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| Continued Attacks by Rwanda on the Democratic Republic of Congo and conflict minerals | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 22 2014, 05:10 PM (344 Views) | |
| Vonar Roberts | Jul 22 2014, 05:10 PM Post #1 |
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![]() Ignace Gata Mavita wa Lufuta Permanent Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations Ladies and Gentlemen, Today I come before you in the hopes of securing the support of the Security Council, and the General Assembly to impose sanctions on the export of Coltan, and freeze the bank accounts of individuals inside Rwanda who profit from and are involved in the illegal Coltan mineral smuggling network. Recently the United Kingdom reversed a decision it had made back in 2012 to suspend aid to Rwanda, and as we predicted at the time the sudden resumption and increase in British aid to Kigali had the exact opposite effect of promoting peace and stability. Instead of promoting peace and stability this decision resulted in a increase of the frequency of attacks on Congolese border forces by Rwandan forces with there being several incidents a month, and the Kigali government has become even more uncooperative in our efforts to find a diplomatic solution that would end the Rwandan attacks on our country. Based on evidence gathered by the United Nations and other independent sources we believe that corrupt officers in the Rwandan military are attempting to protect lucrative and illegal conflict mineral smuggling routes out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and into Rwanda. We would like to ask that the United Nations impose a binding series of sanctions on Rwanda covering coltan exports from Rwanda as Rwanda has no know domestic supplies of Coltan, yet the Rwandan military reports a annual profit of $175 Million from Coltan sales. This Coltan we believe is supplied by rebel groups who control mine sites inside the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Rwandan military from which it is then sold on the international market ,and the funds are then used to fund rebel operations inside the Democratic Republic of Congo and line the pockets of officers of the Rwandan armed forces. In addition to the sanctions on Coltan sales from Rwanda I would also ask that the Security Council move to condemn Rwanda's attacks against the Democratic Republic of Congo, suspend aid transfers to Rwanda, and freeze the bank accounts of individuals in the Rwandan government and military who would profit from the theft of our own country's natural resources. I yield the floor, Edited by Vonar Roberts, Jul 22 2014, 05:15 PM.
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| Jos1311 | Jul 23 2014, 12:32 AM Post #2 |
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Rwanda UN representative ===== With all due respect but the British forces are gearing up their presence to ensure that the DRC Rwanda border region can be secured better, in order to prevent the incursions we have been seeing by Congolese troops. If all goes well they should be fully operational this month. I find your conclusions on the role of Britain not only harsh, but also worrisome, as you appear to have little issues in severely accusing countries of certain acts without presenting even a shred of evidence for your claim. It is no secret that the DRC military is carrying out anti-rebel operations and in the past they have violated the border in pursuit of these rebels. A similar situation seems to have occurred last week, and as a result a fire fight erupted between the troops. Unlike my congolese counterpart I will not jump to conclusions and place blame on any of the sides, before a Joint Verification Mission and/or UN statement has been released on the matter. I urge you to refrain from making such rash conclusions as well mister Mavita wa Lufuta. I would also like to refute the matters which mister Mavita wa Lufuta presents as facts. His 'facts' are based upon outdated reports and he 'forgets' to mention that Rwanda has considerable mineral resources itself. The annual export revenues of minerals from Rwanda are nearly US$200 million a year, with coltan indeed providing a substantial part of this. They are however nowhere near the amount that mister Mavita wa Lufuta is insinuating, and the fact that market prices for coltan have gone up considerably. The most important fact is however that these earnings are made by the Rwandan government and not the military, while mostly all coltan, and other minerals, come from Rwanda itself. I therefore ask you mister President, to call upon mister Mavita wa Lufuta to end his smear campaign, as it will only serve one purpose namely to deteriorate the relations between our countries. |
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| Chris | Jul 23 2014, 07:08 AM Post #3 |
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Sir Geoffrey Adams Her Britannic Majesty's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador, British personnel inside Rwanda have confirmed that Congolese troops accidentally crossed into Rwandan territory while conducting their operations. We believe that this incursion into the sovereign territory of your neighbour was a mistake, and one that we would hope can be avoided in the future. What I would propose is that, instead of levelling unfounded accusations against both the British and Rwandan governments, that Kinshasa works with us, either directly or through MONUSCO to eradicate rebels in the Kivu region. By undertaking independent action, the risk of cross-border fire will only increase and tensions in the area. It is these very tensions that my government is seeking to bring to an end through its assistance to Kigali. |
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| Vonar Roberts | Jul 23 2014, 07:56 AM Post #4 |
