Gold, diamonds and blood: International state‐corporate crime in the Democratic Republic of the Congo¹

1. A previous version of the article was presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meetings, November 2006, Los Angeles, CA.

Abstract

Since the beginning of the First Congolese War in 1996, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has devolved into uncontrolled genocidal warfare between ethnically based factions within an unresolved civil war due to international involvement on behalf of its neighbours (e.g., Uganda and Rwanda), transnational corporations (e.g., AngloGold Ashanti) and those corporations’ Western trading partners (Metalor Technologies and the nation of Switzerland). Central to the conflict is the control of rich mineral fields of the nation. Neighbouring nations and transnational corporations have exploited the political and military chaos of the DRC to expropriate illegally the state’s natural resources, especially the rich mineral deposits of the north and northeast. This case study examines the nature of these international crimes, theoretically explores the multiple causal factors and draws upon criminological theory to discuss solutions to the problems.

Keywords:

• state crime
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• crimes against humanity
• war crimes
• state‐corporate crime
• illegal mineral expropriation

Notes

1. A previous version of the article was presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meetings, November 2006, Los Angeles, CA.

2. E.g., had Pinochet not assumed power in Chile, would the same atrocities have been committed? Would there still have been an anti‐Kurd programme in Iraq without Sadam Hussein steering the ship of state? Would the United States have invaded Iraq had George W. Bush not been President?

3. As with Leopold II, we do not have the space to chronicle the crimes of the Mobutu regime.

4. While a rough parallel at best, imagine a person going into their local bank and requesting an auto loan. The loan officer notices that large sums of money are listed on the loan application from ‘other’ sources. When queried on the source of this income, loan applicant replies ‘I burgle on the side’. The loan officer then goes on to approve the loan on the basis of this illegal income source.

5. Other resources have been plundered as well. Crops and food supplies are frequent targets of militia raids, but these items are kept for the militia’s own uses. Timber has also been expropriated, but it has not reached the international markets as fully as the minerals.