UN Congo Report Ready

By Emmy Allio The final report by United Nations panel of experts on the exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo will on Monday be tabled to the United Nations security Council. A source in UN circles the Security Council has been eagerly awaiting the report it commissioned last October. The panel was set up at the request of the UN Security Council and was to find out links between the continuing conflict and illegal exploitation of DRC resources. The team led by Ms. Safiatou Ba-N`Daw from Ivory Coast was in Uganda last November and talked among others to President Yoweri Museveni and ministers. It said it was here to investigate illegal exploitation of resources of Congo, a country where Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia. Excerpts of the report published on March 23 by Paris-based Le Monde named Ugandan and Rwandan military officers among the groups that are pillaging and looting Congo. It named USA, German, Belgium and Kazakhstan as leading buyers of the illegally exploited resources of Congo. Le Monde said Rwanda has a well structured system established since 1996 when the tiny Central African country catapulted the late Laurent Kabila to power, and that Rwanda uses proceeds from Congo's resources to finance its military. Ends