At its fifth annual Mary Robinson Speaker Series Event on 31 October in New York, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre gathered a panel to address the issue of “Managing Congo’s natural resource wealth – from plunder to shared prosperity?”...The keynote speaker was Emmanuel Umpula Nkumba, Executive Director of African Resources Watch (AFREWATCH), a DRC-based NGO working for respect for human rights by mining companies.  He presented on remedies for victims of abuses involving the extractive industries.  He stressed that natural resource exploitation in DRC has displaced communities without adequate compensation, destroyed ecosystems and polluted people’s lands, air and water.  In some cases, mining companies have been complicit in killings, torture, rape and other serious abuses against local populations by security forces and armed groups...[The] avenues for legal remedy in DRC are full of obstacles.  The path is no easier in foreign jurisdictions.  Emmanuel described two cases among those that he followed in his work: The massacres at Kilwa in 2004 [allegedly with the complicity of Anvil Mining (now part of China Minmetals)], and the destruction of the village of Kawama in 2009 [allegedly with the support of Compagnie Miniere du Sud Katanga, which was then a joint venture of George Forrest International and Gecamines].
[also refers to Soco International, SOGUIPAH, Herakles Farms (part of Herakles Capital), Tenke Fungurume Mining (joint venture Freeport-McMoRan, Lundin Mining, Gecamines), Delta Protection, Motorola Solutions]