UN Panel On Congo Given Deadline

THE United Nations has given its panel of experts who investigated the plunder of valuable minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo up to August 3, to compile its report, writes Alfred Wasike. The panel accused Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and Congolese rebel groups of plundering Congo's wealth. The controversial report was handed to the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on April 16. On May 2, 2001 the UN Security Council urged the accused governments to conduct their own inquiries into the allegations. President Yoweri Museveni recently appointed a probe team led by Justice David Porter to investigate the controversial claims. The Porter commission starts work on Monday. The UN-commissioned panel has determined that a subsidiary of Bayer, a German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant, was fuelling the war in the Congo by buying the mineral coltan there. The company has denied the allegations. The German weekly magazine, Stern, reported on Wednesday that the panel named HC Starck, a Bayer subsidiary, as one of the main purchasers of coltan (colombo tantalite) from the Congo, thereby fuelling the three-year conflict. Ends