Uranium mined illegally in Congo

[seemslikeadream]

March 27, 2004


Shinkolobwe, Congo: Thousands of self-employed miners are pounding away at rocks and descending into makeshift shafts at

a mine that provided uranium for the first atomic bombs. They are quarrying illegally and the dangerous raw material is being exported without control, industry experts say.

Now the United Nations nuclear watchdog says it has asked the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo for more information. "If there is the possibility that large quantities of uranium are being mined and exported, it is disturbing," said a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/26/1079939849819.html

[pinniped]

1. I am deeply troubled.

n/t

[seemslikeadream]

2. IAEA Concerned about Alleged Uranium Production at Congolese Mine

VOA News
25 Mar 2004, 18:48 UTC

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it wants to know more about the possible illegal production of uranium at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A spokeswoman for the U.N. agency says the Congolese authorities are obligated to report the mining or export of uranium - a raw material that can be used to make nuclear weapons.

Melissa Fleming says the possibility that large amounts of uranium are being mined and exported is disturbing.

About 6,000 workers are reportedly working illegally at the Shinkolobew mine in Congo's Katanga province, where they are extracting cobalt, copper, and, possibly, uranium.

more
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=CAF6E386-F7FB-4886-94538D2C37AF084A

[seemslikeadream]

3. 'Poor nations fleeced by corruption'

Jean-Philippe Chauzy/IOM

IOM's Dr. Ernest Taylor registers a slave master who exploits nine slave children.


'Poor nations fleeced by corruption'

LONDON - A "global epidemic of financial scandal" has seen billions of dollars in oil and mining revenues skimmed off by corrupt officials in some of the world's poorest countries, a British-based campaign group has charged.
This disappearance of billions of dollars (euros) from public purses was "abetted" by a culture of secrecy within oil and mining multinationals about revenues paid to governments, Global Witness said in an investigation.


The activities of French firm Elf, which is now part of French giant Total, in Congo already form part of a massive corruption scandal and court case involving the oil group.

However this "legacy of opacity and hair-raising accounting" remains in the poverty-stricken nation, depriving its people of vast amounts in revenues, Global Witness said.

Perhaps the most dramatic example comes in Nauru, the tiny and isolated island state which briefly became the richest nation on the globe per head of population due to its massive reserves of phosphates.

This money was squandered by corrupt officials and crooked behaviour, the report said, leaving the island a "wasteland" now largely synonymous with money-laundering scams.

"Bankrupt, in social and political turmoil, and facing possible extinction from rising seawaters, Nauru is a sinking ship," Global Witness noted.

more
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1577094-6078-0,00.html

[seemslikeadream]

4. U.N. suspicious of Congo uranium mine

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 25 (UPI) -- Suspicious activity at a uranium mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spawned a U.N. investigation, the BBC reported Thursday.

A BBC reporter tipped off the International Atomic Energy Agency that as many as 6,000 miners were working the Shinkolobwe mine in Katanga province, extracting cobalt, copper, platinum and uranium.

While the government says it shut down the mine, the BBC correspondent said the uranium is being sold to nearby furnaces operated mainly by private businessmen from China and India, and exported via neighboring Zambia.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040325-114452-3661r.htm

[seemslikeadream]

5. Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo

to remind myself