the rebels who had attacked Kasese district and fled.
Kiyonga appealed to relatives of the rebel to ask them to abandon the rebellion.
On the controversial Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu (Rwenzururu cultural institution), Kiyonga said the Government would consider the proposals of a committee which was set up by President Museveni to study the matter.
He attacked some politicians for using the kingship question to solicit for votes.
The function was attended by the Water and Environment minister, Maria Mutagamba.
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KINSHASA (AFP) - The head of the air force in the
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Democratic Republic of Congo grounded domestic flights Friday when he banned aircraft at Kinshasa's international airport from refuelling, airport sources said.
About 10 planes were affected when General John Numbi sent troops to seal off access to fuel tanks at N'Djili airport, preventing flights by all the country's airlines, the sources told AFP.
One airport source, who asked not to be named, said Numbi had been enraged when the company stocking fuel refused to supply it to his aircraft on the grounds that the defence ministry's line of credit had been exhausted.
The airport management confirmed that domestic flights had been unable to operate Friday morning, but added that the situation was "returning to normal" and that the troops deployed around the fuel tanks had been withdrawn about 09:30 a.m (0830 GMT).
Refuelling resumed about 90 minutes later.
Government members contacted by AFP declined to comment, but said they were following events closely and would make sure a similar incident did not happen again.
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We want Bemba back, says DRC opposition

June 11 2007 at 03:54PM

Kinshasa - Opposition politicians in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday called on President Joseph Kabila to enable his defeated presidential rival Jean-Pierre Bemba to return from abroad.Bemba, a former vice president, left Kinshasa in April under the protection of United Nations armoured vehicles, three weeks after violent clashes between the DRC army and his bodyguard which ended with the rout of Bemba's forces.He has been in exile in Lisbon since then, ostensibly for medical treatment.In last year's presidential election Bemba, standing as the candidate of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), qualified for the final run-off round but was defeated by 58 percent to 42 percent of the vote.
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Uganda: Presidential Monarchy Good

The Monitor (Kampala)
OPINION11 June 2007Posted to the web 11 June 2007
Sam B. Kamanzi
There is an interesting political phenomenon, which contemporary social scientists have not bothered to explain. How come where sons of African dictators have taken power, the countries have experienced improved governance?
There are two shining examples: One example is Togo, where dictator Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled the country for 38 years, was succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbe in Februrary 2005. The other is the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Laurent- Desire Kabila, was succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila in 2001.
I am inclined to conclude that early succession in the apparently increasing African Presidential Monarchs is good for Africa. In last years of African dictatorships, the dictators tend to transform themselves into demigods.
At this point, they close off all other ideas. African people and economies, suffer most in this period, when cliques around dictators feel that their bosses can no longer protect their lives and properties. This feeling creates conditions for more political repression and looting of public property.
The myth of democratisation after the Cold War, has not benefited Africa. Almost every where, elections are stolen, thus denying the people the right to accountable leadership.
In view of the limited options available, and in view of the success stories of Togo and DRC, I suggest that the kingmakers of African dictators, should always press for the deployment of a President's son in a strategic position in readiness for succession.
The sons are usually more modern than their fathers, which makes them alienated from the African extended family. This minimises the chances of turning national treasuries into personal banks. When they become Presidents, they tend to reconcile and bring on board their father's original friends who by then are senior opposition leaders. This enhances national unity.
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