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DR Congo plane grounded in Dublin over debt row

Xinhua, August 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) government said on Wednesday the Irish justice system had been "manipulated" to ground an Airbus 320 belonging to Congo Airways in Dublin over a debt row with a U.S. firm.

The Irish court grounded the plane on Aug. 24, 2015 after plaintiffs sought its seizure to recover an outstanding debt from the Congolese government.

"It is MIMINCO LLC mining company, owned by U.S. citizens, which is in conflict with the Congolese state, that manipulated the Irish justice system to issue seizure orders," DR Congo's Minister for Relations with Parliament Kin Kiey Mulumba said in Kinshasa.

The case dates back to 1997 when Congolese soldiers led by one of the sons of the then President Mobutu Sese Seko, occupied a diamond mining field owned by MIMINCO LLC in Tshikapa territory near the Angolan border.

The minister said the DR Congo government signed an agreement with MIMINCO LLC to resolve the matter.

"The agreement which approved a compensation of 13 million U.S. dollars instead of the 45 million dollars that was being demanded by MIMINCO LLC, was signed under the watch of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes based in Paris," Mulumba recalled.

Following the agreement, he said, in 2007 DR Congo sent to MIMINCO LLC's account 1.3 million U.S. dollars out of a debt of 13 million dollars.

According to him, the second Airbus belonging to Congo Airways, a newly created national carrier for the Democratic Republic of Congo, was scheduled to arrive in Kinshasa on Aug. 29, 2015.

DR Congo bought two used Airbus A320 at a total cost of 50 million dollars from Italian airline, Alitalia.

The first one arrived at the N'Djili international airport in Kinshasa on July 30, 2015. The Congolese government planned to launch the new airline before the end of this year. Endit