UK envoy expelled in 'spies' row

A BRITISH diplomat was branded a spy and ordered out of Congo yesterday in an increasingly bitter dispute that has seen five Britons and a United States government official detained for espionage since last Sunday.

The diplomat, believed to be Gregor Lusty, 30, was told to leave immediately after a day of denials and protests from London to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.

Congo is in the middle of a civil war. Last week, a raiding party of rebels loosely allied to President Laurent Kabila entered neighbouring Uganda and hacked to death eight Western tourists, including four Britons.

Congo's Interior Minister, Gaetan Kakudji, accused the detained Britons of spying and said yesterday: "A diplomat who was the guide in all of this, we have pronounced him persona non grata. He must leave the country today." Tony Lloyd, the Foreign Office minister, telephoned President Kabila to deny the allegations and to demand the men's immediate release.

The four Britons and one American were arrested on Sunday with maps near Ndolo military airfield in Kinshasa. Mr Lusty was detained at the same time but, as an accredited diplomat, was then released.

If the men were caught spying it would be a serious blow to the prestige of British intelligence. It is only a month since an MI6 officer in Prague was publicly "outed" by Czech security officials.

The Foreign Office was adamant yesterday that the detained officials - four of whom had been sent from London - were merely reviewing evacuation procedures for British nationals in Congo, of whom there are about 100. The worsening civil war in the vast country - the size of Western Europe - is posing an increasing threat to the lives of foreign nationals, especially those in the oil and diamond industries.

The men, who have been detained at a Kinshasa hotel, include two Ministry of Defence officials, a consular official, a bodyguard to Douglas Scrafton, British ambassador to Congo, and an American seconded to the Foreign Office from the US State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. They were visited by Mr Scrafton yesterday and were said to be in good health.

The arrests have taken place against a backdrop of disintegration. The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, is fast imploding as rebels backed by at least three neighbouring countries fight to topple President Kabila.

Mr Kakudji, a member of President Kabila's inner circle, said. "When [the men] allow themselves to be found at military places and sites, and when one finds on them operational maps, in any country this would be espionage."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We totally reject allegations that they were spies." He said they were reviewing evacuation arrangements, and that this was "a totally routine activity which is carried out at our embassies across the world".

The Foreign Office refuses to name the officials and although this is said to be standard practice, it has fuelled suspicions that several of the officials were undercover intelligence officers.

Reporters in Kinshasa say they had known for a week that the British embassy was carrying out a review of the evacuation procedure. But it is not known whether the embassy informed the Congolese government.