Thirty years of economic warfare over raw materials in eastern Congo
by Peter Küpfer
On 9 November 2024, the Paris Court of Appeal punished a deserving research- er and author with Cameroonian roots, ignoring important facts. For years, his well-researched non-fiction books have been documenting the fact that the Rwan- dan Tutsi minority under the iron-fisted regime of Paul Kagame is doing every- thing it can to whitewash the true story of the Rwandan catastrophe of 1994, its causes and itsconsequences. Despite ob- vious democratic deficiencies, the govern- ment in Kigali presents itself as a saviour that, by taking power at the last moment, put an end to the massacres. However, the reality was not as noble as is written in their primers and memorials.
The days of the trial as well as the verdict were followed with great interest in Af- rica, too. The accused and now convict- ed Charles Onana iswell known there for his meticulously researched books. In re- cent years, he has repeatedly published well-founded accounts of the ongoing cri- sis in eastern Congo. In more recent books, he has been able to document his doubts about Rwanda’s official historical narrative even better, havingaccess to previously in- accessible archive documents. Now he has been hit by Kagame’s long arm. Kagame- affiliated “woke culture” French circles with their dazzling concept of racism have successfully filed a lawsuit against Onana and his publisher. They claim that in his book “Rwanda, la vérité sur l’Opération turquoise”1 (“Rwanda, the truth about the Operation Turquoise”, published in 2019, he “denies” the Rwandangenocide, relativ- ises it and thus hurts the feelings of the vic- tims’ families. The Court of Appeal upheld the prosecution on all counts and fined the author heavily. Anyone who has read even
it exclusively as a consequence of “racism” and to define that term in as woolly a way as the French or- ganisations representing the prose- cutionstereotypically do when re- ferring to this subject. For these reasons, the informed, critical Af- rican public indignantly speaks of an embarrassing judgment. Mr. Onana, now vehemently attacked by the major media in the West, im- mediately declared that he would appeal against the verdict.
It is all about coveted natural resources
As is true for all warlike excesses of violence, the prehistory holds the key to understanding also in this instance. In the spring, the EU signed abeneficiary pact with Rwanda, which, if you somewhat decipher the legalese, is mainly concerned with guaranteeing EU- Europe a long-termsupply of “criti- cal” raw materials. In this case, it is primarily about the rare tantarum, which is extracted from the min- eral tantalite. Tantarum isin great demand all over the world. With- out tantarum, the modern arms in- dustry is nothing but scrap metal. Due to its extreme conductivity and heat resistance, tantalite is ex- cellent for the manufacture of com- puter technology devices, not only cell phones, but above all power- fulcomputers (including computer game consoles), as well as drones, remote-controlled weapons and space technology – and it is also indispensable for the protective shells of nuclear reactors. Tantar-
View of the largest coltan and cobalt mine in North Kivu, the Rubaya mine. Here, thousands of miners worked on their own account and with
minimal protection in the shafts, at a wage of 1 US dollar per 14 hours of work. Rubaya alone pro- duced half of the Congolese tantalite on theworld market. The mine has recently been occupied by the M23 militia, equipped and directed by Rwan- da. (picture screenshot)
only one of Onana’s books will appreciate the absurdity of this verdict.
Onana is no ‘negationist’
Onana does not negate the fact that mas- sacres took place at the time and that hun- dreds of thousands fell victim to them. However, based onthorough research, he insists on three unshakeable facts.
In the “Rwandan genocide” of 1994, al- ways portrayed in Western accounts exclu- sively as a Tutsi massacre committed by the Hutu, there werealso many Hutus among the victims, murdered by Tutsi groups. Then Kagame’s troops themselves com- mitted similar massacres against theHutus before, after and during the “100 days of Rwanda”. And finally, according to Onana, it is a criminal neglect of the true causes of thecatastrophe of that time to describe
um is rare worldwide. It is most common- ly found as a mineral compound known as “coltan” (columbite-tantalite) and must then be extracted from this.
Rwanda is the world market leader in tantalite – without a single mine of its own
Admittedly, Rwanda does not have a sin- gle mine that is worth mining. Neverthe- less, the dwarf state is now the global mar- ket leader for coltan. On the other hand, the eastern Congo, especially North Kivu, is dotted with coltan mines from which tantalite is extracted. Coltan is often ex- tracted in open-cast mining, and child la- bour is standard almost everywhere. It is the only meagre source of income for many of those inhabitants of who have not yet been displaced from this war zone
of almost thirty years. Many of these im- provised mining sites have been occupied by anonymous mercenary groups for dec- ades. They callthemselves “rebel groups” in deliberate deception;
in reality they are mainly foreign merce- naries in the service of international com- modity consortia, many of them under American direction. The largest of these groups is the M23. All critical experts agree that it is equipped and deployed by Rwan- da. In this context, many speak of“Rwan- da’s extended arm in the eastern Congo”.
The misfortune of having strategically important substances in your subsoil
According to Human Rights Watch, the war for “strategic resources” in eastern Congo, which has been going on uninter-rupted for 28 years, has claimed around 10 million human victims, the majority of whom are civilians, many of them women and children. In the words of Charles Onana, it has become a permanent war between the fully armed dwarf Rwanda with its strong army of 120,000 soldiers and itsneighbour, the Democratic Repub- lic of the Congo.
