The West and Others

Revisiting the continuing plunder of the Democratic Republic of Congo



During the hearing, Ms. McKinney said the legacy of former Pres. Clinton and his foreign policy toward Africa is one of grave deceit. She charged that not only did his administration turn a deaf ear to the genocide that occurred in Rwanda under his watch, but that everyone who aided in the silencing were rewarded with promotions.

"Look at Madeline Albright. At the time U.N. Ambassador, she got promoted to secretary of state," she charged. "Susan Rice, over at the National Security Council, she got promoted to assistant secretary of state for Africa. Kofi Annan, whom The Carlsson Report [a United Nations inquiry] makes 19 observations, of which 17 blame Kofi Annan, and yet [he] gets a promotion to secretary-general and is about to be re-elected as secretary-general."~~Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.)

Corporate greed, combined with a desire to never allow the "throne of civilization" to unite and become self-sufficient, continues to join at the hip the U.S. Government, the United Nations and corporate cartels in a persistent war on Africa, a recent congressional hearing concluded.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) chaired the hearing, "Covert Action in Africa: A Smoking Gun in Washington, D.C.," and led the voices of castigation that claimed the U.S. Government, the UN, private militias and western economic interests possessed complete knowledge of pending civil unrest in Africa and fed the fray between African nations. Their aim was to use war, disease, hunger and poverty as covers while continuing the centuries-old practice of rape and exploitation of the continent's human and mineral resources, testimonies charged.

Among those named as collaborators during the daylong hearing were U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright and international diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman.

Mr. Tempelsman, whose role in the confluence of public policy and private profit as a middleman for the De Beers diamond cartel, according to submitted evidence, helped to shape practically every major covert action in Africa since the early 1950s. Declassified memos and cables between former U.S. presidents and State Department officials over the last four decades named Mr. Tempelsman with direct input in the destabilization of Congo, Sierra Leone, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Rwanda and Ghana.

He earned his stripes with western powers in the overthrow of Ghana's first elected president, Kwame Nkrumah, and the CIA-backed assassination of Congo's first-elected president, Patrice Lumumba, documents reveal.

As late as 1997, Mr. Tempelsman was named in the ongoing cover-up of U.S.-CIA covert support of the former president of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC]), Mobuto Sese Seko, who died in exile in 1997 after the overthrow of his regime by recently assassinated Congolese President Laurent Kabila. Mr. Tempelsman is named as the agent in charge of selling off the gross excess of the strategic diamond stockpile in the United States that was used to fund the deceased dictator's exploits. According to documents entered into evidence, Mr. Tempelsman was rumored in 1998 to have engaged in a romantic relationship with then-Secretary of State Albright.

During the hearing, Ms. McKinney said the legacy of former Pres. Clinton and his foreign policy toward Africa is one of grave deceit. She charged that not only did his administration turn a deaf ear to the genocide that occurred in Rwanda under his watch, but that everyone who aided in the silencing were rewarded with promotions.

"Look at Madeline Albright. At the time U.N. Ambassador, she got promoted to secretary of state," she charged. "Susan Rice, over at the National Security Council, she got promoted to assistant secretary of state for Africa. Kofi Annan, whom The Carlsson Report [a United Nations inquiry] makes 19 observations, of which 17 blame Kofi Annan, and yet [he] gets a promotion to secretary-general and is about to be re-elected as secretary-general."

Rep. McKinney also blasted International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Judge Louise Arbor, who, shortly after suspending the investigation of the April 1994 rocket attack on the presidential plane that killed Presidents Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, was awarded a Canada Supreme Court appointment.

"America's policy toward Africa during the past decade, rather than seeking to stabilize situations where civil war and ethnic turmoil reign supreme, has seemingly promoted destabilization," testified Wayne Madsen, author of "Genocide and Covert Activities in Africa 1993-1999."

Ms. Albright was fond of describing as "beacons of hope" those pro-U.S. military leaders in Africa who assumed power by force, Mr. Madsen said. "These leaders, who include the current presidents of Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Angola, Eritrea, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), preside over countries where ethnic and civil turmoil permit unscrupulous international mining companies to take advantage of the strife to fill their own coffers with conflict diamonds, gold, copper, platinum and other precious minerals including one that is a primary component of computer microchips," he said.

Mr. Madsen said the United States played more of a role in the Rwandan tragedy than it admits, citing the U.S.-backed Rwandan and Ugandan-led invasions of Congo. Speculation behind the recent assassination of Pres. Laurent Kabila and the rapid visit to the United States by his successor and son Joseph Kabila at the same time as a visit by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, coupled with meetings with Corporate Council for Africa and a lavish dinner-reception thrown by Maurice Tempelsman has done little to put America in a favorable light in the region, the author asserts.

"After all, the date of Kabila's assassination [Jan. 16, 2001] was practically 40 years from the very day of the CIA-planned-and-executed assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba," he concluded.

When policy and profit converge

"This is a western syndicated proxy war and, like Sierra Leone, Angola and Sudan, it is war-as-cover for the rapid and unrestricted extraction of raw materials, and war as a means to totally disenfranchise the local people," said Keith Snow, freelance writer and journalist who supplied investigative reports for the panel.

Diamonds, gold, cobalt, manganese, petroleum, natural gas, timber and possibly uranium, he said, are just a few of the major spoils being pillaged behind the scenes as war destroys Africa. "Some of these minerals are almost solely found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo," Mr. Snow said.

One of those minerals, columbium tantalite, or "Col-Tan", is a primary example of the role strategic minerals play in sustaining war. This scarce mineral is found almost exclusively in Eastern Congo and used by western nations in everything from aircraft engines to computer chips.

"Economic interests are a significant factor in the fighting in the DRC," said Bill Hartung, of the World Policy Institute in New York. In his co-authored report "Deadly Legacy Update: U.S. Arms and Training Programs in Africa," the researcher acknowledged the significant role economic interests play in the fighting in the DRC and throughout Africa.

"Africans need western technology, investment and cooperation to transfer minerals. Africans do not process these minerals; they are processed in the west. Africans are not dependent upon minerals used in high-tech industry, sophisticated defense projects, or materials used in space exploration. The west, and particularly the United States, is dependent upon the availability of strategic minerals, many of which the U.S. does not produce. Africa does not have a vibrant market for diamonds, which are cut and distributed in the west," he said.

Western corporations are aware that revenues from mineral exploitation received by African countries involved in war are used to purchase military equipment. Considering the history of a strong U.S.-led corporate presence in Africa, it is quite likely that U.S. mining interests have benefited from the war, concluded the panel.

This may also explain the interest of American Mineral Fields International (AMF), which, according to Mr. Snow, is a classic case of cronyism. The company secured a $1 billion mining deal for cobalt and copper before Laurent Kabila came into power. According to Mr. Snow, the deal was secured through a shared interest; namely Pres. Clinton. AMF's chairman at the time of the deal was Mike McMurrough, a native of Mr. Clinton's hometown of Hope, Arkansas. Mr. Snow also alleged that Mr. Clinton has financial interest in AMF. Former Pres. George Bush Sr. was also cited at the hearing for his advisory board membership at Barrick Gold, Ltd., for which he used his connections with the CIA, having once been director of the spy agency.