Democratic Republic of Congo
Digging for victory
Mining is Congo’s best hope of prosperity but also its biggest worry
Sep 24th 2011 | BUKAVU AND GOMA | from the print edition
WIDE as the gulf often is between a country’s economic potential and its citizens’ prosperity, it is rarely as gaping as in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many thousands of Congolese die every year as a result of political violence, disease and poverty, yet the ground below them is brimming with enough minerals to fill the world’s smelters and metal stores—if only they could be extracted and sold in a legitimate market.
Ramping up mining, as well as oil production, is the declared aim of President Joseph Kabila, who this month announced his candidacy in the next election on November 28th. He thus ended more than a year of uncertainty over his intentions. Foreign observers and his own opposition have bemoaned the shoddiness of preparations for the poll, in a country the size of western Europe, despite a budget of $700m, of which 40% is provided by the UN and other foreign outfits.
The president can afford to ignore his detractors. He is the only candidate who is well-known and has a party machine that can reach voters in the roadless hinterland. The opposition is currently split between ten presidential candidates. Mr Kabila is very likely to win. Even so, his ability to effect change is limited. The national army is little more than a collection of militias and obeys no central command. The Congolese state exists only on paper.
Mr Kabila took office in 2001 after the death of his father, Laurent-Désiré, who had won power four years earlier during a regional war that cost millions of lives. Mr Kabila now wants to turn Congo into an economic powerhouse on the back of vast industrial mining. Success depends on winning over foreign investors and governments, as Congo lacks the skills and capital to develop alone.
The president has made some progress, as he will remind voters in the campaign. Mineral-rich Katanga province has seen large-scale scooping and shovelling. But the provinces of North and South Kivu, studded with gold and other metals, are in turmoil. This could damage his re-election prospects and Congo’s chances of recovery. Kivu is where the war started and where many old demons still lurk.
The dusty streets of Goma, North Kivu’s capital and a mining hub, illustrate Congo’s ills. Metals dealerships dominated the city’s economy until last year but are mostly padlocked now. Repair shops and bars that relied on mining business are empty. So are most public offices. Local government, financed by mining taxes, is insolvent; salaries have not been paid in full for months.
In the past year Goma has suffered a miserable decline. Hundreds of mines in the surrounding countryside have cut output by as much as 95%. At the Humule coltan mine a few gumbooted miners scramble up a red-earth ravine where last year there were thousands. Most stopped coming because they could no longer find buyers for their nuggets of coltan, a metal used in electronic gadgets. They blame what they call “the American law”.
An obscure provision in the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking act forces companies listed in America to disclose the exact source of metals procured from Congo. The intention behind the law was good. Congolese militias and rogue army units, whose members rape and murder with abandon, finance themselves through mining and extortion from miners. The law tries to shame big buyers, such as Apple and Motorola, who use Congolese coltan, into dealing only with bona fide suppliers. But the effect has been to frighten them away from Congo altogether.
So the local economy has dropped off a cliff. Some unemployed miners had been expected to join militias, though evidence that they have done so is scant. Still, militia leaders and corrupt army commanders targeted by the Dodd-Frank law are doing rather well. Unlike legitimate dealers, they run smuggling networks and take metals across borders to sell them. Officials in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda are complicit or turn a blind eye.
Many Congolese think that American congressmen and the human-rights people who lobby them are making a bad situation worse. They denounce the Enough Project, a group backed by several Hollywood stars, that was instrumental in imposing what they call a de facto embargo.
But the status quo was hardly tenable. The Kivus are infested with more than a dozen armed groups who feed off mining. A regional map at the UN compound in Goma shows insurgencies within insurgencies. “There is no security here,” admits a Western aid worker. The UN’s 19,000 peacekeepers are demoralised and itching to go. Mr Kabila would not stop them.
So it is all the more crucial to get foreign firms to help solve Congo’s problems. They need assistance also from neighbouring countries and international organisations. Distinguishing between legitimate miners and rogues is hard. A variety of new schemes are being tested, including a mine-inspection regime and the certification of dealers. But how to do this in a place with few roads, rampant corruption and the constant threat of militia attacks?
Mr Kabila has failed to start building a proper state or to demobilise all militias and create a proper army. His re-election will be welcome only in so far as it will probably retain a measure of stability. Most of Congo has been a bit more secure since he was first elected in 2006. But the turbulent eastern part has barely improved. Militia leaders and rogue army commanders still control swathes of it. The president’s biggest test is whether companies such as Apple and Motorola start buying Congolese minerals again. If not, the gap between economic potential and the people’s misery will continue to widen.
from the print edition | Middle East and Africa
No comments:
Post a Comment