Human rights activists have attacked the attitude being taken by the British media and state over the extradition of notorious English mercenary Simon Mann to Equatorial Guinea, while both fail to tackle severe deportation and economic policy questions between the two countries.

The foreign office have demanded free access to Mann, citing fears over the country’s human rights record. Julian Lewis, Conservative MP for New Forest East, said: “Quiet diplomacy has failed and we now have to save this man, whatever he has and hasn’t done, from torture and a horrible death.”

Law Lords have gone so far as to ban a damages claim brought against Mann in the UK in response to allegations that he will not see a fair trial or humane treatment.

Mann has already been convicted of illegal arms dealing and is accused of plotting a coup to install a new dictatorship in Equatorial Guinea in exchange for oil concessions.
Emma Ginn, an activist from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns explained that the policies of the UK do not tally with its attitude to Mann’s treatment.

While criticising the decision to incarcerate Mann, the British government has itself refused to rule out sending asylum seekers who claim they could be jailed or tortured to Equatorial Guinea as recently as April 2007. Liam Byrne, Home Office Minister at the time, said: “Individual claimants who have been found by both the Home Office and the Independent Appeals Process not to be in need of protection are expected to leave the UK. If they do not leave voluntarily, they may have their return enforced.”

Equatorial Guinea has also recently been the recipient of huge investment both from the UK and other western countries in the last few years, almost solely to aid in the extraction of its substantial oil and gas deposits.

Foreign direct investment for 2006 alone – the most recent period for which figures are available, was worth around $1.2bn to this end. While this placed Equatorial Guinea second among the world’s Least Developed Countries in terms of FDI, it continues to rank amongst the lowest in terms of general development and social improvement.

In part, this reflects the low stake held in oil exploitation profits by the state – over 92% of its fuel resources are owned and operated by transnational companies, who employ mostly expats rather than native labour, so little of the vast profits being drawn from the sector filter into the general population, which still has an average life expectancy of 47 years.

Among the major companies involved in this ongoing raid on resources is BG, formerly known as British Gas, which has bought up the rights to $15bn worth of natural gas, with allegations that direct payments were paid to government officials for the privilege.
These activities, which effectively help to prop up and legitimate Equatorial Guinea’s dictatorship despite its rampant corruption and disregard of human rights, have faced no censure and there is no prospect of action being taken in the near future.