04 06 14 HRW – Investigate Attacks on Oil Project Critics
(Kinshasa,
June 4, 2014) – Democratic Republic of Congo authorities
should fully and impartially investigate threats and violence against Virunga
National Park rangers and local activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The
government should examine whether the incidents are linked to plans to explore
for oil within and near Virunga Park by SOCO International, a British oil
company operating in eastern Congo.
Several rangers and activists have
been arbitrarily detained by the authorities and threatened or assaulted by
unidentified people after criticizing plans for oil exploration in Virunga, a
UNESCO world heritage site that is home to many of the last surviving mountain
gorillas. On April 15, 2014, armed men shot and seriously wounded the park’s
director, Emmanuel de Mérode, a Belgian national. Congolese military justice
officials and police have opened an investigation into the attack.
“The
attack on the national park’s director was a painful and shocking reminder that
people working to protect Africa’s oldest park – its habitat, wildlife, and
local communities – do so at enormous risk,” said Ida Sawyer, senior Congo
researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Congolese authorities need to make sure that
those responsible for this attack and others are arrested and
prosecuted.”
The Belgian federal prosecutor should also consider opening
an investigation into the attack on the basis that de Mérode is a Belgian
national. The Belgian and Congolese judicial authorities could join efforts to
strengthen the investigation.
De Mérode and other park rangers,
activists, and local community members have long criticized proposed
oil exploration
and drilling in the park, which they contend will have a negative impact on the
park, its wildlife, and local communities.
SOCO International signed a production-sharing contract with the Congolese
government in 2006 to explore for oil within and near Virunga Park. In October
2011, SOCO received a permit to explore for oil in Block V, a vast
area in eastern Congo, of which 52 percent lies within Virunga Park, next to the
endangered gorilla habitat.
De Mérode and other rangers have asserted
that SOCO’s activities in the park violate Congolese and international law,
which, as government officials, the rangers say they have a duty to uphold.
Other
Congolese government officials in Kinshasa and eastern Congo support SOCO’s
plans, given the potentially large financial gains oil would
bring.
SOCO has denied
any role in threats, violence, or bribery, but has said it will look into
allegations of bribery, and condemned the use of violence and
intimidation.
In
the week following the attack on de Mérode, at least three human rights and
environmental activists received threatening text messages from unidentified
numbers, Human Rights Watch said. One message said:
“You are playing
with fire [name of activist], you are going to burn your second leg, it’s
useless to change your car because we know all the cars and we’re everywhere you
go with your team. Don’t believe that just because we failed to get your
director that we are going to fail to get you.”
Another message
said: “You think that by writing you’re going to prevent us from extracting oil.
You are going to die for nothing like de Mérode.”
On
May 3, 2014, an environmental activist in Goma received three calls from an
unknown number. The caller threatened the activist, saying that they “wanted the
head” of a staff member of the organization who, the caller said, had
bad-mouthed their interests. The caller said: “We failed to get de Mérode, but
we won’t fail to get [name of staff].” They told the employee that if he told
anyone about the calls, he would be “dealt with.”
“Park
rangers and activists should be able to oppose oil exploration in Virunga Park
without risking their lives,” Sawyer said. “Congolese authorities need to take
steps immediately to make sure that people are safe when they try to uphold the
law, protect the park, and peacefully express their views.”
Victims of
abuses and witnesses to these incidents allege that Congolese government,
military, and intelligence officials who support oil exploration in the park
were responsible for previous threats and acts of violence against activists and
park staff.
Activists and park rangers alleged that SOCO representatives
and security contractors attempted to bribe them to gain their support or to
discourage them from speaking out against oil exploration in the park and to
facilitate the company’s activities in the park. One environmental activist
alleged that SOCO representatives offered him US$20,000 and told him he would be
able to hire five people to work for him if he accepted the money.
An
investigation by park authorities found that a SOCO representative paid a senior
park official several thousand dollars over several months to support SOCO’s
activities. The official participated in meetings with park rangers at which
they were told that they would be fired if they did not support SOCO. Findings
from this investigation, which lasted over three years, were submitted to a
Congolese prosecutor in Goma on April 15, hours before the attack on de
Mérode.
In a
meeting with Human Rights Watch on May 23, North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku
acknowledged that certain government and security officials seem to have been
“manipulated.” He said that he did not know who was manipulating them, but that
it appeared they had been paid and “instrumentalized” to support oil
exploration. He said there had been numerous allegations about threats and
assaults against activists and park rangers opposed to oil exploration, and that
he had asked the police and military justice officials to
investigate.
