LUMU SET FREE, FUTURE OF URANIUM INVESTIGATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000313 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2017 TAGS: ENRG EMIN ETRD PGOV IAEA CG SUBJECT: LUMU SET FREE, FUTURE OF URANIUM INVESTIGATION UNCERTAIN REF: A. KINSHASA 282 ¶B. KINSHASA 284 ¶C. 06 KINSHASA 1688 ¶D. 06 KINSHASA 1410 Classified By: Economic Counselor Greg Groth for reasons 1.4 b/d ¶1. (C) Summary. Professor Fortunat Lumu, arrested March 6 on suspicion of trafficking in uranium, was released from detention on March 11 (refs A,B). There is no evidence to suggest that any uranium or radioactive material changed hands. Minister of Scientific Research Sylvanus Mushi Bonane, who initiated the investigation, doubted that the case would be pursued and now must decide how to handle his employee, Lumu. The former Ministers of Scientific Research and Mines, in a press conference March 12, denounced accusations about them by Mushi and explained their support of Lumu's activities during the second half of 2006. The nuclear research facility employees association rejects any notion that uranium from the facility was sold, and it suggests that Lumu be replaced temporarily by a management committee made up of current employees. End summary. -------------- The Lumu Investigation -------------- ¶2. (C) Professor Fortunat Lumu, head of the DRC Atomic Energy Commission (CGEA) and chief administrator of the Regional Nuclear Studies Center in Kinshasa (CREN-K),was released from detention on March 11 by the Prosecutor General, following his arrest on March 6. Lumu was never charged publicly but media reports speculated that he might have sold uranium obtained from CREN-K. (Note: Lumu is a former Fulbright Scholar, and studied at Los Alamos in 1983. End note.) Minister Mushi is a former National Assembly member who represented the Mai-Mai contingent of Southern Kivu Province and is now the only Mai-Mai minister in the new government. During a call on the minister March 12, he told EconCouns and PolCouns that he is a former investigator with a background in criminology. He apparently called for the investigation soon after being named to his position at the end of February. Mushi said that he had a meeting in late February with Lumu and Nico Shefer, who identified himself as the head of a company called Sentinelle International, registered in the Seychelles but based in South Africa. (Note: Shefer is referred to in the UN's October 2002 Final Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC as "a convicted criminal based in South Africa," and he is a person of interest to the current UN Group of Experts in the DRC. End note.). Mushi claimed he was asked during the meeting to sign off on a deal that Lumu had put together with Shefer in July 2006 but that he refused. He said that Shefer said in the meeting that the Sentinelle deal was not the same as a publicly announced deal of September 2006 involving Brinkley Mining, as he had been led to believe. -------------- The Brinkley Mining Deal -------------- ¶3. (C) The Brinkley Mining deal, widely reported in the Congolese media during October and November 2006 (ref C),was announced as a "memorandum of understanding" ("protocol d'accord") that gave Brinkley Mining special consideration for a uranium exploitation license, should uranium mining be allowed to start up again in the DRC, in return for unspecified "support" for the DRC's CGEA, especially for CREN-K. The MOU was signed for Brinkley Mining by its Chairman, Gerald Holden, formerly of Mining and Metals Barclays Capital. (Note: Current Congolese law prohibits the exploitation of uranium deposits, especially those in and around Shinkolobwe, the source of the uranium for the first atomic bombs. The CGEA is the Congolese entity which is charged, among other duties, with controlling anything having to do with radioactive material, mined or unmined. The Ministry of Mine's jurisdiction over uranium mining is unclear, but a previous attempt by CAMEC, a company associated with Billy Rautenbach, to obtain a uranium mining concession was rejected by the then Minister of Mines. End note.) ¶4. (C) Mushi told EmbOffs that in addition to the two agreements set up by Lumu with Sentinelle and Brinkley Mining in 2006, a local company was created and called the Societe KINSHASA 00000313 002 OF 003 pour l'Inspection des Matieres Nucleaires et Radioactifs (Nuclear and Radioactive Materials Inspection Company), SOCIMAR. He said this company was illegal, since Lumu and the CGEA had no right under Congolese law to create such an entity. Mushi suggested