Mining kleptocrats and the need for true democracy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Caption: ABC, an Australian television network in this case, documents the deadly collapses and other horrors in Congolese cobalt mines. All while mining kleptocrats and friends grow richer!

An article in the influential Wilson Quarterly reminds us how “America’s Past and Present Collide in the Democratic Republic of Congo”:

“A significant percentage of the human slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries originated from the DRC, as did the rush for rubber and other key minerals that fueled technological innovations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The DRC provided uranium that powered the nuclear bombs dropped in World War II, and was the center of Cold War proxy battles that led to the assassination of a key political leader and subsequent installation of a brutal dictator, which the CIA was accused of helping to facilitate. Multiple armed conflicts in Eastern Congo stemmed from a drive for minerals that propelled the electronics revolution of the early 21st century. The Congolese people and the country’s resources have been at the center of all of it. Tens of millions of Congolese lost their lives from the brutality, violence, and conflicts connected to these and other events.”

Getting down to specifics, the Quarterly article notes the vast corruption in today’s DRC associated with the mining of minerals key to high-tech products such as electric automobiles. What if more money could be diverted from crooked foreigners—and the Congolese politicians abetting them—to improve living standards and social stability? And suppose efforts were stepped up to protect the delicate Congolese ecosystem? A true democratic Congo with free elections is essential to achieve lasting reforms in those areas and others. That, in fact, is a goal of the Biden administration, but challenges abound. Just a few of the recommendations of authors Floribert Anzuluni and Brad Brooks-Rubin—in line with the opinions of Congolese activists, this blog and characters in Drone Child—are:

—Tough sanctions against wrongdoers ranging from Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler to people within President Felix Tshisekedi’s government, which has been secretive about an agreement to let Gertler reclaim mines previously taken away from him.

—A “declaration requirement for owners of now-anonymous entities in mining and other sectors with identifiable links to the DRC; the establishment of a regularly updated, accurate, and comprehensive database of senior-level employees of any government body, including agencies and fully or partially state-owned companies; and mandated due diligence by mining companies when making payments to state-owned companies, their representatives, or state officials, ensuring they are based on clear legal provisions and are paid only to official accounts. All these would help to avoid risks of corruption. Many other initiatives would help advance economic development, labor and environmental standards, and human rights across the mining sector.”

—More staff for “the DRC’s financial intelligence unit, its principal audit agency, its Mining Ministry, its electoral agency (known as CENI), and its related institutions.”

—The U.S. government’s issuance of “multiagency business advisories, akin to those recently issued for Cambodia and Myanmar to help U.S. financial institutions and other private sector actors navigate the complex business environment in the DRC in a lawful and responsible way.”

—Investigations of global financial institutions for the enabling of money laundering.

“The stakes are high for the Biden administration,” Anzuluni and Brooks-Rubin conclude, “and they are even higher for the Tshisekedi government and the Congolese people. This will take a whole of government effort in both countries and require trust and risk-taking from all stakeholders, especially given that so many issues need to be on the table together. But opportunities to address one of our most urgent global challenges while also redirecting the course of history do not come often.

“Will this be real change, or another case of ‘rien ne change’ where a tragic history repeats itself?”

Good question. Beyond the abstract language above, here’s something a little more concrete, as one of many indicator of the direness of the DRC’s condition. Fourteen people, half of them children, were macheted to death just last month in a gold-rich province beset with ethnic feuding.