Congo tin exports rebound despite U.N., campaigners

* Congo tin exports bounce back after two-month slowdown

* U.N. experts accuse traders of funding rebel groups

By Joe Bavier

BUKAVU, Congo, June 16 (Reuters) - Tin exports from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are back up despite the threat of United Nations sanctions and pressure from rights campaigners linking the trade to local conflicts, mining officials said.

Some mineral buyers in the eastern Kivu provinces halted purchases of the tin ore cassiterite in January after a U.N. report linked traders there to the Rwandan Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels.

Critics say the mineral trade is helping fuel one of the world's bloodiest conflicts, which has already killed some five million people. But traders say bans will only hurt locals more.

North and South Kivu provinces export the vast majority of the tin from Congo, Africa's primary source of an ore used to make devices including mobile phones and video game consoles.

"We got towards the end of February and there still wasn't any exporting. For more than a month and a half, they weren't exporting," said Colette Mikila, South Kivu's mines minister.

"(Traders) were afraid to continue their activities. But after we got involved, now everyone is back to work. There is a noticeable increase," she said.

Having exported 5,831 tonnes in 2008, South Kivu exported just 105 tonnes in January and 208 tonnes in February, according to ministry data.

However, figures for April showed that exports had rebounded to nearly 460 tonnes, bringing the province's exports to 1,219 tonnes for the first four months of the year.

Figures for North Kivu, which also trades in cassiterite from nearby Maniema province, were also holding up.

Traders in the province had initially vowed to stop buying tin ore due to the threat of sanctions before deciding to back away, saying the impact on job losses would be too great.

By June, traders in the province had exported 4,187 tonnes of cassiterite. Total exports for 2008 were 13,332 tonnes.

BLOOD MINERALS

Late last year, a U.N. panel of experts singled out a number of mineral traders as part of a mineral supply chain that led back to the FDLR, Rwandan rebels who have been at the heart of much of Congo's simmering violence since 1996.

The report also accused Belgium-based merchant Traxys of buying 1,631 tonnes of cassiterite in 2007 from four Congolese companies dealing at FDLR-controlled mines.

Traxys stopped sourcing cassiterite from eastern Congo in early June, claiming it was doing so to "preserve its reputation against even the false appearance of wrongdoing."

The minerals trade is also under pressure from a campaign led by U.S.-based rights group Enough Project, which is calling for more transparency in the sector.

"The status quo of the way minerals are mined in this country has helped lead to the highest recorded rates of death since the holocaust," said Enough Co-founder John Prendergast.

However, local traders and some analysts say the costs involved in putting in place tracing mechanisms will drive up prices, creating a de-facto ban on Congolese tin that could put tens of thousands of informal miners out of work.

"They are not helping to improve the human rights situation. They need to sit all the players down and set up mechanisms of due diligence that actually work," said John Kanyoni, the head of North Kivu's association of mineral buyers. (Editing by David Lewis)