The Congolese army has little chance against its permanent occupation by Rwan- da-controlled phantom armies. Alarming re- ports from easternCongo in recent months have revolved around attacks by the “M23” mercenary gang towards Goma. Wherever they appear, the M23 causes panic andwild refugee movements. So unspeakable refu- gee suffering was this autumn also reported from the Goma region, concentrated on the neighbouringtown of Sake. What is this ad- vance aimed at? It has given the “M23” con- trol of the largest coltan mine in the Congo, the Rubaya mine. This is located in the coltan-rich hills between Goma and Sake, where rocket and artillery fire has been going on for weeks, its targets mainly civil- ian.These hills are now deserted. The tanta- lite mined in the huge Rubaya mining area pours a monthly profit of 300,000 dollars into the coffers of theoccupiers and there- fore, more recently, into those of Rwan- da. According to Radio France inter, Rib- aya alone accounts for 15 % of the world’stantalite production. Women and children continue to transport the heavy sacks on their backs to the next collection point over rough, steepmountain paths that are soaked when it rains. Under Congolese conditions,
| Tekstboks: USA blocked out chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte “To put it bluntly – we were not able to investigate the Tutsis because the Tutsi-dominated government with its President Kagame, a general of the FPR at its worst, systematically pre- vented us from doing so – but above all because the US and the UK support- ed the Rwandans in their refusal. Kagame had cooperated in the prosecu- tion of the Hutu killings, but stopped cooperating when it came to the mas- sacres committed by the Tutsis. And he got away with this attitude thanks to his American and British friends, even though according to the statute he was obliged to cooperate. […] I regret that because of them, the Rwanda Tri- bunal was never really able to work in- dependently and to fulfil its duty to- wards the victims of the other side.” Carla del Ponte: Ich bin keine Heldin. Mein langer Kampf für Gerechtigkeit (I am not a heroine. My long fight for jus- tice.) Frankfurt/Main 2021, p. 84f. (Translation Current Concerns) |
an adult miner was paid 1 US dollar for 14 hours of hard work in the mines, and he bore the risk of the frequent tunnel break- ages alone. Havethese conditions improved under Rwandan patronage? The atrocities of the “rebel” groups are committed daily, the plight of refugees remains aconstant. You do not speak about this suffering in east- ern Congo. When it becomes obvious, peo- ple quickly look the other way. It is what the mafia “families” characterise by the Ital- ian term “Omertà”: You have heard nothing, you have seen nothing, you say nothing – or else …
The ‘code of silence’ favours crimes against humanity
For years, courageous analysts, histori- ans and political scientists have been ex- posing the Rwandan-American-Europe- an construct of lies,among them Africans undaunted by death. Charles Onana clear- ly belongs to this legion of honour in this economic war. His book, now “ostra- cised” by the Paris court ruling, is anoth- er important work contributing to the la- borious restoration of reality.
Current Concerns has previously re- ported in detail on the subject of the Rwandan blood spring of 1994 and its consequences.2 Onana in no way denies the facts of the massacres committed in Rwanda in 1994. But he shows and sub- stantiates with facts and documents that not only members of the Tutsi popula- tion were killed in the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, but also Hutu and Twa.
Onana comes to the conclusion that the massacres were mutual and that, if one considers all the victims on the Hutu side, they equalled or even outnumbered those of the Tutsi. Kagame’s civil war troops had systematically committed horrific crimes against the Hutu civilian popula- tion in the war they waged against their own countrymen from 1990-1994. The men of the reconquered settlements, main- ly inhabited by Hutus, wereoften execut- ed en masse, while women and children were taken prisoner. Onana testifies to this in others of his analyses and it is also at- tested to by renowned other authors, in- cluding in the so-called “Mapping Re- port” compiled by the UN, which makes names, data and facts available on the in- ternet to anyone interested (Mapping Re- port A/HRC/25/53, English and French).
The Swiss chief prosecutor at the In- ternational Criminal Tribunal for Rwan- da in Arusha, Carla de Ponte, had in her hand evidence at process maturity level of ten serious crimes against humanity, committed by high-ranking officers of the Tutsi civil war army. She was forbidden to press the relevant charges, following the American president’s sovereign inter- vention. When she objected, her mandate was not renewed (seebox). And on top of
everything, the FPR had not put a stop to the killings during the “Hundred Days” in Rwanda from 6 April to 12 July 1994 after its assumptionof power, as Kagame claimed at every opportunity. His troops had been surrounding the capital Kiga- li for weeks, but let the carnage run its course for many weeks.
The fact that Kagame is only now tak- ing legal action against Onana, and against this particular book as no other, is not be- cause he wants justice for the Tutsi vic- tims. Rather, it is an attempt to silence a voice that names and documents the ter- rible history and the exact circumstanc- es of the 1994 catastrophe. Onana has un- covered the responsibility of the Rwandan government in numerous studies.
The fact that Rwanda is now using the 2019 book in particular as a pretext to tar- nish his reputation has purely tactical rea- sons. In Onana’s latest book, Holocauste au Congo (2023, ISBN 9782810011452),
he shows over 480 pages that there is a holocaust against the eastern Congolese civilian population going on to the pre- sent day, for whichmercenaries controlled by Rwanda and their anonymous suppliers in the West bear heavy responsibility, but so does the EU Commission, being blind here, entering in bloody agreements with this government as well as knowing but disregarding everything that is not said. •
1 Onana, Charles. La Vérité sur l’Opération Tur- quoise. Quand les archives parlent, L’Artilleur, 2019, ISBN 2810009171 (The truth about the Operation Turquoise. When archives speak.) French edition available at Fnac Schweiz
2 “The ‘post-Mobutist’ Congo: The USA is betting on Rwanda – Congo – kleptocracy with no end in sight? (part 4)”, in: Current Concerns No 3 of 8 February 2018; “The permanentwar in eastern
Congo is based on a construct of lies”, in: Current Concerns No. 9 of 7 May 2024
“The book they want to ban” (Le livre qu’ils veulent interdire): Charles Onana’s incriminated book (Charles Onana: La Vérité surl’Opération Tur-
quoise. Quand les archives parlent, L’Artilleur, 2019, ISBN 2810009171)