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This clip shows UN expert Patrick Smith describing the illegal exploitation of mineral resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during two recent wars and under the rule of President Joseph Kabila. Footage of soldiers and Kabila are shown as the narrator describes the brutality of the DRC armed forces and Kabila’s failure to introduce democratic governance. Excerpts from a UN report describing government corruption are highlighted.

Educational value points

• Smith outlines how the complicated war situation in the DRC has enabled the country’s rich natural resources to be plundered, leaving the population one of the poorest in Africa. He describes the numerous groups, including African and international companies, that have participated in illegal exploitation of resources, often in collusion with corrupt politicians.

• The clip shows President Joseph Kabila, who came to power in 2001 following the assassination of his father. Kabila had some early success in ending internal conflicts and conflicts with the armed forces of neighbouring countries. An end to the Second Congo War was negotiated in 2003. However, after the War the political situation remained unstable, promised democratic elections were postponed and government corruption continued.

• At the time of the UN report, some of the neighbouring countries involved in the exploitation of mineral and forest resources in the DRC were in the process of withdrawing their armies from eastern Congo as outlined in the Pretoria and Luanda peace agreements. The withdrawals meant that wars that had been funded by mineral exploitation of the DRC then had to be funded by other methods, including criminal sources.

• The Second Congo War (1998–2003) resulted in the deaths of about 3.5 million Congolese people. During the War more than $US5 billion worth of DRC resources were siphoned into the hands of what the UN report referred to as 'elite networks’. The networks consisted of political and military elites, business interests and some rebel leaders working within areas of the DRC under Congolese, Rwandan and Ugandan control.

• The clip highlights how Kabila’s army reflects the political and military landscape of the DRC as a complicated mix of factions. The factions include Kabila’s former rebel army, armed rebels from neighbouring Burundi, and about 15,000 members of the Interahamwe – Hutu militia who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide and later fled into the DRC.

• The UN report recommended that restrictive measures be imposed on companies and individuals involved in arms trading and the 'plundering’ of DRC resources. Incentive and disincentive schemes were suggested and the panel called for institutional reforms, and monitoring and reporting on illegal exploitation of resources. The panel stopped short of supporting the imposition of embargos on the export of raw materials from the DRC.