|
�The sufferance of the population of the Democratic Republic of
Congo is tied to the resources of the territory. The violence of Bunia, of
Ituri and clashes in North Kivu are all part of one sole war, combated for
control over the natural resources of east DR-Congo. Now in addition to
the usual minerals there is also oil�. These were the words expressed to
MISNA by Melchisedec Sikuli, Bishop Beni-Butembo, the largest diocese of
North Kivu (east DR-Congo), bringing attention back to the central problem
of the Congolese war: its natural resources. The conflict being combated
since 1998 in ex-Zaire is an economic battle played by local and
international protagonists, in which the second often use the first as
pawns. The reward for winning the game is often control of a territory,
the east of the nation, which has an immense concentration of mineral
resources. But a few kilometres from Bunia, right in the �hottest� zone of
the entire east DR-Congo, theatre in the past weeks to indiscriminate
violence and fighting between factions that want to obtain control, a
recent discovery risks putting everything back in discussion. An oilfield
that promises billions of barrels hidden under the waters of Lake Albert
(a few kilometres from Bunia) and that may have the potential to change
the destiny � and maybe future � of Congo and its people. A huge resource
mentioned very little, or at least in whispers, shaded by legitimate and
strange shadows cast by financial holdings that report directly to
mercenary companies active in Angola and Sierra Leone. The oil company
that has for some time been working around Lake Albert in its reports
indicates that drilling operations may start at the end of the summer. The
Heritage Oil Corporation is a small but aggressive oil company based in
Canada and quoted on the Toronto stock market, that in the past years
started its prospecting on the eastern bank of Lake Albert, in Ugandan
territory. The natural basin of water known also with the name of the old
Congolese dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, was until now known for its rich
fishing resources and because together with Lake Eduard represents the
border between Uganda and Congo. In Uganda the Heritage Oil at the end of
the 90�s acquired a lot of land of 1.1-million acres, named �Block 3�,
where the �Turaco 1� well starts its prospecting work. In relatively brief
time the Heritage drilling machinery reaches over 2-thousand metres in
depth, individuating natural gas and hydrocarbons, individuating a real
treasure: an immense underground lake of oil. But something must not be
going as planned and the Heritage is forced to suspend works in Uganda due
to �technical problems�, as explained to MISNA by the Chief Executive
Officer of the company, Michael Wood, contacted by phone in the past days.
The company does not however appear to be bothered and in its
communications to shareholders announces the opening of a next �Turaco2�
well, which will become operational in the second quadrimester of 2003 and
that, always based on the communications, should consent the company to
finally reach the oil. But the �Turaco 2� becomes a small mystery. The
company does not in fact provide other information on its geographical
collocation, even though it always more often refers to the immense
potentiality of it creating access to the oil. Meanwhile, almost
contemporaneously some functionaries of the Heritage leave Uganda and in
June 2002 fly to the other side of the border in DR-Congo. Once in the
capital, Kinshasa, the Heritage delegation signs an accord with the
government of ex-Zaire for the concession of a territory as large as
Belgium along the Congolese banks of Lake Albert: 7.7-million acres of
land that extend from the town of Mahagi, extreme north of Lake Albert, to
the village Rutshuru, extreme south of Lake Eduard. Practically the entire
border between Uganda and Congo. But that territory, that stretches around
the Ituri province and that of North Kivu, is a zone afflicted by years of
fighting, massacres, violence committed by a constellation of armed groups
that since 1998 are protagonists of �the first African world war�, as the
Congolese conflict was defined in 1998 by the US State secretary at the
time, Madelaine Albright. A zone in which the control of the Kinshasa
government is basically null and where the scarce influence of the
Congolese executive comes through a few allied armed groups. In that zone
of the nation, the part of the lion, politically and militarily, has
always been played by Uganda or the rebel movements that act on their
behalf. What company would buy such a dangerous and volatile territory,
such as that which stretches from Lake Albert to Lake Eduard?
