Oil Company SOCO Allegedly Paid Large Sums to Congolese Officer Accused of Intimidating Opponents of Drilling

British oil company SOCO International allegedly paid tens of thousands of dollars to a Congolese Army officer who has been accused of bribing park rangers and intimidating opponents of the oil company's activities, according to a report by advocacy group Global Witness.

As well as being home to some of the planet's last mountain gorillas, Virunga National Park — Africa's oldest nature reserve and a UNESCO heritage site — is also believed to hold abundant oil development opportunities.

Documents obtained by Global Witness appear to show that Major Burimbi Feruzi received $42,250 in payments from SOCO — a sum that is equivalent to 30 years of salary for the officer, according to the NGO.

In a statement released to The Guardian and other media outlets on Wednesday, SOCO stated that they had "never denied that [it] funded the work of the DRC army in providing a security escort" for staff involved in exploratory drilling in the area.

The company said it strongly refuted "any suggestion that this funding was in any way improper or connected with alleged acts of intimidation or violence," adding that, "the soldiers assigned to Soco's security escort were always under the full command and control of the DRC army."

Nathaniel Dyer, head of the Congo team at Global Witness, told the New York Times that Major Feruzi stands accused of "bribing and intimidating those trying to stop oil exploration in one of Africa's natural treasures."

Reports by several NGOs and witness statements collected by the BBC suggest that Congolese army officers have arrested, threatened, beaten and even stabbed opponents of SOCO's drilling. According to the Global Witness report, several park rangers were "beaten or stabbed" by soldiers and intelligence agents supporting SOCO's oil-related activities in the region.

In September 2013, park ranger Rodrigue Katembo was allegedly arrested and detained after he ordered a SOCO engineer to stop work on a communications antenna, pending official permission. Katembo says officers took him back to his rangers' base and beat him in front of his colleagues to humiliate him. Katembo also said the soldiers had passed him a phone with a call from Feruzi, who said Katembo would be jailed for opposing the oil company. Katembo was detained for 17 days, during which he received further beatings. In a statement at the time, SOCO denied any involvement in Katembo's arrest, and said that "any allegations on this subject [were] totally unfounded."

Virunga park director Emmanuel de Merode — a Belgian prince credited with bringing the park back to life after years of neglect — has long been a critic of SOCO's drilling activities in the region. In 2014, de Merode's car was "sprayed with bullets by unknown gunmen" as he was returning from delivering a report to state prosecutors on SOCO's activities. De Merode was shot twice, in the stomach and in the chest.

According to Global Witness, "At least one observer has pointed to the timing of the shooting to indicate a possible connection to the oil dispute." A scene from journalist Mélanie Gouby's Oscar-nominated documentary on Virunga park shows a SOCO executive telling the director he fears de Merode will have an "accident."

Trailer for Mélanie Gouby's film, Virunga.

In September 2014, the Telegraph revealed that Congolese soldiers were believed to have beaten and killed two fishermen who were outspoken critics of SOCO's exploratory activities in the park. At the time, the oil company denied any responsibility in the deaths, and Roger Cagle, SOCO's deputy chief executive, had said that the officers were "not associated with Soco. They're assigned to us. We can't tell the army to go and kiss off."

SOCO started its exploration of the region in 2010, after receiving a presidential decree allowing the company to look for oil in Block V, a 4,600 square mile area that encompasses part of Lake Edward. More than 30,000 people rely on the fishing industry on Lake Edward, which is thought to be directly above Virunga's coveted oil reserves.

After failing to find any oil in Virunga National Park, and coming under increasing pressure from campaigners, the company pledged in 2014 not to "undertake or commission any exploratory or other drilling within Virunga National Park unless UNESCO and the DRC government agree that such activities are not incompatible with its World Heritage status".

Global Witness has said it has no proof that Congolese officers were following instructions from the British oil company, and the Congolese army has yet to respond to the allegations.

Follow Pierre Longeray on Twitter @PLongeray

Image of a village on the shores of Lake Edward via MONUSCO/Flickr

Watch the VICE News documentary, "Bomb Trains: The Crude Gamble of Oil by Rail."

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