Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

168 winer and rouleMichael Ross (forthcoming) has termed “cooperative plunder.” Similarly,relationships between rebel groups and organized crime haveexisted in Angola, Congo, Kosovo, and the Philippines. Comparablelinkages between organized criminal and terrorist groups have beenprevalent in Colombia and Sri Lanka. Typically, in cases where governmentsare funded by illicit commodities, organized groups of criminalsand terrorists that are funded by them also spring up, as governmentexploitation of illegal commodities is closely related to poor governance,popular unrest, and high levels of criminality and violence.Where governments, organized criminals, and terrorists are exploitingillicit commodities, there is greater risk of a secessionist movementor outright civil war, generating rebel groups funded by suchcommodities. 8Governments Financed by Illicit Commodities. Because governmentsfinanced by illicit commodities govern poorly and provide littlein return from their resource exploitation to the people of the country,they are often not democratically elected regimes and retain power inpart through the funds generated by commodity sales. Regimes inCambodia and Myanmar, for example, have been subject to repeatedrebellions, civil wars, warlordism, and guerrilla movements but havesurvived in substantial part by sharing the revenues of the sales ofopium, precious stones, and timber with groups necessary to helpthem maintain their security (see Curtis 1998; Takano 2002). TheAbacha regime in Nigeria similarly retained power and put down challengesin part by ensuring that oil revenue went to those factions of themilitary needed to sustain control (see, for example, Ihonvbere andShaw 1998). Charles Taylor’s Liberia remains perhaps the prime exampleof such exploitation and its impact on a region, as his exploitationof Sierra Leone’s diamonds played a substantial role in sparkingand sustaining a brutal civil war. 9 In other cases, countries may bedemocratic, but governance is weakened by the involvement of governmentin illicit commodities, which weakens law enforcement structures,reduces tax collection, and empowers corrupt officials and organizedcriminals.Rebel Groups Financed by Illicit Commodities. The principal differencebetween rebel groups financed by illicit commodities and terroristgroups financed by illicit commodities is the nature of the forces(O’Neill and Meyer 2001). Rebel groups control territory and targetgovernment territory in military operations, while terrorists primarilytarget civilians. Long-term rebel activity in which illicit commoditiessustained rebel military forces have included Angola, where theNational Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) largely