Congo: UN Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources (Hansard, 5 January 2004)

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean

The UN Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of the Natural Resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has now completed its work. It addressed one of the central and most contentious issues of the conflict in the DRC: the link between the causes of the conflict and the exploitation of natural resources. The panel's final report contains a number of important recommendations about how both the Congolese people and the international community should better manage the exploitation of resources to benefit the people of the DRC. Without losing sight of what has gone on before and the need for justice in appropriate cases, we need to build on many of its positive recommendations.

We agree with the panel that the international community must support the Transitional National Government (TNG) in the DRC. We are already working with the new government in Congo and with international and regional partners to help develop its institutions and to put in place effective management of the country's natural resources. The huge potential of the Congo's natural resources should be exploited legally and in a regulated way, for the benefit of all Congolese. We want to see trade in natural resources become a cohesive factor in regional stability and not a cause of conflict.

We are playing a leading role in helping the TNG make effective its Anti-Corruption Commission. We are helping the new government adhere to the Kimberley Process on the regulated trade in diamonds, which is the country's most significant export. We have funded Global Witness to research and publish an independent preliminary report on resource exploitation, and we are planning to fund further research in this field. We are talking to the TNG about the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which the Prime Minister launched in February 2003.

9WA

We are also engaged in promoting confidence-building measures in the region. We welcome the declaration on Good Neighbourliness made by the Governments of Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the DRC in New York on 25 September, which includes that there must be no illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the DRC. We encourage the states concerned to continue to follow this up with steps to address bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual concern.

The illegal exploitation of resources in the DRC has served to fuel the conflict by funding arms flows. We need to ensure that the arms embargo on groups operating in the DRC is effectively implemented and monitored. We are playing a leading role through our Mission in New York in supporting proposals for an arms embargo monitoring mechanism.

As well as looking forward, we need to address what has happened in the past. We take seriously the allegations made against the British companies named in the report. We have already pursued these allegations: the DTI, as National Contact Point for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines has scrutinised the dossiers referred to it by the UN Panel and has been in contact with the named companies or their representatives to discuss the allegations. Her Majesty's Customs and Excise has studied the UN Panel's papers relating to the UK companies named in the report, but have been unable to take matters further, due to lack of evidence which would be sufficient to mount a criminal investigation. We are disappointed that despite numerous appeals to the panel to furnish detailed information to substantiate its allegations. we have not received any such information. We cannot now pursue the cases named in the report further without more specific information. There is so far no evidence that named companies have breached either OECD guidelines or UK law. We continue to ask the UN to supply us with the information on which the panel based its allegations. We also urge the NGO community to submit any specific information it may have to the National Contact Point.

We continue to press regional states to investigate and, where appropriate, take action on the allegations made in the panel reports. In this respect we welcome the publication of the conclusions of the Commission of Inquiry established by the Ugandan Government. We remain in close contact with the Government of Uganda on follow-up work to the commission's report. We also welcome the establishment of a Judicial Commission by the Rwandan Government and urge it to publicise the results of its investigations.

The panels's final report included a section which the panel chose not to make public, but which was submitted on a confidential basis to the Security Council. It is not appropriate for us to comment on this, but as far as we are aware, none of the companies or individuals named in the confidential section is of British nationality.