Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-29-Speech-3-107"
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"en.20030129.5.3-107"2
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". – Madam President, the Commission is extremely concerned by the fact that the plunder of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to be one of the main elements fuelling the conflict in the Great Lakes Region.
With this in mind, the Commission has worked actively with the panel of experts on the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo since its establishment.
The Commission organised a meeting in Kinshasa between the experts and the heads of Commission delegations in countries covered by the investigation. The Commission stands ready to continue this constructive cooperation in the future, if required to do so.
The Commission has taken careful note of the report of the panel of experts, which was the subject of a resolution in the UN Security Council last week.
The Commission welcomes the fact that measures have been taken by the Congolese authorities in relation to officials named in the reports and that the government of Uganda has established a judicial commission of inquiry. The Commission shares the UN Security Council's call for all states concerned, in particular Zimbabwe and Rwanda, to conduct investigations and to take appropriate measures in relation to their nationals cited in the report, where the circumstances are justified.
The Commission agrees that the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which really took hold of the country during the war, will only come to an end once the rule of law is really established. Saying that it is restored is a euphemistic reference to the historic reality of that country, but with rule of law and viable administration things can be different. This needs to happen not only in the zones controlled by armed rebel groups, but also over the entire Congolese territory. In that context, the Commission calls on all parties to the Pretoria Agreement signed last December to implement it without delay and to do so in the spirit of the agreement. Moreover, the Commission welcomes the decision taken in Sun City in the framework of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, to establish a special committee to examine the validity of economic and financial agreements made during the war which relate to the exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Together with other donors, the Commission is prepared to support the Democratic Republic of Congo in the transition process and in its efforts to establish an efficient public administration. Recently, the Commission adopted a decision for the grant of EUR 16 million to support capacity building in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This is not a new problem we are discussing. Extraction of mineral wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not a story of transparency and good governance. This was the case long before, during, and after the Mobutu regime. In the footsteps of Laurent Kabila's advances towards Kinshasa, mining concessions changed hands – as did ownership, town by town – as new warlords became masters locally and militarily. This became the subject of the aforementioned investigations.
The Commission considers that, in order to ensure effective action against the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the entire international community must work together. The United Nations Security Council is the appropriate forum to ensure such concerted action. However, given the cross-border nature of the problem, the Commission considers that regional integration bodies such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) should also address the issue.
The Commission welcomes the initiative by the United Nations to organise an international conference on peace, democracy, security and development in the Great Lakes Region. This conference could address the different aspects of illegal exploitation of natural resources from a regional perspective, as part of a long-term strategy and also for the purposes of conflict prevention. It is very important that we guarantee ownership rights and a steady progress towards transparency in these matters, even without UN Security Council resolutions which have a limited reach."@en1
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