By Joe Bavier KINSHASA, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Buyers of minerals from rebel areas of eastern Congo should be punished under a United Nations arms embargo, a group of experts has told the Security Council. A five-year war in the vast central African nation that ended in 2003 has left much of Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern borderlands a volatile patchwork of rebel fiefdoms and militia-controlled zones. The panel, investigating breaches of a weapons embargo aimed at illegal armed groups, found they were continuing to buy arms with revenues from mines and illegal taxation of minerals. Mineral buyers are complicit in the process by not verifying the origins of the ore they buy, the independent experts said in their report, which was commissioned by the U.N. Security Council. "The Group considers that individuals and entities buying mineral output from areas ... with a strong rebel presence are violating the sanctions regime when they do not exercise due diligence," the report said. Many of the mines in Congo's violent eastern provinces of North and South Kivu are either under the direct control of illegal armed groups or are taxed by them. The two provinces produce the bulk of the country's cassiterite, the primary tin ore used by the electronics and computer industries. The report cited renegade General Laurent Nkunda's Tutsi insurgency and the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) as two groups using mineral revenues to buy arms. Nkunda and the FDLR have been at the centre of fighting in North Kivu that forced around 450,000 civilians to flee their homes in the year leading up to a Jan. 23 ceasefire deal. Watchdog groups say mineral buyers make little effort to ensure the ore they buy does not help fund the conflict. "Because the traders know that no one else is doing it, they don't do it either," said Carina Tertsakian, lead campaigner for the London-based Global Witness, an independent group that aims to expose the corrupt exploitation of natural resources. "And they know that, if they did insist, the acceptable sources that comply with these standards are few and far between." EMBARGO VOTE The Security Council is expected to vote in late March on whether to renew the arms embargo. If it heeds the panel's recommendations, it will also tighten the embargo resolution to enforce sanctions on those buying ore from rebel-held mines. To avoid breaking the embargo, the report said companies must be able to trace the precise origins of mineral desposits from which they buy, and refuse to buy ore originating from mines controlled or taxed by illegal groups. Failure to do so constitutes a "violation of the arms embargo for provision of assistance to armed groups", it said."Quite a lot of purchasers would fall into that category ... I don't get the impression that anyone doesn't buy material because it comes from rebel-held areas," Tertsakian said. Brian Christophers, managing director of Mining Processing Congo, one of North Kivu's largest cassiterite exporters, said his company had its own verification process and had done nothing wrong. He said he could not vouch for other buyers. "We do that anyway. We know exactly where our minerals come from. For the others who don't, that's their problem," he said. Other mineral exporting companies could not be reached. Three-month tin prices hit a record high on Monday, a day after Congo's mines ministry announced the suspension of all mining in the tin-rich Walikale district of North Kivu. The move aimed to restore order to a local mining sector long plagued by the presence of rebels, militia and the government's own army. (Editing by Alistair Thomson and Kevin Liffey)
