WRITTEN QUESTION E-1540/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(28 May 2001)

Subject: Forced labour and exploitation in the east of Congo-Kinshasa for the extraction of coltan used in mobile telephony

1. Is the Commission acquainted with an article appearing in the Dutch Trouw journal of 18 April 2001 reporting that the Kivu area in the east of Congo-Kinshasa which, was previously a prosperous agricultural area, has now been laid to waste by the unrestrained extraction of coltan, that this not only has a harmful environmental impact but also is causing loss of life, since the hand-dug mine shafts are extremely prone to cave-ins, that not only are food supplies stagnating but also 30 % of children are no longer able to attend school since they are being forced to dig for coltan and that the Rwandan Army also owns a number of mines, in which Congolese prisoners of war and Hutus are held in Rwandan jails are being used as forced labour?

2. Does the fact that proceeds from the mines in Rwandan ownership are directly used for the purchase of weapons prompt any form of action to prevent this?

3. Is the Commission aware that the information sought in questions 1 and 2 can be found in a United Nations report and that action is being taken to prevent its publication in full?

4. What contribution can the European Union make to prevent the use of forced labour under such dangerous conditions?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-1539/01 and E-1540/01 given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(3 September 2001)

The Commission is aware of the press report referred to by the Honourable Member concerning coltan mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The information tallies with what the Commission has been told by several organisations it has contacts with in the DRC (Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and international agencies), and the United Nations (UN) has published an Interim Report on the subject.

The UN Report focuses on the illegal exploitation of the DRC's natural resources and other wealth. It was presented to the Security Council by the Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, on 14 April 2001 and was the subject of heated debate. In response to the criticisms, the Secretary-General extended the mandate of the experts who compiled the report by three months for them to add to the research and the information already provided. The experts will have the opportunity of studying in greater detail the conditions in which coltan and other natural resources are being minded, and to review other economic effects of the conflict, such as agreements with countries invited in by the DRC in exchange for military support for the Kinshasa Government. This Report will be an important point of departure for the international community, which will have to take a stand on it.

The final version of the Report will be particularly useful as it will contribute to the debate on whether to prevent coltan obtained illegally in the DRC from gaining access to the European market. However, an embargo of this sort is neither possible nor effective without a decision from the UN Security Council. The Report will also help to shed light on the use of forced labour and child labour in the mines. The 13 April version of the Report touches on the use of prisoners (paragraph 60) and of children (paragraph 69) in the mines, based on information obtained by the Panel or from witnesses.

The fact that the warring factions in the DRC have an important economic interest in the extraction of coltan and other resources has increased the devastation in the Kivu area. Its decline began under President Mobutu and is due to several factors, one of the most important of these being ethnic conflict.

The situation became much worse following the genocide in Rwanda and Rwanda's intervention in both the DRC's wars, initially motivated by the need to secure the external border.

The international community is aware of the link between economic interests and the continuation of the war in Kivu.

In the Commission's view, the only lasting solution is to advance the peace process and to build legitimate institutions able to regulate the exploitation of resources and working conditions in the mines. This is what the Commission and the Member States are trying to achieve by taking a number of financial, political and diplomatic measures to get the peace process moving after the boost it received from the signing of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement.