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