Congolese combatants have created global support networks

Supporters of the rebel group FDLR in North America and Europe are part of “a far-reaching international diaspora network involved in the day-to-day running of the movement, the co-ordination of military and arms trafficking activities and the management of financial activities,” the UN panel says.

Cassiterite, a key component of tin, makes its way from Congolese mines controlled by the FDLR to a Malaysian and Thailand-based company, a unit of a UK-based firm, the report reveals.

Large quantities of gold trafficked through Uganda and Burundi go to buyers in the United Arab Emirates, according to the study.

Two Catholic charities based in Spain contribute funding to the FDLR, the panel reports.

Sudan for its part has supplied arms to the DRC in violation of the Security Council resolution, the report charges.

“Testimony and documentation provided to the Group confirms that 18 arms transport flights to the DRC originated in Khartoum, the Republic of Sudan between September 2008 and February 2009,” the experts say.

Smuggling

The report further finds that a Kenya-based airline “failed to concretely offer meaningful co-operation” to the expert panel’s investigation of the transport of gold smuggled out of the DRC.

China and North Korea have shipped weapons to the DRC’s army, according to the panel.

North Korea gave no notification to the UN of its shipments — as is required under a Security Council resolution — and China has not fully complied with the UN panel’s requests for details about its shipments, according to the experts.

South Africa and Angola, as well as the government of Greece, have likewise not provided requested information about their respective training programmes for Congolese government forces, the report notes.

The panel is also seeking information from the United States regarding the sale of a Boeing 727 aircraft to the DRC military earlier this year.

The plane was purchased for $806,000 by a US national who had worked as the personal pilot of Joseph Kabila, leader of the rebellion in Congo that overthrew the Mobutu Sese Seko dictatorship.

The UN peacekeeping force in the DRC, known as Monuc, has co-operated with Congolese government forces that have allegedly raped, tortured and abducted civilians.

Sections of the Congolese military also divert weapons to rebel groups, the report says.

Monuc continues to work with a DRC military leader, Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, the experts point out.

In an apparently deliberate understatement, the report cites a “possible contradiction” between Monuc’s mandate to protect Congolese civilians and its support for DRC military units that carry out “military operations in disregard of protection of civilians and for international humanitarian law.”