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Kidnapped Soco contractor freed in Congo

by Reuters
Thursday, 17 February 2011 23:13 GMT

* Incident highlights security concerns in Congo

* Soco had abandoned oil wells after poor results

* Parks authority says files complaint vs Soco

(Corrects paragraph 2 to read "...close to where..." and paragraph nine to "...just outside Virunga National Park..." to make clear the incident did not happen in the park itself)

By Jonny Hogg

KINSHASA, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Rebels in eastern Congo have freed a South African man working for British oil firm Soco International, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Congo's National Parks Authority (ICCN) said it had filed a complaint against Soco for allegedly having illegally entered Virunga National Park, the eco-diversity spot close to where the incident took place.

Soco announced on Tuesday that the security contractor was missing after an attack on one of the company's cars in a region of the central African country where rebels are active.

"He was released on Wednesday at 1800 (1600 GMT) and is currently in the town of Rutshuru," UN spokesman Alexandre Essome said by telephone, adding the man was in good health.

An unnamed source close to the negotiations told Reuters his captors initially demanded $300,000 for his release. Essome said as far as he was aware no money had changed hands.

The incident highlighted concerns about security in eastern Congo, where mining and oil companies want to access untapped resources but where local and foreign armed groups operate.

Soco has two oil interests in Congo. But it abandoned two exploration wells last year due to poor results and is also under pressure not to hunt for oil in parts of Block 5 in Congo's Albertine Graben as it overlaps with a national park.

A spokesman for the gunmen claiming to have held the South African told Reuters on Tuesday he had been captured for his own safety during a firefight with Congolese soldiers accompanying the group. He added a soldier who was also reported kidnapped during the incident had fled soon afterwards.

COMPLAINT FILED

The incident took place on a road just outside Virunga National Park between Rutshuru and the Ugandan border, in Congo's North Kivu province, where Rwandan extremist FDLR rebels are active.

Park officials said security was so bad that its vehicles had been banned from using the road for the last 10 days and that the Soco team had entered the park illegally.

"We have lodged a complaint against the Soco delegation for entering the park in an illegal manner," the head of Congo's National Parks Authority, Cosma Wilungula, told Reuters.

Roger Cagle, Soco's deputy CEO said the company had received no word from the Congolese authorities.

"If they have (lodged a formal complaint) we'll deal with it, but at the moment we've had no notification," he said.

Soco and its partner Dominion Petroleum were handed Block 5 last June despite concerns from environmentalists that much of it lies inside Africa's oldest National Park. Last month the U.N. world heritage body UNESCO expressed concern over possible plans to allow mineral prospecting in Virunga.

Soco said last year it would behave responsibly if granted the right to work inside the park, but Cagle said it was up to the Congolese authorities to decide.

"If they don't want us there, we'll leave, it's as simple as that," he said. (Reporting by Jonny Hogg; editing by Mark John)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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