The ties between the Heritage and Ugandan government are very
tight, as commented to MISNA by Michael Wood. A detail which helps to
comprehend how it was possible to conduct eventual investigations on the
other side of the Lake, that until a few weeks ago was in the hands of the
Ugandans. But also in this way the risks of a large oil investment in that
zone of Congo appear to high. Conducting some researches on the Heritage
Oil Corporation numerous links emerge, more or less direct, between the
Canadian group and figures linked to the most famous mercenary companies
of the world: Executive Outcomes and Sandline International. The modern
mercenaries have little in common with the romantic and decadent figures
of the Soldiers of Fortune (SOF) active in Africa since the times of the
cold war. The new SOF are managers capable of creating immense financial
holdings, made up of a dense network of companies, subsidiary partnerships
(many of which registered in the Bahamas), in which it is easy to get
lost. All the information available on the PMC�s (Private military
companies � the modern name for mercenary companies) clearly indicates
that the most powerful of these financial empires is that created by
Anthony Buckingham, who is also the director and founder of the Heritage
Oil Corporation. Among the other activities headed by Buckingham are
companies tied to the exploitation of diamond mines of Sierra Leone and
Angola, private security companies, but also joint ventures with editorial
and air companies. A holding in which there are companies that not always
is it possible to find reliable and precise data on, with links between
the various realities that are often lost track of in the registrations of
off-shore offices and companies. �In the past ten years Buckingham and his
companies were connected to a series of mercenary military operations
launched in support of governments in office or exiled and multinationals,
in exchange for money. He has always denied that any payments were made
with mining concessions�, indicated The Independent English newspaper 13
May 1998. The actual terms of the accords reached between the Kinshasa
government, that of Kampala and the Heritage Oil are not known. But a
certain factor remains that, despite Buckingham�s men�s experience in
dealing with dangerous situations, to be able to extract oil from that
zone that stretches along the border with Uganda it will need to be
pacified. As confirmed also by a report released by the 'Africa
Intelligence' press agency, in a conference held May 15, Congolese
President Joseph Kabila explicitly underlined that it will not be possible
to �exploit� the oil wells of Ituri, until �the nation is reunified�. A
situation that could be unblocked, maybe indirectly, by the arrival of the
new international contingent sent by the UN and headed by France, but in
which all appear willing to participate, and that will have the authority
to resort to the use of force to guarantee security in Bunia and maybe in
the near future in surrounding areas. Two important protagonists however
remain excluded from this picture: one directly involved in the Congolese
conflict, Rwanda, and the other that coincides with the world of the large
international oil companies. In regard to the Rwandans, what has been said
so far appears to give a sufficiently plausible explanation for the recent
advance toward Ituri conducted by the Congolese Rally for Democracy
(RCD-Goma, main rebel formation of DR-Congo allied to Kigali) over the
past months and intensified in the past weeks. The soldiers of the
RCD-Goma were stopped by the UN a few kilometres from Lubero, after
seizing various key posts situated between Lake Eduard and Lake Albert. As
part of the same strategy is also the support recently guaranteed by the
RCD-Goma to the armed group of Thomas Lubanga (UPC, Union of Congolese
Patriots), protagonist of the Bunia violence. A small rebel movement which
does not however hide its aims to become the dominant force in Ituri, also
openly challenging the United Nations and the peace mission deployed in
the past days in Bunia. While in regard to the large oil multinationals,
the chief executive of Heritage Oil, Michael Wood, declared to MISNA that
�the large oil companies are keeping an eye on us and watching closely�.
The Heritage is in fact a limited structure for handling an oil basin that
promises billions of barrels. Heritage has already operated in the past in
Africa, particularly oil explorations in joint-ventures with other
companies (such as Chevron and Ranger Oil West Africa). If the
potentiality of the oil basin of Lake Albert should be confirmed, it would
open a match of immense dimensions and entirely new for the large
international oil companies, in a moment in which the planetary oil
resources (including the African, such as Angola, Nigeria, Chad and Guinea
Bissau) have returned to the centre of foreign policies of great western
nations. A match played in a nation in which the State is weak and where
oil and eventual choices of correlated �Real Politik� could represent yet
another tragedy or maybe even the only interest able to pacify what
appears to be a no end situation. (Translation of article written by
Massimo
Zaurrini)[BO] |
