Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travels to the war-ravaged eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo today to visit peacekeeping troops and meet rape victims harmed by violence associated with the unregulated harvesting of Congo’s resources. “I will be pressing very hard for, not just assistance to help those who are being abused and mistreated and particularly the women who are turned into weapons of war through the rape that they experience, but also looking for ways to try to end this conflict,” Clinton told reporters en route yesterday to Kinshasa, Congo’s capital. Clinton will make the two-hour flight to the city of Goma aboard a United Nations plane. There, she will confer with Congo President Joseph Kabila on ways to professionalize his military. She will also press him to seek “broader political legitimacy” by lessening corruption, she said. Congo is Clinton’s fourth stop on a seven-nation tour of Africa. Before arriving here, Clinton met yesterday with Angola’s long-time president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, and discussed how “there’s a lot of money being made in eastern Congo because of the mineral trade,” she said. “There has to be a way for the United States, the U.K., France and Rwanda and everybody” to prevent militia violence that is related to the mining activity, Clinton added. Global Standard Clinton stressed that she wants to help Congo become compliant with the Norway-based Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global standard that aims to improve accountability in the mining, oil and natural gas industries. It was a point she made in Angola as well. “I am particularly concerned about the exploitation of natural resources, like the mining and the timber, where the revenues do nothing to help the people of this country,” Clinton told Congolese university students at a forum in Kinshasa, the capital. Congo is home to extensive mineral wealth even as its 66 million people remain among the poorest in the world. Diamonds will account for 10 percent, or about $1 billion, of Congo’s export revenue this year, the State Department estimates. Congo also exports copper, cobalt, gold, tin, zinc and coltan, the last of which is used in mobile phones. “Pressure needs to be put on the government” to prevent mining-related violence, said Dave Peterson, director for African affairs at the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy. While Kabila will talk about his belief in human rights, the government does “virtually nothing to stop what’s going on” in eastern Congo, Peterson said. Activist Jailed A human rights activist who partners with the National Endowment, Golden Misabiko, was imprisoned by Congolese authorities on July 23 after he published a report criticizing Congo’s agreement earlier this year with the French nuclear power group Areva SA for uranium exploration. Clinton said she wants to see Congo’s military professionalized so that it can take action in the eastern mining areas. An offensive by government forces against ethnic Hutu rebels from Rwanda displaced 35,000 people in South Kivu province in 12 days, the UN refugee agency said on July 24. The offensive, known as Kimia II, started on July 12 in South Kivu’s Uvira territory, the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. More than a half million people have fled their homes in South Kivu since January, according to the agency. Forum Questions In her forum with University of Kinshasa students yesterday, Clinton confronted questions about past U.S. involvement in backing authoritarian rule in Congo, formerly known as Zaire. “I cannot excuse the past, and will not try,” Clinton told the questioner. “Many countries, including many in Europe and many in Africa, have interfered with the development and the potential of the Congolese people.” Clinton took offense when, through a translator, she was asked what her husband, former President Bill Clinton, thought about a Chinese loan offer to the African nation. “You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?” Clinton responded. “My husband is not secretary of state. I am. If you want my opinion I’ll tell you my opinion. I’m not going to be channeling my husband.” An aide to Clinton said State Department officials on the trip listened later to a tape of the question and determined it had been translated correctly. Afterward, the student approached Clinton and apologized, said the aide, who discussed the matter on the condition of anonymity. The China deal the student referred to has received wide attention in Congo. China has proposed a $9 billion loan for infrastructure improvements in Congo in exchange for control of 10 million metric tons of copper and 600 million tons of cobalt.

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