The company that controls Namibian diamonds, De Beers, and another significant player in the mining industry, Anglo American, are among 85 multinationals which the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth accuses of encouraging the looting of Congo's riches.

Investigators said dozens of mining and financial multinationals have been doing business with individuals and firms run by people who have over the past four years taken advantage of the war in the DRC to plunder resources.

"By contributing to the revenues of the elite networks, directly or indirectly, those companies and individuals contribute to the ongoing conflict and to human rights abuses."

The war in Congo drew in six countries, and is reported to have claimed more than 2,5 million lives.

While raising concerns about the involvement of multinational companies in Congo, the report does not detail how each firm has been involved.

But the experts said the panel had gathered evidence to prove their concerns. It named the owners or shareholders of the companies and their associates.

The panel recommended that the UN Security Council impose sanctions on some of the businesses and individuals it has identified as being "involved in criminal and illicit exploitation that are identified in this report".

Among the sanctions recommended would be a travel ban on individuals, freezing of personal assets, and barring selected companies and individuals from accessing banking facilities and other financial institutions.

The reactions of the named multinational corporations to the report was not clear by yesterday.

De Beers, the cartel that runs 60 per cent of the world's diamond industry, has over the past two years presented itself as opposing 'blood diamonds'.

A campaign by non-governmental organisations had threatened the future of the diamond industry as advocates complained that individuals and multinationals had been involved in trade which had enabled armed groups to continue arming themselves.

The nature of Anglo American's involvement in the DRC is not clear. Anglo American runs the Skorpion zinc mine in the south of Namibia.

The company was named with a host of other South African firms. Both De Beers and Anglo American share the same owners, the Oppenheimers.

News agencies reported that several mining giants named in the report have rejected the allegations, though most said they needed to see the report to comment in detail.

South Africa's Iscor Ltd, the largest steel producer in Africa, which also had operations in Namibia, said it was not doing business in the DRC.

Most of the report was, however, devoted to what the panel of experts referred to as "elite networks" who continue to loot the central African country's rich minerals and forest resources.

Generals, politicians and business people from Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe were fingered as spearheading the plunder with the help of the multinationals.

The report said for instance that the network of elites in those countries have begun to set up ways of ensuring that their illegal deals continue long after the withdrawal of troops.

"Welcome as they may be, these withdrawals are unlikely to alter the determination of Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Ugandan individuals, to exercise economic control over portions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo," the report stated.

Interestingly, Namibia was completely omitted despite an earlier UN report saying the military here together with other forces allied to the DRC government had pressured the late President Laurent Kabila to give them diamond mines in return for continued armed support.

The omission of Namibia in the final report is not explained, despite information reaching this newspaper that Namibian business people linked to top Government leaders are alleged to have been trading in the Congo's natural resources, particularly diamonds.

The panel did not come to Namibia, according to the list of countries visited.

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