Posted on 9-8-2004

Three US Companies Complicit In Civil War

Friend of the Earth-United States (FoE) and the UK-based group Rights and
Accountability in Development (RAID) filed a formal complaint with the
U.S. State Department today against three American companies. In October
2002, a United Nations (UN) Panel of Experts accused the companies of
helping to fuel the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The Panel named Cabot Corporation, Eagle Wings Resources International and
OM Group, Inc. as having violated the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) “Guidelines for Multinational
Enterprises,” a set of international standards for responsible corporate
behavior.

FoE and RAID filed an official complaint today because the State
Department, which has oversight for determining whether U.S. companies
have breached the OECD Guidelines, has declined to undertake an
independent investigation into whether these companies might have
contributed to the war in the DRC.

“If the State Department refuses to conduct an independent investigation,
a troubling message will be sent to U.S. companies. They’ll know that
they can get away with helping to finance violent conflict and human
rights abuses without any repercussions,” said Colleen Freeman, policy
analyst with Friends of the Earth. “We ought to know whether American
companies contributed to one of Africa ’s deadliest wars so it doesn’t
happen again.”

The Panel’s three-year investigation found that sophisticated “elite
networks” of high‑level political, military and businesspersons, in
collaboration with various rebel groups, intentionally fueled the conflict
in order to retain control over the country’s vast natural resources. The
Panel implicated many Western companies for directly or indirectly helping
to fuel the war.

In its final, October 2003 report, the Panel said that no further
investigation was required into the activities of Cabot, Eagle Wings and
OM Group. But the Panel did make clear that “resolution should not be
seen as invalidating the Panel’s earlier findings with regard to the
activities of these actors.”

“Now that a formal complaint has been submitted, the U.S. government, as a
signatory to the OECD Guidelines, is obligated to examine whether breaches
have occurred,” said Patricia Feeney, director of RAID. “Clearly there
are many unanswered questions that the State Department must examine. The
conduct of the U.S. companies has to be measured against internationally
agreed standards in a transparent process – not behind closed doors.”

Boston-based Cabot Corporation allegedly purchased coltan from the DRC
during the war. While Cabot has denied these allegations, a report by the
Belgian Senate states that Eagle Wings Resources International had a
long‑term contract to supply Cabot with coltan. Current Deputy
Director of the Department of Treasury, Samuel Bodman, was CEO and
Chairman of Cabot from 1997-2001.

Trinitech Holdings is the holding company for Ohio-based companies, Eagle
Wings Resources LLC and Trinitech International, Inc. Eagle Wings
Resources International (EWRI) is a joint venture between Dutch company,
Chemie Pharmacie Holland BV (CPH) and Trinitech Holdings. The Panel
asserts that EWRI received privileged access to coltan sites and captive
labor because of its close ties to the Rwandan military. The Panel has
accused the Rwandan regime of mass-scale looting, systemic exploitation,
and the organization of an elite network centrally located in the Rwandan
Defense Department, set up specifically to exploit the DRC’s natural
resources.

Ohio-based OM Group’s joint venture with a Belgian national, George
Forrest, Groupement pour le Traitement des Scories du Terril de
Lumbumbashi, Ltd. (GTL) is accused by the Panel of deliberately ignoring
technical agreements that provide for the construction of two electrical
refineries and a converter for germanium processing in the DRC from the
“Big Hill” project. Instead, semi‑processed ore from the mine was
shipped to OM Group’s processing facility in Finland , thereby robbing the
state mining company, Gécamines, of millions of dollars in revenue. At
issue is whether the complex corporate structure was intended to deny
Gécamines the benefits of the future sales of minerals with significant
commercial potential at a time when the country was at war and there was
no functioning government or mining ministry to protect the interests of
Gécamines and by extension, the Congolese people.

Separate to the Panel’s allegations concerning the Big Hill project, a
recently released World Bank environmental report raised concerns about
the exploitation of radioactive minerals from concessions owned by
Gécamines, such as the Shinkolobwe uranium mine. There is evidence that
Societe pour le Traitement des Scories du Terril de Lubumbashi (STL) – a
company created by GTL in 1997 – processed radioactive minerals to obtain
cobalt at the company’s plant in Lubumbashi , which is situated close to a
hospital. The Belgian Senate concluded that airborne and waterborne
pollution could not be discounted. At issue is whether the measures in
place at OM Group’s plant in Lubumbashi were sufficient to prevent
radioactive contamination of the Congolese workforce and whether the local
population was exposed to unacceptably high risk of pollution from the
operations of the plant.

“It has been nine months since the United Nations published the Panel’s
final report and so far the only serious attempt to respond to the Panel’s
allegations has been made by Belgian judges investigating money laundering
and illicit arms transactions linked to the trade in coltan and diamonds
by Belgian companies and banks. In South Africa , the courts have also
started to uncover assets held in the names of senior Congolese political
figures as a result of breach of contract lawsuits brought by businessmen
against the DRC Government,” said Feeney.

The basis for the complaints is RAID’s report entitled “Unanswered
Questions: Companies, Conflict and the Democratic Republic of Congo .”