RIJSWIJK, 13/09/05 - The Lower House wants clarification from Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner on the arrest of an African peace negotiator. The foreign ministry admitted him to the Netherlands, but Donner's ministry had him handcuffed at the request of the US.

The man, Antonio Bembe, is a key figure in peace negotiations between Angola and Cabinda, an oil-rich area occupied by Angola since 1975. The foreign ministry gave him a visa to prepare peace negotiations with Angola in the Netherlands. But last June, he was arrested near the Peace Palace in The Hague shortly before he was due to give a speech there at a UN conference, it emerged last weekend.

Socialist Party (SP) MP Harry van Bommel says "people in Foreign Affairs are clearly not happy with the arrest of Bembe. Legally, this may be according to the book, but it is very bad for the Netherlands' image." He and other MPs want clarification from Donner.

The district court in The Hague will consider Bembe's preliminary custody today. The US wants Bembe's extradition for his role in the kidnapping of a staff member of US oil company Chevron in Cabinda in 1990.

It is unclear whether the foreign affairs and justice ministries operated independently of one another. Earlier, it was alleged that the home and justice ministry operated on cross-purposes, when businessman Frans van Anraat was arrested by Donner's ministry even though he was allegedly under the protection of the home ministry's AIVD secret service. Van Anraat is suspected of supplying raw materials for chemical weapons to the former Saddam Hussein regime.

Chevron allegedly gave financial support to Angola for the invasion and occupation of Cabinda begun in November 1975 in order to be able to take over the oil fields. The present US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was for years non-executive president of Chevron.?