Windsor House 50 Victoria Street London SW1H ONL
Telephone 071-222 7979
Sir Patdck Sheehy
Ch.-
aA T INDUSTRIES o I c.
4 th October 1991
The Rt. Ron. Douglas Hurd, CBS, MP,
Secretary of State for Foreign &
Co~onwealth Affairs,
Foreign & Commonwealth Office,
Downing Street,
London SWlA IAL
I find that there is another issue which I would
like
to bring to your attention. It concerns British-
American Tobacco Company Limited, which completed
the
evacuation of the expatriate staff of its
subsidiary
in Kinshasa, Zaire. on Sunday, 30th September.
There appears to be serious shortcomings in the
advice
and support offered to the British community in
Zaire
by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office through its
Embassy in Kinshasa. Although management and
families
were evacuated without loss of life and, in the
circumstances, very rapidly, this was largely due
to
their own efforts and the assistance of the South
African Consul in Kinshasa and the American
Embassy in
Brazzaville.
The civil disturbances revealed the poor state of
preparedness of Embassy officials. whilat also
throwing doubt on the degree of their commitment
to
the British community.
/cont....
M)
CD
Add-, Bvd Lrd- SWI TNex915195
CY%
C%
BAT Industries document for Province of British
Columbia 23 April 1999


- 2 -
The seriousness of the security situation within
Kinshasa was consistently down-played by Embassy
officials. Until Wednesday afternoon, 25th
September,
they continued to advise that British nationals
remain
in their homes, although they were aware that many
homes in the expatriate residential areas were
attacked and ransacked throughout the period from
Monday afternoon to early Wednesday morning. Three
of
the BAT Zaire families reached the relative safety
of
the Intercontinental Hotel on Tuesday evening with
the
assistance of the BAT security per3cnnel and
French
troops; two of their households were attacked, and
looters left only the basic structure of the
houses
standing.
Embassy personnel were obviously unwilling to view
at
first-hand the scale of the looting and, indeed.
relied heavily on the wardens to provide
information.
An several wardens were absent or unable to regain
their homes, several key areas of the city,
including
the main expatriate residential areas, were not
covered by the warden system.
The communications facilities at the Embassy were
seriously deficient. The emergency telephone
contact
number communicated to the BBC, and broadcast an
the
World Service, was out of date and was, in fact,
the
number of the previous Embassy building. Calls to
the
Embassy number on Wednesday morning and afternoon
were
routed through to a residence an the Embassy
compound,
with the result that calls were answered by a
non-English speaking house servant!
The Embassy apparently had no pre-organised lines
of
communication with the staff of other embassies
(Belgian, American and French) and were therefore
unable to arrange with French troops the movement
of
families out of the residential areas on Tuesday.
The
other principal embassies were able to arrange the
grouping and convoying of their nationals out of
these
residential areas on Monday night and throughout
Tuesday.
The Embassy was unwilling or unable to provide
logistical support during the evacuation. BAT
families were evacuated on Thursday, 26th
September on
a South African Government organized flight, on
which
places were obtained initially through the
personal
contacts of our staff. The flight was subsequently
given official refugee flight status by the
British
Embassy.
/cant ....
BAT Industries document for Province of British
Columbia 23 April 1999


When BAT management left an Saturday for
Brazzaville,
it became obvious that no consular assistance was
available in Brazzaville; they were given
transport
and food by the Americams, and purchased seats on
a
Japanese chartered Swiss Air flight with the
assistance of a British national working with the
American Embassy. We understand that some British
nationals remained for several days in unfortunate
conditions in Brazzaville, as the Belgians and
rrench
accord a low priority to the evacuation of British
nationals. Despite this, British Embassy officials
advised our staff to look to these countries for
assistance in Brazzaville. Furthermore, throughout
the disturbances, a large number of British
citizens
were turned away from the Embassy.
Procedures regarding the provision of advice and
security to British nationals in such
circumstances
were also called into question. It became clear
that
no reliable record existed of the number of
British
nationals in Zaire within the Embassy. It was also
evident that staff had no ready means of
contacting
the large majority of the nationals and checking
on
their safety.
I thought you would want to be aware of these
concerns
in the hope that a review of the circumstances
surrounding the events in Kinshasa in the week
beginning 23rd September will enable the roreign
and
Commonwealth Office to review its procedures in
the
event of similar situations re-occurring.
No doubt we will be able to touch on some of these
issues I an raising with you when we meet on
25 th November.
Patrick Sheehy
r1 J
CD
Co
BAT Industries document for Province of British
Columbia 23 April 1999