SPECIAL REPORT: Fresh fears of fighting on Lake Albert’s oil shores

Kampala claims this 4km of land in the heart of the lake is sovereign Ugandan territory. But the majority Congolese population beg to differ. It is the yellow starred flag of the DR Congo which flies high on the waterfront and the only mention of Uganda is to express outrage and frustration.

In a packed wooden hut on the docks of Rukwanzi, a cacophony of Swahili, Lingala and French fills the air. Islanders’ hands shoot up to demand answers. Will the companies make us leave? Is Uganda already taking the oil? How will a joint production area work? What will happen to the fishermen if there’s a spill? Taimour Lay visited Ituri, eastern DRC and Rukwanzi and tells the story.

The 3,000 people here, eking out a living from the dwindling fish stocks of Lake Albert, find themselves at the centre of an area believed to contain up to 2 billion barrels of oil. They also live on the volatile, disputed border between two neighbours only just beginning to re-establish diplomatic ties after decades of conflict.

Eastwards across the water, you glimpse Uganda. To the west, the shore of war-torn Ituri, eastern DR Congo. Oil will either force the countries together as partners, or create tensions that lead to a future war – no one on the ground is willing to say which is more likely.

Border dispute
Kampala claims this 4km of land in the heart of the lake is sovereign Ugandan territory. But the majority Congolese population beg to differ. It is the yellow starred flag of the DR Congo which flies high on the waterfront and the only mention of Uganda is to express outrage and frustration.
The memories of the military escalation in July and August of 2007 have not faded. Details and responsibility remain unclear but a series of tit-for-tat clashes, from the arrest of Ugandan marines on the island, the death of a Heritage Oil worker and the alleged murder of 11 Congolese on a passenger ferry by suspected Ugandan army troops, have left a bitter legacy.

More recently, islanders claim Ugandan patrols have become more aggressive and the military presence on the lake more pronounced. Despite the rapprochement between Presidents Museveni and Kabila, the status of the Ngurdoto Agreement (signed on September 8, 2007) which pulled the two sides back from the brink of war – including settlement of the border dispute and moves towards joint-exploration of oil fields - remains precarious.

Few believe that oil revenues will reach the island. The closer you are to a natural resource in DR Congo, the more it damages, rather than benefits, you. ‘’People have fought over gold, tin, charcoal, timber, everything,’’ one man says. ‘’Why should it be different with oil?’’

Oil conflict
An hour’s boat ride to the DR Congo shore and we are in Kasenyi, a town that was hit hard by the Ituri civil war (1998-2003). Militias battled over the lucrative and strategically vital lakeside landing points, the timber and charcoal from local forests, and launched attacks on civilians as Hema-Lendu ethnic identities became a convenient justification for war.

The last time the oil companies came to Kasenyi was in 2007, when Tullow Oil’s Vice President for Africa Tim O’Hanlon visited to promise schools and hospitals and a bright new future. Others have dropped in with more than words.
The United Nations Mission in Congo (Monuc) reported later that year that Tullow’s partner in the license, Heritage Oil, owned by former mercenary fighter Tony Buckingham, had donated speed boats to the FARDC (Congolese national army) in March and had also been responsible for the delivery of 30 Land Rover jeeps to Bunia, which were then distributed to local commanders across the region.

The national army remains a fragile and controversial presence in Ituri, seeking to assert central authority while also committing widespread human rights abuses, from routine ‘’tracasserie’’ (harassment) to corruption and sporadic violence. Cooperation between companies and soldiers – of any stripe – breeds suspicion and fear here.

Any hope?
Kasenyi’s residents are as desperate for answers as the islanders of Rukwanzi. They too know they are at the centre of something but two years after Tullow’s visit, there’s no sign of exploration starting. In June 2003, this exhausted, though now bustling town, was razed to the ground by Germain Katanga’s Lendu FRPI militia group.

Local people claim the oil companies were involved – the kind of conspiracy theory that, however far-fetched, is the standard currency of politics and social attitudes. Locals have suffered too much to be trustful. “They wanted to clear these areas to make exploration easier,” claims one man. “The militia knew how valuable these places would be soon so they came to become players.”

It was not until 2006 that Tullow and Heritage signed a Production Sharing Agreement with Congolese leader Joseph Kabila, only to see the contract ripped up a year later as he sought new partners in a South African consortium.

As the same companies have worked towards the start of production on the Uganda side of the lake, they remain mired in a political and legal battle with Kinshasa, further complicated in March 2009 when the new Congolese oil minister, Mr Rene Isekemanda Nkeka, invited Tullow back into one of the blocks, on the proviso it take on ‘’new partners’’.

But it was not only Kinshasa the companies spoke to. After all, the central government had no control over the recognised exploration areas.

Back in 2002, just as they signed a first memorandum of understanding with the DR Congo government, Heritage admitted to seeking consent to the deals in writing from the rebel leaders then in control of Ituri and North Kivu: the MLC (Mouvement de Libération du Congo) of Jean-Pierre Bemba, and the RCD-Kis/ML of Mbusa Nyamwisi. Both groups had Ugandan troops at strategic locations on their territory.
A 2005 report from the Pole Institute noted that manoeuvrings by politicians and militias was at least partly being determined by considerations of future oil deals.