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![]() Ignace Gata Mavita wa Lufuta Permanent Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations Our forces have not crossed the border, and we have attempted to work with Rwanda in the past to resolve their differences with us through private channels to no avail. Hostilities towards our border defenses have only gotten worse since Rwanda was told that aid would be resumed and increased from London, with 5 Congolese killed in the last series of border clashes of which our forces are building border outposts along our side of our common border, and not crossing over as Rwanda claims. With regards to the Coltan various sources confirm that the Rwandan army made at least $250 million over a period of 18 months through the sale of coltan, even though no coltan is mined in Rwanda. Various sources also confirm that Rwandan coltan mining relies heavily on mines in the DRC, most of which their sources are in rebel controlled conflict areas. The United Nations Security Council condemned the illegal exploitation of the Democratic Republic of Congo's natural resources in 2001, however took no other measures against the guilty parties and thus the situation continues to remain a major problem and a major source of rebel revenues. |
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| AllenKalashnikov | Jul 23 2014, 08:25 AM Post #5 |
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The Republic of France will launch an independent investigation on this matter and will reserve judgement until the findings of investigation has been presented to the French Republic. |
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| Chris | Jul 23 2014, 08:33 AM Post #6 |
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Sir Geoffrey Adams Her Britannic Majesty's Permanent Representative to the United Nations The British government welcomes the offer from Paris and will fully support the French investigation. |
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| Alfonso IV | Jul 23 2014, 09:07 AM Post #7 |
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Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Minister of External Relations | Federative Republic of Brazil Due to the classified nature of militaries and conflicts, Brazil understands the DRC's and France's reluctance to fully believe the British Army's findings immediately. Before this matter is relayed to the United Nations Security Council, it is important to gather all the facts, as the French representative suggested. However, the proper avenue to do so is not a unilateral or bilateral investigation but a multination, United Nations-sponsored fact-finding mission without any possible bias. Therefore, Brazil proposes that the Secretary General create and dispatch a multinational fact-finding force to investigate the incident. From there, it will be much easier to pass judgement and intervene as necessary. While that is going on, it is imperative that such incidents - either accidental or predetermined - do not happen again. The international community is responsible to make sure that crossing the DRC-Rwanda border is not worthwhile to either party and that both parties are fully invested in combating the rebels. In other words, peace must be more profitable than war. Edited by Alfonso IV, Jul 23 2014, 11:59 AM.
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| Vonar Roberts | Jul 23 2014, 11:10 AM Post #8 |
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![]() Ignace Gata Mavita wa Lufuta Permanent Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations Based on a recently received report from the commanding officer of the platoon that was involved in the latest border incident with Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo is confident that elements of the Rwandan Army are supporting rebel groups inside the D.R.Congo. According to the commander of the platoon, his force was chasing rebels and stopped at the border waiting for permission to cross over. Their request was denied. Shortly thereafter, Rwandan troops came from the direction that the rebels were heading and attacked his position without provocation. Based on local conditions, it is impossible for the Rwandan military unit to have not spotted the rebels that his platoon was chasing. As a result of the Rwandan forces choosing to ignore the rebels and instead engage the Congolese platoon holding position at the border, we are more confident than before that the rebels are linked in some manner to the Rwandan military. |
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| Bobithy | Jul 23 2014, 04:14 PM Post #9 |
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Great Leader of the Korean People
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![]() Vitaly Churkin Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations Russian Federation Esteemed Representatives and Distinguished Guests, Due to the different reports being presented here by the honorable delegates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Rwanda, and the United Kingdom the Russian Federation will hold off on supporting one side over the other. Once the independent report that the French Republic has offered to conduct presents its findings the Russian Federation will make a decision as to its policy regarding this incident. |
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| Redbirdfan | Jul 24 2014, 01:08 PM Post #10 |
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Bundesrepublik Deutschland
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Ambassador Liu Jieyi Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Historically, time has proven that soldiers/militia based out of Rwanda treat the border with little respect. Thus, Kinshasa has the full support of Beijing in this matter. |
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