Foreign Collusion
Human Rights Watch has documented links that AngloGold Ashanti, a subsidiary of mining conglomerate Anglo American, among others, formed with the FNI. Payments were made to facilitate mining operations near the town of Mongbwalu, and gold was smuggled through Uganda to Europe and beyond. The benefits of this gold trade are shared by the companies and armed militias, whose use of murder, torture and rape in the course of conflict is well documented. Following the release of the HRW report in June 2005, leading Swiss gold refiner Metalor Technologies agreed to stop buying gold from Uganda.
On October 17, 2006, an Amnesty International, Oxfam and International Action Network on Small Arms joint-research effort in Ituri found US, Russian, Chinese, South African, and Greek bullets. The researchers stated that: “this is just one example of how lax arms controls fuel conflict and suffering worldwide. UN arms embargoes are like dams against tidal waves.” The research was conducted during September out of samples of arms and ammunition recovered since the UN arms embargo of 2003.
Read more about this topic: Ituri Conflict
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