{"id":8017,"date":"2019-09-25T13:31:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T13:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=8017"},"modified":"2019-11-06T08:21:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:21:37","slug":"violent-arrests-and-torture-expose-the-myth-of-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/8017\/violent-arrests-and-torture-expose-the-myth-of-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Violent Arrests and Torture expose the Myth of \u2018Development\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the night of 12 September, several members of the Yalifombo community in Tshopo province were arrested by Congolese national police driving a Feronia PHC jeep and accompanied by Feronia PHC security guards, according to the Congolese group R\u00e9seau d\u2019Information et d\u2019appui aux ONG (RIAO-RDC).<\/span><\/i> On 15 September the traditional chief of the neighboring Mwingi community was abducted and tortured by police officers before managing to escape. The whereabouts of three villagers reportedly also detained, remain unknown [1]. Two months ago RIAO-RDC-member Jo\u00ebl Imbangola was murdered by a Feronia PHC security guard [2]. The alleged victims are members of communities on behalf of which RIAO-RDC filed a complaint with the German Development Bank KfW\u2019s private sector branch DEG in November last year. The communities claim the land occupied by Feronia PHC\u2019s Lokutu plantation was stolen from them by the Belgian colonial administration in the early 20th century to be handed out to the British company Lever Brothers, which later joined with the Dutch Margarine Unie to form Unilever. Unilever sold the plantations to Feronia in 2009. The communities contend that Feronia has since illegally occupied their land.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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Kinshasa, 25 September 2019<\/b> – Greenpeace Africa is appalled — but not surprised — by reports of violent nocturnal arrests and torture of Congolese villagers in Tshopo province. The communities are involved in a conflict over their land with Plantations et Huileries du Congo SA (PHC), a palm oil plantation company owned by the Canadian company Feronia Inc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Greenpeace Africa calls on the Congolese government and Feronia\u2019s international funders \u2013 including the British, French, German, Dutch and Belgian and other development banks [3] \u2013 to take all possible measures to ensure that Feronia respects the human rights and dignity of the communities, peasants and workers affected by its operations as well as their right to pursue international mediation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe atrocities reported by the Yalifombo and Mwingi communities must be met with firm action. Instead of violent displacement, arrests and torture, forest communities deserve justice,\u201d said Irene Wabiwa Betoko, Senior Forest campaign Manager of Greenpeace Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

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ENDS<\/span><\/p>\n

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Contact for interviews and more information:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ir\u00e8ne Wabiwa Betoko, Greenpeace Africa Senior Forest Manager, irene.wabiwa@greenpeace.org, +243 976756102\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tal Harris, Greenpeace Africa International Communications Coordinator, tal.harris@greenpeace.org, +221 776730496<\/span><\/p>\n

Newsdesk Greenpeace Africa: <\/span>nafrica@greenpeace.org<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] <\/span>www.farmlandgrab.org\/29157<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

[2] <\/span>www.farmlandgrab.org\/29061<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

[3] <\/span>www.feronia.com\/pages\/view\/shareholder-information<\/span><\/a>; <\/span>www.feronia.com\/news\/view\/feronia_secures_49m_term_facility_for_palm_oil_operations<\/span><\/a>; <\/span>www.feronia.com\/news\/view\/feronia_inc_announces_strategic_investment_from_phatisas_african_agriculture_fund<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the night of 12 September, several members of the Yalifombo community in Tshopo province were arrested by Congolese national police driving a Feronia PHC jeep and accompanied by Feronia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":8020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,102],"tags":[31,46,47],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-8017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspirethemovement","category-issues","tag-activism","tag-greenpeaceafrica","tag-drc","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8017"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8025,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017\/revisions\/8025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8017"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=8017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}