that the signing of the two agreements and the creation of SOCIMAR under the previous Minister of Scientific Research, Gerard Kamanda wa Kamanda, had been financially beneficial to both Lumu and Kamanda, and stated that Lumu and Shefer had attempted to bribe him, also. He noted that Lumu's son was also arrested last week driving a brand new SUV as he tried to deliver food to his father in detention, and cited this as proof of Lumu's new-found wealth. Mushi confirmed that Lumu and his son, however, had been released from detention by order of the General Prosecutor on March 11. He said someone "higher up" had pressured the prosecutor to do so, and that not even the new Minister of Justice had been informed. Mushi was unsure whether the investigation would continue, but thought it would probably go nowhere, and seemed more concerned about deciding what to do with his employee, Professor Lumu. ¶5. (C) Mushi stated that the detention of Lumu and the exposure of his plan to enter into agreements with Sentinelle and Brinkley Mining had pleased employees of CREN-K, since Lumu's actions indicated a desire to shut down the facility. This, despite the fact that the memorandum of understanding (MOU),available online at the Brinkley Mining website, pledges that Brinkley Africa, the Congolese company created at the time, would "assist the CGEA in the installation of equipment to control nuclear matter and radioactive substances destined for exports." The MOU gives Brinkley Africa the "first right of preference over exploration and production areas identified by the CGEA or proposed by the CGEA for development." It goes on to state that Brinkley and the CGEA would eventually create "a production company in line with national legislation." (Note: Lumu, in a meeting following the July visit of Emboffs to CREN-K, made very clear that he hoped either to rehabilitate the second, non-functioning research reactor, or else obtain funding for a new reactor, all in the hopes of expanding the facility's ability to conduct research using radiation (ref D). End note.) ¶6. (C) In a press conference on March 12, former Minister of Scientific Research Kamanda and former Minister of Mines Ikele Ifoto denounced Mushi's actions against Lumu and denied any involvement on their part in the sale of uranium or radioactive substances. They went on to debunk the possibility that any uranium or radioactive materials used or stored at CREN-K could have been sold by Lumu or anyone else, and chided Mushi for causing the DRC negative publicity. Finally, they attributed Mushi's actions to his pique at being faced with a fait accompli concerning deals which Kamanda wa Kamanda and Ifoto felt could be beneficial to the DRC. ¶7. (C) EconOff met March 13 with Leonard Woto, CREN-K officer in charge of security. Woto spoke as a representative of the CGEA personnel working at CREN-K, and brought with him a copy of a communique from a general assembly meeting of CREN-K employees held on March 12. The communique denies any possibility that uranium from the facility was sold, and regrets the damage that these allegations may have done to the reputation of the facility and the DRC. The general assembly communique suggests that the CGEA/CREN-K be administered for now by an interim management committee composed of select current employees. ¶8. (C) Comment: It is apparent that the early media reporting, both domestic and international, seized upon sensationalistic theories about why Professor Lumu had been arrested, and were based in part on past (and generally erroneous) reports of missing uranium, uranium for sale, and uranium exports. These theories, easily debunked, may even have been used by Lumu and others as red herrings in an attempt to deflect attention from the real issue at stake: opaque deals of questionable legality being entered into for the exploitation of the DRC's natural resources. The memoranda of understanding allegedly entered into by Lumu, with the knowledge of former ministers Kamanda wa Kamanda and Ikele, may or may not stand up under the scrutiny of the new government. The deal allegedly made with Nico Shefer of Sentinelle Limited, likely will not. Both Kamanda and Ikele are de facto opposition members in post-election DRC, holding no office in the new government, and both knew they were on the way out in late 2006 when these agreements were executed. KINSHASA 00000313 003 OF 003 The Lumu case may ultimately serve the useful purpose of putting everyone, GDRC and private interests alike, on notice of the need for transparency and rule of law in the resource sector. MEECE