By David Lewis

Kinshasa - Australian-based Anvil Mining has shut down a copper mine in southeastern Congo after an attack on its property and violence between artisanal miners and the police left up to four people dead.

Illegal local miners being cleared from the Kulu mine attacked the firm's buildings in the southeastern town of Kolwezi on Monday before police opened fire to disperse them, local officials said.

"One of the Anvil guesthouses was burned with the tragic loss of one Anvil staff member and one of its external contractor's security guards," the company, which is listed on the Toronto stock exchange, said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"As a precautionary measure, the Kulu operation has been temporarily shut down and some non-essential people will be moved to the provincial capital, Lubumbashi, located 250 km (155 miles) to the east," the company said.

As Congo emerges from a five-year war, its vast mineral wealth is attracting investors. But expectations are also high among those who live in mining areas but scarcely benefit from the country's resources after seeing them plundered for years.

The violence in Kolwezi was sparked when an artisanal miner drowned during an operation by Anvil guards to clear the mine and angry miners then marched to complain to authorities but were not met by the mayor, a human rights observer said.

"In the evening police started to fire live bullets to disperse the rioters and allegedly two more people were killed," the rights observer said.

Katanga's government authorities said they had been dispatched to defuse the situation but could only confirm one death amongst the miners killed by the police.

"There were thousands and the authorities didn't handle it well - they didn't receive them," Katanga's Vice Governor Chikez Diemu told Reuters by phone from Kolwezi.

"We are now going to see how to find a solution to this - these people must be involved in the mining," he added.

Anvil's mining operations in Congo were hit by controversy last year when it admitted that its vehicles and aircraft were used to help move troops for a military operation that led to the deaths of dozens of civilians in late 2004.

The company rejected as "deplorable and without foundation" accusations that it was complicit in the military operations, but said it had "had no option but to agree to the request, made by the military of the lawful government".

Far from aiding development, mineral wealth has long been a source of conflict in Congo, where 4 million people have died from war-related hunger and disease since 1998.

The former Belgian colony is due to hold presidential and parliamentary polls later this year, the first free elections of their kind for more than four decades, meant to draw a line under the last war, during which all sides are accused of having plundered the country's resources.

Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-04-26 15:41:40