Oil fuels Sudan war, bishops say
By CHARLES OMONDI
Nairobi, Kenya
The audience at the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference had
waited with much anticipation. Yet when Anna Kimas turn to speak came,
she could manage only a handful of sentences.
Its not that Kima is inarticulate, introverted or too
nervous to address a gathering. But she said that what she witnessed on a
recent visit to her birthplace in Mankien in Sudans Unity State, now
effectively taken over by multinational oil corporations, was too painful
to describe.
She reported that many deaths, displacements of huge proportions
and the cries of children were among the heart-rending experiences she had
faced there. Kima alluded to the use of chemical weapons in the Sudan
conflict.
Macram Max Gassis, bishop from El Obeid in the Nuba Mountains of
central Sudan, said, We Catholic bishops are united in mind and heart
that oil business is fueling the war in Sudan. There is no way we shall shy
away from this reality (see NCR, Nov. 17, 2000).
The Sudan conflict, in its broadest context, pits the Arab and
Islamic North against the African Christian and traditionalist South. The war,
with causes deeply rooted in the countrys colonial past, dates back to
1955. The current phase began in 1983 and has claimed an estimated 2 million
lives.
Hundreds of thousands have been forced into exile as refugees,
while an estimated 4 million remain internally displaced in their motherland.
Sudan has the largest internally displaced population in the world.
Caesar Mazzolari, Catholic bishop of the Rumbek diocese in
Nairobi, Kenya, was another speaker who struggled to tell his story. His see is
home to an estimated 250,000 Sudanese civilians displaced from the
countrys rich oil fields.
As has become the norm at gatherings about Sudan today, the oil
issue was prominent during the Sudanese bishops meeting, held in Nairobi,
Kenya, Aug. 23 to Sept. 1. At the end of their meeting, the bishops reiterated
their stand that under the present circumstances, Sudans oil business was
undesirable.
Since Sudan began exporting crude oil in August 1999, the
implications of the multimillion-dollar business on the countrys civil
war has been the subject of great debate. While the Khartoum government, its
sympathizers and multinational corporations with stakes in the business have
defended it as a long-overdue blessing that would turn around the African
states economy, others have viewed it as a curse on the nation.
We are neither against development nor oil revenue, but all
these must wait till there is just peace, said Kima, who identifies
herself as a Nuer, Sudans second largest ethnic group. Most of the oil
deposits lie in Nuer territory.
The oil business, analysts and eye witnesses say, has seen the
Khartoum regime pursue a scorched earth policy to clear the local
villagers from the areas where oil has been discovered. Reportedly, the regime
rakes in $2 million in oil revenue daily, a development many believe has caused
the Islamic government to lose whatever incentive it had in pursuing a peaceful
solution to the conflict.
Since the completion of the 1,650-kilometer pipeline from Unity
State to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, observers estimate that hundreds of
thousands of villagers have been terrorized into leaving their homes in Upper
Nile.
In a statement at the end of their Nairobi meeting, the Catholic
bishops said, We witness displacement of our flocks from their homelands,
driven away by helicopter gunships, Antonov bombers and government troops and
militias in order for oil companies to work in relative security.
According to Catholic leaders, foreign oil companies accept the
protection of regular troops and militia who commit human rights abuses with
impunity.
Since oil began to pump through the pipeline 18 months ago,
there have been thousands of deaths and displacements, said Dan Collison,
head of Christian Aids Sudan program, in a detailed report, which his
organization released last March.
Haruun Ruun, executive secretary of the New Sudan Council of
Churches, said that oil is a principal factor in the protracted civil strife:
The sharing of resources, especially oil, is one of the root causes of
the 18 years of war in Sudan. We ask the government of Sudan and the oil
companies to immediately suspend all oil-related action until there is a peace
agreement providing a fair share of resources, he said.
The main corporations involved in Sudan include The Greater Nile
Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium that includes Canadas Talisman
Energy (25 percent), the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (40
percent), Malaysias Petronas (30 percent) and Sudans state-owned
Sudapet (5 percent). These companies are currently operating in the Heglig and
Unity oil fields.
Operating in neighboring Block 5a are Swedens Lundin Oil,
OMV of Austria, Petronas and Sudapet. The Gulf Petroleum Corporation of Qatar,
China National Petroleum Corporation and Petronas operate in the more easterly
Adar oil field while Frances TotalFinaElf owns an as-yet-unexploited
120,000 square kilometer concession in the south of the country.
As if to confirm the governments financial stake in the
conflict and its lack of interest in peace, Sudanese president Lt. Col. Omar
Hassan el-Bashir celebrated 11 years at the helm last year with the
inauguration of a plant manufacturing a wide range of military hardware. He
hailed the plant as the greatest achievement of his presidency since he took
power in a 1989 coup.
Last year, Sudanese government planes bombed civilian and
humanitarian targets in the rebel-held territory 152 times last year, according
to records by agencies working in the region. The aerial attacks occurred an
average of three times a week during 2000. The tempo has continued unabated,
and this years figures could as well surpass last years.
In the meantime, the situation in the vast rebel territory remains
largely desolate. Hardly any infrastructure exists. Poverty, disease and mass
ignorance reign supreme as countless populations roam the jungle unsure of what
tomorrow holds for them.
According to Peter Adwok Nyaba, Sudanese geologist and author of
the award-winning Politics of Liberation: An Insiders View, the use of
oil to further subjugate the Southern population goes back to former President
Gaffar Numeirys tenure from 1969 to 1985. When the oil was first
discovered, Adwok said, the government chose to be vague about its
exact location. It then went ahead to replace the African names of the oil
fields with Arab lexicon to permanently erase any African claim to these
locations.
Charles Omandi is a journalist working in Kenya.
Related Web sites |
Christian Aid in
Sudan www.christianaid.org.uk/world/where/eagl/sudanp.htm
Churches in the Sudan www.eglisesoudan.org
Sudapet www.sudapet.com
Sudan Catholic Information
Office www.peacelink.it/africa/scio/month.html |
National Catholic Reporter, September 28,
2001
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