International Journal: Canadian Institute of International Affairs

Vol. 62 No. 1 Winter 2006/2007

 Natural Resources and Conflict

www.igloo.org/ciia/publications/intern~1

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80048

KINSHASA, 28 August 2008 (IRIN) - Human rights and local government officials in Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province have expressed concern about rising tension between different communities in a mining town there.

Clashes broke out on the night of 26 August between residents of Kolwezi and people from neighbouring provinces who work in the town's copper, cobalt, tin and manganese mines.

"There was some material damage, 45 bicycles were burnt," Jean-Marie Dikanga Kazadi, the provincial interior minister, told IRIN.

"Residents decided to avenge a man who had been beaten up [earlier the same day] and set upon the miners, deeming them responsible," the minister said, adding that police helped to restore calm by midnight.

"Anything could happen and not much is being done about it," said Golden Misabiko, president of the Katanga branch of the African Human Rights Association.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79891

NYANZALAC, 19 August 2008 (IRIN) - Although he looks frail, Cossan Ntabwigwa, in his late 60s, is a determined man. He recently returned from Tanzania, where he had been a refugee since 1972, and is seeking to resettle on a piece of land he left years ago.

Despite finding someone else occupying the land, Ntabwigwa is determined to reclaim it, and he says sharing it with the current occupant is out of the question.

"I left two other brothers there [in Tanzania] who are married and with children and who must also get a share of this land," he said.

When he repatriated from Gatumba settlement in Tanzania at the beginning of August, Ntabwigwa, who heads a 10-member family, spent three days at the commune headquarters in Nyanzalac, Makamba province, waiting to go home.

Like most Burundians, Ntabwigwa's strong attachment to land means he is unwilling to share his piece of land with the current occupant, whom he considers an outsider since he is not a family member.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=80044

RAMALLAH/STOCKHOLM, 28 August 2008 (IRIN) - The occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) continues to suffer from drought, but the head of the Water Authority told IRIN there was a limit to what he could do to help.

"Crisis management is the only strategy that I am able to apply," Shaddad Attili, the head of the Palestinian Water Authority, told IRIN while attending World Water Week in Stockholm (13-23 August).

He said he did not have the power to plan properly for his constituents, the 3.5 million Palestinians in the oPt, as the Oslo Accords left too much control in Israeli hands.

...

According to an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, details of the current talks are kept under wraps so as not to impede progress, but water resources are one of the key final status issues being discussed.