Agenzia Fides REPORT - “The tragedy in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues, while the international community assists helplessly, indifferently, passively, or even knowingly,” said the newsletter sent to Fides by the “Peace Network for the Congo”, promoted by missionaries.
“Murders, rapes, armed attacks and looting are part of a long list of crimes perpetrated against a defenceless and exhausted civilian population. They are the evil consequences of shady arms trafficking and the illegal exploitation of mineral resources,” accuse missionaries. Recently Bishop Mélchisédech Sikuli Paluku of Butembo-Beni, together with all the local clergy complained that in North Kivu, “there is a genocide in the making” (see Fides 27/11/2010).
“We know that in the West politics is conditioned by the interests of finance and economics. For this reason, the international community, who are the beneficiaries of the mineral resources from the DRC, fear a clash with the multinationals, the real holders of power and silent in the face of the Congolese tragedy. It is true that, internationally, some initial proposals are being drafted to defeat the illegal trade of natural resources. In this sense, the U.S. Congress has passed a law to prevent imports of minerals supplied by armed groups, requiring U.S. multinationals to establish the source of the minerals in the DRC. This is a small step forward, but it is just the beginning,” says the Peace Network for the Congo.
The illegal exploitation of mineral resources also has, unfortunately, local accomplices: armed groups and Congolese military officers and politicians who easily allow themselves to be corrupted by foreign multinationals, in view of personal enrichment at the expense of the common good of the entire population.
On 26 November a round table discussion entitled “Remove the veil of silence about the Congo. The massacres in the DRC and the plundering of resources in the recent UN report” was held in Parma. This is a report of about six hundred pages, by the UN High Commission for Human Rights, officially published on 1 October 2010, entitled “Report of the Mapping Project on the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, committed between March 1993 and June 2003 in the territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo”. The roundtable was sponsored by the Peace Network in the Congo, by the Department of Political and Social Studies and by the School of Journalism and Publishing Culture at the University of Parma. Among the speakers was Mathilde Muhindo Mwamini, former National Deputy of the Congo, committed to supporting women in Bukavu, in the province of South Kivu, which led to the testimony of the extreme plight of women in eastern DRC, targets of war violence, subject to rapes and abuses of every kind, inflicted to humiliate an entire people and destroy the future.
“Murders, rapes, armed attacks and looting are part of a long list of crimes perpetrated against a defenceless and exhausted civilian population. They are the evil consequences of shady arms trafficking and the illegal exploitation of mineral resources,” accuse missionaries. Recently Bishop Mélchisédech Sikuli Paluku of Butembo-Beni, together with all the local clergy complained that in North Kivu, “there is a genocide in the making” (see Fides 27/11/2010).
“We know that in the West politics is conditioned by the interests of finance and economics. For this reason, the international community, who are the beneficiaries of the mineral resources from the DRC, fear a clash with the multinationals, the real holders of power and silent in the face of the Congolese tragedy. It is true that, internationally, some initial proposals are being drafted to defeat the illegal trade of natural resources. In this sense, the U.S. Congress has passed a law to prevent imports of minerals supplied by armed groups, requiring U.S. multinationals to establish the source of the minerals in the DRC. This is a small step forward, but it is just the beginning,” says the Peace Network for the Congo.
The illegal exploitation of mineral resources also has, unfortunately, local accomplices: armed groups and Congolese military officers and politicians who easily allow themselves to be corrupted by foreign multinationals, in view of personal enrichment at the expense of the common good of the entire population.
On 26 November a round table discussion entitled “Remove the veil of silence about the Congo. The massacres in the DRC and the plundering of resources in the recent UN report” was held in Parma. This is a report of about six hundred pages, by the UN High Commission for Human Rights, officially published on 1 October 2010, entitled “Report of the Mapping Project on the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, committed between March 1993 and June 2003 in the territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo”. The roundtable was sponsored by the Peace Network in the Congo, by the Department of Political and Social Studies and by the School of Journalism and Publishing Culture at the University of Parma. Among the speakers was Mathilde Muhindo Mwamini, former National Deputy of the Congo, committed to supporting women in Bukavu, in the province of South Kivu, which led to the testimony of the extreme plight of women in eastern DRC, targets of war violence, subject to rapes and abuses of every kind, inflicted to humiliate an entire people and destroy the future.
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