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Global Witness Sues U.K. Government Over `Conflict Minerals' in Congo
A U.K.-based advocacy group said it’s suing the British government for failing to recommend that U.K. companies face United Nations sanctions for buying so- called “conflict minerals” from Democratic Republic of Congo.
Global Witness said companies such as Amalgamated Metals Corp. should be subject to UN sanctions after UN reports linked them to the illicit mineral trade in eastern Congo. Companies or individuals who buy minerals that benefit illegal armed groups in Congo may face sanctions under a 2008 UN resolution that was renewed in 2009.
“What we’d like is a fair and clear procedure for listing companies for sanctions and I think this would benefit companies as well,” Global Witness’ legal adviser, Seema Joshi, said by phone yesterday from London. “How it’s operating right now is very arbitrary.”
AMC isn’t buying minerals from the Congo, the London-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. AMC announced in September that it would stop purchasing Congolese tin ore though its subsidiary, Thaisarco, because it couldn’t guarantee the source of all its minerals. The U.K. government said today it studies reports of companies trading in “conflict minerals” and decides on a case-by-case basis whether to recommend them for sanctions.
“The U.K. government expects all British companies operating in the minerals sector in the DRC to follow high standards of due diligence,” a spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said today in an e-mailed statement.
High Court
The Global Witness complaint, which it said it filed at the High Court in London today, is the latest attempt to force companies in Congo to monitor their mineral purchases. U.S. President Barack Obama on July 21 signed a “conflict minerals” amendment in the U.S. financial reform bill requiring all American companies that buy minerals from Central Africa to receive certification that their purchases are “DRC conflict free.”
War in Congo killed more than 3 million people between 1998 and 2007, according to International Rescue Committee estimates, mainly due to preventable disease and starvation. Fighting continues in the mineral-rich east, where armed groups often support themselves by taxing the trade in natural resources.
Congo is Africa’s largest producer of tin ore, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s website, and also has large deposits of gold, wolframite, and coltan, which are used in jewelry and electronics.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Kavanagh in Kinshasa at mkavanagh9@bloomberg.net.
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