20110304
reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Detectives investigating a network smuggling tonnes of gold from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo will question people in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, a Kenyan minister said on Friday.

"Investigations have gone a long way and there are several people we have investigated and interrogated already," Kenyan Security Minister George Saitoti said a day after Kenya and Congo said they would join forces to look into the smuggling.

An official in Congo's North Kivu province said late last month "large amounts" of gold from eastern Congo had been recovered in Nairobi and Tanzania's Dar es Salaam.

At the weekend, a Kenyan tax official was shot dead while investigating the discovery of two-and-a-half tonnes of gold in Nairobi worth about $100 million.

"Our investigators are now going out to get more information from the DRC, Dubai and South Africa," Saitoti told reporters.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila imposed a mining ban on three provinces in the conflict-wracked east last year to weed out what he called the "mafia groups" controlling the trade.

Earlier this week Congo's Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu said business could resume after successful efforts to clean up the trade, which observers believe has fuelled continuing conflict in the region between a multitude of armed groups.

Last month, seven foreigners were arrested in the eastern Congolese city of Goma on suspicion of trying to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of gold from the country.

DRC's minister for Regional International Cooperation Raymond Tshibanda and his mines counterpart Kabwelulu attended Saitoti's briefing. The mining ban in eastern Congo is due to be lifted on March 10.

Gold hovered at near record highs this week, after rising by 10 percent in the six weeks since the unrest in north Africa erupted, and hit a record $1,440.10 an ounce on Wednesday. It was around $1,425 on Friday.