In
a May
30 response to a letter from Human Rights Watch regarding allegations that
SOCO representatives were involved in bribery, SOCO’s Deputy Chief Executive
Roger Cagle wrote:
There
have been a substantial number of false and inaccurate allegations levelled
against SOCO International plc in recent years and particularly in the last
month. Sadly, a number of these allegations have arisen as a result of
inaccurate, false, distorted and/or exaggerated accounts of our activities in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (the ‘DRC’). It also increasingly seems to be
the case that anyone engaging in alleged questionable and unethical conduct are
immediately branded ‘SOCO representatives’ and ‘SOCO supporters’ even when they
simply are not and have nothing to do with our company. …
We operate on a
strict Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (our “Code”). …We are fully committed
to conducting our business in an honest and ethical manner and we expect and
require that our contractors, suppliers and agents will conduct themselves in
the same manner. Moreover, the Company operates in accordance with the UK
Bribery Act 2010 and as part of our required Bribery Risk Governance, we have a
formal process to mitigate risks of corruption.
Regarding
the specific allegations of bribery raised by Human Rights Watch, Cagle wrote
that company officials “have no information as to whether or not the incidents
actually took place, and if so, what happened. However, based on the information
available, we have instigated the procedures in our code.”
SOCO
should act in accordance with the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human
Rights, international guidelines that place responsibilities on companies to
take specific steps to safeguard rights whenever they rely on public or private
security forces to guard their operations, Human Rights Watch said. In addition,
the company should adhere to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights, which call on all companies to identify any possible human
rights risks in their operations and address any problems that might
occur.
Human
Rights Watch urged the British government to investigate SOCO’s activities in
eastern Congo under the United Kingdom’s Bribery Act. Any inquiry should examine
alleged acts of corruption or bribery that may have led to attacks and threats
against park rangers and activists.
“The allegations that SOCO
representatives offered bribes in the volatile climate in Virunga Park should be
taken seriously,” Sawyer said. “SOCO should investigate their representatives,
agents, and contractors and make sure that none are involved in harassment of
activists and park personnel.”
For more information on threats and
attacks against park rangers and activists protesting SOCO’s activities, see
below.
For more information, please contact:
In Kinshasa,
Ida Sawyer (English, French): +243-81-33-78-478 (mobile); or sawyeri@hrw.org.
Follow on Twitter @ida_sawyer
In Amsterdam, Arvind Ganesan (English):
+1-202-612-4329; or ganesaa@hrw.org
In New York, Rona Peligal
(English): +1-212-216-1232; or +1-917-363-3893 (mobile); or peligar@hrw.org
In
Paris, Jean-Marie Fardeau (French, English, Portuguese): +33-143-595-531; or
+33-645-852-487 (mobile); or fardeaj@hrw.org
Attack
on Virunga Park Director Emmanuel de Mérode
Emmanuel
de Mérode was driving alone in the park about 10 kilometers from the Virunga
Park headquarters in Rumangabo in an area that is controlled by the Congolese
army, when at least three men in military uniform fired at him. He was in a
staff vehicle of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature
(Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature, ICCN), a Congolese
government institution that oversees national parks. A civilian on a
motorcycle later found de Mérode on the road and drove him toward Goma. He was
then transferred to two Congolese army vehicles and an ICCN vehicle before
reaching the hospital in Goma, where he was treated for bullet wounds to his
chest and abdomen.
The Congolese army has a position 500
meters off the main road from where de Mérode was attacked and usually has
soldiers posted along the road. The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of
Rwanda (Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda, FDLR), a
largely Rwandan Hutu armed group, some of whose members participated in the
genocide in Rwanda in 1994, have also operated in this area in the past. The
FDLR are active across eastern Congo and are involved in lucrative, illegal
charcoal trading in Virunga Park – a practice that de Mérode and other park
rangers have sought to stop.
Arrest and Intimidation of Virunga
Park Central Sector Chief
On September 19, 2013, army soldiers
and intelligence officials arrested the warden of Virunga Park’s central sector,
Rodrigue Mugaruka Katembo. He had attempted to stop the construction of a
telephone antenna in the park because, he said, the SOCO officials who financed
the construction did not have the authorization required by Congolese law to
build in the park.
