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01/05/2006:

"Congolese Mineral Wealth As Coveted As Ever"

...United Nations officials first sought to highlight this matter several years ago, accusing various states (including Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda) of widespread looting of the DRC's mineral wealth.

In addition to deploying troops in the DRC during its five-year conflict, Uganda and Rwanda also backed various ethnic, Congolese factions. Both countries used security concerns to justify their actions in the DRC -- Rwanda saying its stability was threatened by the presence of genocide suspects in eastern Congo.

A number of Hutu militants who helped carry out Rwanda's 1994 genocide fled to the then Zaire as Tutsi rebels took control of Rwanda in that year. This laid the ground for Rwanda's first invasion of the Congo in 1996, which led to the downfall of Zairean leader Mobutu Sese Seko.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, were "on the verge of becoming godfathers of illegal exploitation of natural resources" observed a report by a U.N. panel of experts in 2001.

As 2006 gets underway, the illicit trade in gold, tin, timber, diamonds, coltan and other resources continues, fueled by demand from European and south-east Asian firms that import the resources from Uganda and Rwanda.
ipsnews.net