Are USAID Funds Being Used for Covert Operations in Central Africa?

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By Georgianne Nienaber (about the author) Page 6 of 6 page(s)

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Uganda and Rwanda are two of the Pentagon’s premier military partners in Africa: some 150 U.S. Special Forces were added to the Pentagon’s Uganda arsenal in March 2007 and U.S. and U.K. military have been training UPDF troops.

Heritage has already reported pumping some 13,000 barrels per day from its “Kingfisher” 1-A site on Lake Albert.

In March 2007, the government of Rwanda awarded massive oil concessions to Vangold Resources. The 2700 square kilometer Vangold concession—named “White Elephant”—is believed to be part of the underground basin connected to the Heritage and Tullow Oil fields in the Semliki basin of DRC/Uganda.

Vangold Resources is a Canadian Company with Canadian and US principals.

The “White Elephant” concession is located in northern Rwanda in areas where the Rwandan Patriotic Army has led massive military operations, driving forced displacements premised on depopulating the area of Hutu villagers, since their initial invasions in 1990.

COVERT ALLIANCES WITH LAURENT NKUNDA

Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba met with Rwandan-backed General Laurent Nkunda during his Vice-Presidency (2003-2006) and he is now one of General Nkunda's secret backers in the ongoing bloodletting in eastern Congo.

Jean-Pierre Bemba’s brother-in-law Anthony “Tony” Teixeira deals in blood diamonds, criminal networks and mercenary operations. Tony Teixeira is one of three pivotal businessmen who, along with Jacques Lemaire and Victor Bout, were cited in 2000 for sanctions-busting by supporting the UNITA rebels in Angola’s war. Bout and other businessmen with U.S. connections have been involved in weapons transfers to Congo.

According to insider MONUC sources, Jean-Pierre Bemba has been buying off high-level MONUC officials. This would partially explain MONUC's unwillingness to challenge or dislodge General Nkunda.

Congolese people in the Kivu province have been throwing stones at MONUC vehicles because they believe MONUC is not serious about “peacekeeping” in eastern Congo but is pursuing a political agenda.

On September 17, 2007 a “resource hungry” China signed an agreement to invest five billion dollars in Congos' infrastructure. Anglo-European interests are now using the military occupation of General Laurent Nkunda—backed by clients’ regimes in Uganda and Rwanda, by Jean-Pierre Bemba and MONUC—to leverage their position with Kabila.

General Laurent Nkunda earns at least $100,000 a month in extortion and minerals theft, and he is buying officials. Most important, General Laurent Nkunda is the “insurance policy” for the U.S. and German companies preventing Congo's access to the Lueshe niobium mines and other mineral bonanzas, including coltan, cassiterite and, allegedly, uranium, under Nkunda's control.

Over the past decade, USAID has become closer and closer to Pentagon interests. While originally a “soft” instrument of U.S. foreign policy around the world, the Pentagon has openly sided with USAID in recent military programs. One of these is AFRICOM, the Pentagon’s new Africa Command, which counts USAID as a major partner.

ABOUT keith harmon snow

keith harmon snow is an independent war correspondent and photographer, and a human rights and genocide investigator who formerly worked with Genocide Watch, Survivor's Rights International and the United Nations (Ethiopia and Sudan). He has fifteen years experience in Africa working in 17 African countries. From 2004-2007 he worked with the United Nations Observers Mission to Congo (MONUC) in DRC and with UNICEF documenting genocide and consulting on livelihoods and vulnerabilities in Ethiopia. He was part of the Special Congressional Hearing on Genocide and Coverty Operations in Africa chaired by Cynthia McKinney in 2001. His most recent story about his work in Afghanistan appears in Kyoto Journal, where his last story about the Dalai Lama in India was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

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Georgianne Nienaber is an investigative environmental and political writer. She lives in rural northern Minnesota, New Orleans and South Florida. Her articles have appeared in The Society of Professional Journalists' Online (more...)

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