Katembo told Human Rights Watch that on September 3,
Dr. Guy Mbayma
Atalia, the
technical and scientific director for the ICCN and the agency’s focal point with
SOCO at the time,
had warned him that if he
continued to oppose SOCO’s activities in the park, he would be
killed.
In an interview with Human Rights Watch on April 23, 2014, Mbayma denied
this allegation and said he had nothing to do with Katembo’s
arrest.
Katembo
said that soldiers arrested him in Kanyabayonga, North Kivu, where he had been
visiting family, and severely beat him and his younger brother. They told
Katembo he was against the government because he did not want SOCO in the
park.
“What hurt me the most was how they tortured my young
brother in front of me,” Katembo told Human Rights Watch. “I said, ‘What did he
do? He’s not even in the ICCN.’ I was crying, and they had tied me up so I
couldn’t do anything.”
The soldiers took Katembo to Rwindi, where they
further humiliated him, paraded him in front of his home, and burned cigarettes
on his head. He was then detained at the provincial headquarters of the National
Intelligence Agency (Agence Nationale de Renseignements, ANR) in Goma and
released on October 7, 2013, after international pressure.
Katembo told
Human Rights Watch that officials involved in his arrest and ill-treatment told
him that they had been promised money to kill him, rather than arrest him.
Katembo said he also learned that intelligence officials had told prisoners that
they would pay them if they beat him to death while he was in detention.
Officials privately informed Katembo and his family about other plans to ambush
or kill him.
After his release, Katembo was told to report to the
intelligence agency daily and pay 5,000 Congolese francs (about US$5.50) every
day. Several months later, a sympathetic intelligence agent warned him that
there were plans to kill him in Goma, and he was advised to leave the
city.
The North Kivu provincial director of the
intelligence agency at the time, Jean-Marc Banza, told Human Rights Watch on
April 17, 2014, that Katembo was “detained legally” because he had insulted the
country’s president, Joseph Kabila. Banza denied allegations of mistreatment by
the security forces.
Threats Against Activists
In
many of the cases Human Rights Watch documented, Congolese government, military,
and intelligence officials were implicated in the threats and attacks on human
rights and environmental activists and other community leaders. Some had
allegedly received money from SOCO.
On January 31,
2014, a local farmers’ cooperative in Rutshuru organized a march of over 300
people opposing SOCO’s activities. The cooperative had informed local
authorities about the demonstration in advance, as Congolese law requires. Soon
after the march began, policemen went to the cooperative’s office, confiscated a
computer and other materials, and tore down a banner that said: “No exploitation
of oil in our fields and our lake.” The police detained and beat some of the
demonstrators and later released them.
During a public
meeting on February 19 in Nyakakoma, a fishing village on Lake Edward in
Rutshuru territory, SOCO representatives told residents that exploration work
could cause parts of the lake to be closed to fishing for up to three months.
The closure could affect 80,000 people whose livelihoods depend on the lake,
according to community leaders. A local fisherman and environmental activist
voiced his concern at the meeting, questioning how residents would support
themselves during this time.
On February 26, the activist received a
letter from the National Intelligence Agency (Agence
Nationale de Renseignements, ANR), asking him to
come to their office in Rutshuru. He told Human Rights Watch that when he went
to their office on March 3, “They told me I was behaving badly, and they said it
was a matter of the state. I shouldn’t act like a hero, and I risk having my
head cut off.” The activist was released after paying the intelligence official
$20.
On
April 2, another
public meeting was held in Nyakakoma, with SOCO representatives, government
officials, and residents. After residents protested SOCO’s plans to close parts
of the lake during seismic testing, people who were at the meeting later told
Human Rights Watch that the Rutshuru territorial administrator, Justin Mukanya,
had said that SOCO’s plans for oil exploration would go forward: “The train has
already left,” he said. “Whoever wants to try to stop the train will be
crushed.”
Several human
rights activists who opposed SOCO’s activities in the park told Human Rights
Watch that, for the past three years, they had received threatening text
messages and phone calls. Following are some examples of these messages, in
addition to the more recent cases mentioned above:
- On February 26,
2011, two human rights activists received the following text message: “Leave our
oil alone. If you continue, you will suffer the same fate as the park.” On the
same night, three unidentified men went to the home of one of the activists in
Goma; he was not home at the time. Two days later, the activist received the
following message: “If you continue to talk about oil, you will see. Watch out.” - On April 24,
2011, three activists received calls from an unidentified person who asked them
to come to the executive provincial government office. When they arrived, they
were asked to sign a document saying that they had attended a meeting with SOCO
on August 13, 2010. The three activists refused to sign. Three days later, one
of them received the following message: “You refused to sign. You are arrogant.
