Mapping Report > Section II. Specific Acts of Violence > CHAPTER III. Acts of violence linked to natural resource exploitation > B. Human rights violations related to natural resource exploitation

Once a strategic area had been captured or retaken, the armed group in question would engage in human rights violations. The regimes of terror and coercion established in these areas led to a wide range of violations, ranging from forced labour, child labour¹³⁷⁰ and the exploitation of minors to abuses of power resulting in murder, sexual violence, torture and civilian displacements.

In North and South Kivu, the ANC and the APR reportedly established a system of forced labour in the coltan mines, including the use of children, and made the local population abandon agriculture in favour of mining.¹³⁷¹ In 2002, the Panel of Experts reported that: “The bulk of coltan exported from the eastern DRC, as much as 60 to 70 per cent, has been mined under the direct surveillance of APR mining détachés (…) A variety of forced labour regimes are found at sites that have been managed by APR mining détachés, some for coltan collection, some for transport, others for domestic services”.¹³⁷²According to numerous sources, they also made wide use of prisoners from Rwanda, particularly in the mines around Numbi, a village in Kalehe territory, South Kivu. ¹³⁷³

MLC troops allegedly also used forced labour and violence against artisanal miners who refused to work for them, for example in the diamond mines in Orientale Province.¹³⁷⁴ In Ituri, the UPC and the FNI are also said to have used forced labour in the gold mines during 2002 and 2003,¹³⁷⁵ including children, particularly in mines controlled by the UPC.¹³⁷⁶ Child labour, under duress or because of extreme poverty, was also widespread in the Katanga mines,¹³⁷⁷ in Kasai Occidental¹³⁷⁸ and in North Kivu,¹³⁷⁹ where thousands of children were put to work, some no more than seven or eight years old.

The prevailing violence around the mining sites was also a breeding ground for sexual violence. For example, in South Kivu, in the 1990s, members of the Forces armées zaïroises (FAZ) allegedly set up barriers close to the mines and raped women as they passed, under the pretext of searching for minerals in their genitals.¹³⁸⁰ Women suspected of smuggling were raped in revenge. In March 2002, soldiers from the ANC/APR reportedly raped two women in Nyeme village, Katako-Kombe territory, Kasai Occidental, accusing them of collaborating with a pastor who was in dispute with the heads of the ANC/APR over a diamond trafficking issue.¹³⁸¹

The extremely dangerous working conditions to which the miners were subjected and the absence of any adequate regulations represented violations of their economic and social rights¹³⁸² and of the international labour standards ratified by the DRC.

Much of the mining in the DRC takes place in the informal sector, carried out by more than a million artisanal miners. This accounts for the vast majority of the DRC’s mineral production, as much as 90% according to some estimates.¹³⁸³ The artisanal mining sector is unregulated. Artisanal miners are thus extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and they work in very difficult and dangerous conditions.¹³⁸⁴ It has been estimated that several hundred miners died between 1993 and 2003, particularly following subsidence. The victims often included young children.¹³⁸⁵ According to experts, several thousand people are likely to have been exposed to radiation in the DRC’s uranium mines.¹³⁸⁶

Specific cases of human rights violations committed in the diamond “polygone” of the Minière des Bakwanga (MIBA) company

The “polygone“, an area located in the Minière des Bakwanga (MIBA) company’s diamond mining concession in Kasai Oriental, was the scene of repeated violent clashes between artisanal miners and law enforcement officials. Hundreds of civilians, many of them young, were trying to make a living by illegally entering the MIBA concession in search of diamonds. In response, MIBA and the provincial authorities called in groups of security guards known as “Blondos” to back up the mine police.¹³⁸⁷

The Forces armées congolaises (FAC), along with Zimbabwean soldiers, were also present on the MIBA concession. The situation of the mining polygone rapidly degenerated into anarchy due to competition between the different groups supposed to be protecting the concession and due to the presence among the illegal miners of certain armed elements known as “suicidals”. Between 2001 and 2003, MIBA guards apparently summarily executed or wounded several hundred civilians who had illegally entered the mining polygone. The victims were shot or buried alive in the holes where they were hiding. The MIBA guards also held an unknown number of illegal miners, including children, in cells located on the concession, under life-threatening conditions. A number of massacres were notified during 2001 but the most infamous incident was that of 21 February 2003. On that day, MIBA guards reportedly surprised some thirty illegal miners and opened fire on them. Some of the miners managed to escape but others hid in an underground gallery. The MIBA guards then blocked the entrance to the gallery with stones and metal bars. On 22 February, nine bodies were brought out. Eight of the people had died from suffocation and one from gunshot wounds. On 27 February, the Minister for Human Rights ordered an inquiry and referred the matter to the Prosecutor of the Military Order Court. The MIBA guards pleaded legitimate defence, arguing that the miners had been armed. The case was eventually dropped on the grounds that the victims had died in a landslide. The human rights violations thus continued and, in June 2003 for example, MIBA guards reportedly killed an unknown number of illegal miners under similar circumstances.¹³⁸⁸