INSIGHT: Equatorial Guinea Seeks To Shake Off 'Oil Curse' Image

"I don't see it, I think's it's PR," said Ken Hurwitz, an anti-corruption expert with the Open Society Justice Initiative, who has studied Equatorial Guinea for years.

The country has a reputation as a tough and treacherous place to do business. Transparency campaigners and critics say access to most deals is controlled by Obiang, his family and allies of his Fang Esangui clan from mainland Mongomo district.

"Equatorial Guinea is a family business," said Andres Esono Ondo, leader of the oppositon CPDS party, which won only two seats in the country's lower assembly and Senate in May 26 elections swept by Obiang's PDGE party. International rights groups said the vote fell well short of democratic standards.

Tutu Alicante, an exile who heads rights group EG Justice, has testified to the U.S. Congress that Obiang's family controls businesses from power, telecoms and construction to timber and energy. "They've a finger in everything," he said.

Most foreign executives working in Equatorial Guinea shun publicity. Reports of influence peddling, bribery and even intimidation and arrests of businessmen are rife.

South African aviation consultant Daniel Janse van Rensburg was pulled off a plane by police in Malabo in December over a dispute over a business deal with a local politician.

South African Foreign Ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela told Reuters van Rensburg had been released to South Africa's embassy in Equatorial Guinea after it intervened.


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