We’ve already identified your residence.” - On May 7, 2011,
another activist received a phone call as he was leaving an Internet café in
Goma. The caller, who did not identify himself, said: “You think you are hidden,
but we can see you. You just stopped a bus. You thought that we didn’t know you
but we’re following you.” - On February 27,
2012, three intelligence agents went to the same activist’s house in Goma and
told his wife he was “inciting the population about things the head of state has
already decided. If he continues, he will lose his life.” The activist had
already been threatened multiple times by phone and had been summoned to court
after he sent a letter to government authorities detailing the behavior of a
government security agent in Nyakakoma who claimed he was in charge of “security
and mobilization for SOCO.” - In December
2013, a fisherman told Human Rights Watch that he had been harassed by the Naval
Force after rowing his boat in front of the SOCO office. He was summoned to the
office of a major in the Naval Force. There he was accused of spying and taking
pictures of the SOCO office. The fisherman asked the major, “On what legal basis
are you accusing me of this?” The major allegedly replied: “You come here with
your human rights. Here, we don’t do the law. We do the army.” The major seized
the fisherman’s camera but did not find any pictures of the SOCO office, and
released him after two hours.
After several
human rights activists publicly denounced threats and intimidation by agents
working on behalf of SOCO, Mbayma, the ICCN’s focal point with SOCO at the time,
wrote a letter, seen by Human Rights Watch, to the ICCN director general in
early 2014, in which he accused the activists of inciting the population against
the government:
From the moment
that these structures pride themselves with the freedom to stand up against the
sovereign State that is the DRC and to call the peaceful population to civil
disobedience, there is good reason for the Director General of the ICCN to take
adequate preventative measures. These should take the path of suspending all
collaboration, be it direct or indirect, with these NGOs. Otherwise, the ICCN
risks being qualified as an accomplice to these NGOs in their proven attempt to
break up the authority of the state for the purposes, perhaps, of creating new
armed groups.
In a letter to
the president of North Kivu’s Provincial Assembly, dated May 13, 2014, and on
file at Human Rights Watch, the ICCN director general said that Mbayma had been
removed from his position as technical and scientific director, that he was no
longer the ICCN focal point with SOCO, and that he no was no longer authorized
to speak on behalf of the ICCN.
Allegations
Against SOCO International
In
December 2010, a Congolese court in Goma authorized park authorities to
investigate allegations of illegal activities by SOCO International, including
unauthorized entry into the park by vehicle and plane, unauthorized construction
in the park, and attempts to bribe and harass park staff and members of the
Congolese security forces.
As part of the investigation, a park warden
secretly filmed a security officer linked to SOCO and the Congolese army’s
liaison officer with SOCO as they offered the warden money. The warden told
Human Rights Watch that he refused an offer of “a large stack of cash” to allow
SOCO representatives to move freely within the park. Several months later, the
same warden said he was offered $50 up front and then $3,000 at the end of every
month if he agreed to give SOCO information about the zone where they wanted to
enter the park, and to allow them free movement in the park without informing
the warden’s supervisor, de Mérode.
Another park warden told Human Rights
Watch that Mbayma had
instructed him to come to Nyakakoma village with five park guards to work with
him at SOCO’s camp. “We were each paid $20 a day for 35 days,” the warden said.
“Their objective was for us to go with them to meetings with the population in
order to convince the population to support SOCO’s activities and to try to show
they had the full support of the ICCN.” The warden said they were paid by Mbayma
in the presence of a SOCO agent. He said that Mbayma warned him that if he
informed his direct supervisor about what they were doing, “it will fall on your
head, and you will be arrested.”
When the warden eventually refused to
work with Mbayma and returned to his base, he received at least four threatening
calls from Mbayma between November 2013 and February 2014, trying to convince
him to work with them again. Mbayma warned him that if he refused to join, he
would lose his career with the ICCN and be arrested.
http://www.hrw.org/node/126106
Ida Sawyer
Senior Researcher
Human Rights Watch
+243 81 33 78 478 | +243 99 86 75
565
Twitter: @ida_sawyer