After campaigns of ethnic cleansing, militias of child soldiers, and at least 3 million deaths in the past six years, relief has finally arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The UN-backed transitional government, formed in July 2003, remains in power, and the UN peacekeepers that entered the region months later are maintaining stability. In a country like the DRC, however, peace tends to be short-lived. In an unpublicized October 2003 report, the UN investigatory Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the DRC concluded that the plundering of Congolese natural resources—an underlying cause of the military conflict—may be continuing.

If true, this illegal activity is imperiling prospects for peace while enriching multinational corporations, the DRC's own transitional government, and its historically unfriendly neighbors Rwanda and Uganda. Perhaps as disturbing as the report is the United Nations' reticence to face the problem. By withholding evidence of natural resource plundering and issuing only diffident condemnations, the UN Security Council is either bestowing de facto toleration on the plunderers or failing to disclose the information necessary for the world to judge otherwise.

The Security Council could repair the situation by cracking down on corporations apparently exploiting Congolese natural resources and fomenting conflict. According to the UN panel, these resources include diamonds, gold, timber, cobalt, and coltan, a metallic ore used in cell phones and other electronics. The exploitation, the panel found, "remains one of the main sources of funding for groups involved in perpetuating conflict." If this is true, the Security Council has done shockingly little to solve the problem.

In October 2002, the panel enjoined 85 multinational corporations to stop violating the standards of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The panel called for prosecutions of the corporations by UN member states including the United States, Britain, Belgium, and Germany. These member states took action by insisting that their corporations were acting legally and that the panel provided insufficient, unspecific evidence. One year later, after lobbying by US and European governments, the panel "resolved" the cases against 48 of the corporations, making a near-admission that the original accusations were unfounded. Nonetheless, 36 corporations remain on the list, including the diamond firm De Beers and the air cargo operators Avient and Das Air. None of these corporations has been prosecuted.

So long as the Security Council withholds the panel's evidence from public view, skeptical member states will have legitimate grievances. The Security Council should therefore oblige the panel to release its evidence and, if the evidence is compelling, insist on legal action by member states. Thus far, the record is poor. On November 19, 2003, a Security Council statement "condemn[ed]" illegal resource exploitation and "encourage[d]" states to end the plundering. But condemnation and encouragement have been tried, and they have failed. The United Nations must confront the issue head-on—because if the panel is right, dozens of corporations are sabotaging a hard-won peace. If the panel is wrong, however, the United Nations, the accused corporations, and the Congolese people have a right to know.

Worse still, the UN natural resource panel also cast blame on Rwanda and Uganda, which are reaping illegal windfalls from the crime, according to media accounts of the confidential October 2003 report. The panel found that guilt extends to "elite networks" of business, military, and political leaders in both countries and even to corrupt Congolese officials in DRC President Joseph Kabila's People's Party for Democratic Reconstruction, who are selling natural resources to the Rwandan and Ugandan governments for personal profit.

All three governments have denied the panel's charges. Since then, the allegations have faded into the periphery, with the United Nations apparently unwilling to back them with action. In fact, diplomats expect the United Nations soon to terminate the panel, which was first established in 2000. "There is a belief we can ignore awkward truths in the hope that the peace process can proceed," reproached Anneke van Woudenberg, a senior Human Rights Watch researcher. Unfortunately, these awkward truths are fundamental to peace.

The United Nations can no longer shrink from its responsibility to pressure multinational corporations and member states to leave the Congo's natural resources, at least for now, to the Congolese. Only then might a peace that is timely become one that is timeless.