drillers_in_the_mist

Drillers in the mist | September 2014DRILLERS IN THE MIST: HOW SECRET PAYMENTS ANDA CLIMATE OF VIOLENCE HELPED SOCO INTERNATIONALOPEN AFRICA’S OLDEST NATIONAL PARK TO OIL3• Opponents of London-listed Soco International in Congo arrested, beatenand stabbed by government security forces identified as supporting the company• Military intelligence officer working alongside Soco offered bribes to parkranger to spy on head of Virunga National Park, home to the world’s lastmountain gorillas• Soco made payments to Congolese MP to lobby for access to Virunga undera murky ‘consultancy’ arrangement• Armed rebels appear to have received cash from company ‘subcontractors’London-listed company Soco and its contractorshave made illicit payments, appear to have paid offarmed rebels and benefited from fear and violencefostered by government security forces in easternCongo, as they sought access to Africa’s oldestnational park for oil exploration.Material gathered as part of an undercoverinvestigation by UK film-makers and reviewed byGlobal Witness, lays bare the extent of the actscarried out by Soco International plc – one of theUK’s 200 largest companies – and its supporters tofurther its oil project in the Democratic Republicof Congo’s Virunga National Park, which is aworld heritage site. 1 Only some of the undercoverfootage was included in a new documentary called“Virunga”. Soco has said in a public statement thatit “does not condone, partake in or tolerate corruptor illegal activity whatsoever.” 2Soco has yet to find oil in the park. Followingsustained pressure from campaigners, it pledgedon 11 June that, after completing seismic testing,it would not “undertake or commission anyexploratory or other drilling within VirungaNational Park unless Unesco and the DRCgovernment agree that such activities are notincompatible with its World Heritage status”. Theambiguity of Soco’s position leaves the door opento the park being fully or partly declassified for oil.This was underlined by a report in the Times on theday of the announcement, where Soco Deputy CEORoger Cagle said Congo and Unesco could agree toredraw Virunga’s boundaries. 3The video and audio recordings were collected by acourt-appointed investigator, community activistsand French freelance journalist Mélanie Gouby.The footage shows a Soco ally trying to bribe asenior park ranger to spy on the head of Virunga,local Soco agents handing out envelopes of cashto villagers to hold a demonstration, and a topCongolese parks official telling rangers they “will bepaid money, money, money” if they collaborate withthe company. Soco officials, meanwhile, labelledthe head of the park, Emmanuel de Merode, as theirmajor obstacle in secret recordings, and denigratedthe park. Its operations supervisor in Congo said theworld heritage site was “just a fucking mine”.Activists and park rangers in Nyakakoma have beenarrested, and in some cases beaten or stabbed, bysoldiers and intelligence agents after criticising orobstructing Soco’s operations. Several of these caseshave recently been documented independentlyby Human Rights Watch, which has called onCongolese authorities “to make sure that peopleare safe when they try to uphold the law, protectthe park, and peacefully express their views”.Soco has said it is not connected to the incidents