The role that Europeans and Arabs play in African on African violence is sickening. What is even more sickening is that we haven’t learned our lesson yet and we still choose to get in bed with these evil govt’s economically and politically to our own disadvantage.

“Oil consortium behind Sudan war crimes”

afrol News / IPS, 9 June – The entry of a Swedish-led oil consortium into southern Sudan in 1997 triggered civil war and crimes against humanity, concludes a new report by a European coalition of aid agencies.

The European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) has called on the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate into the possible complicity of the consortium in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sudan.

When the Swedish company Lundin Oil formed a consortium with Petronas Carigali Overseas from Malaysia, OMV (Sudan) Exploration from Austria and Sudapet from Sudan in 1997, they signed a contract with the Khartoum government to drill for oil in Block 5A in Unity State, southern Sudan.

At this time, however, the area was not fully under government control. This set off a spiral of violence, according to a new report by ECOS, called “Unpaid Debt”, which covers the period until 2003.

Although the actual perpetrators were government forces and armed groups allied to government forces or their opponents, their purpose was to clear the ground for the oil companies. “The oil exploration played a crucial role in the atrocities,” Egbert Wesselink, coordinator of ECOS, told ‘IPS’.

Based on comprehensive evidence, Mr Wesselink’s report estimates that 12,000 people were killed or died from hunger or war-related diseases. Many were raped and tortured, half a million cattle was lost and almost 200,000 people were violently displaced.

“The companies should have been aware of the abuses, but they continued to work with the government and its army,” Mr Wesselink said.

Mr Wesselink now calls on the respective governments to investigate whether the companies were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others.

“We specifically bring this case to the Swedish and Austrian governments, as these have acknowledged their commitment to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan,” said Mr Wesselink. This agreement created the right to compensation for injustices resulting from oil exploitation. “This promise remains unfulfilled to date.”

“First they started with an aerial bombardment, which lasted several days,” recalled Reverend James Koung Ninrew, general secretary of the peace council in the region. The inhabitants of his town, Koch, in Unity State, died or fled. “Secondly, ground troops came to check the situation, killing the remaining population and setting the villages on fire. Finally they declared the area safe and the oil companies came in.”

The consortium was not directly involved in the atrocities, Mr Ninrew explained to ‘IPS’.

“But it was the consortium that demanded a safe area for its operations,” Mr Ninrew said. “Moreover, without the contracts the government would not have had money to buy gunships and ammunition. As soon as the troops secured the area, they moved to the next, systematically, and the companies followed, until the whole area of Block 5A was brought under control. The companies could see the villages still burning.”

Throughout the war in Block 5A, the consortium worked alongside the perpetrators of international crimes, the report states. Their infrastructure even enabled the commission of crimes. For example, an important bridge and a road expanded the geographic reach of armed groups and enabled year-round access to communities that were formerly isolated in this huge, swampy, flat area on the west bank of the White Nile.

Lundin Oil’s spokesperson was not available to ‘IPS’. However, in an open letter to shareholders, written this week, Ian Lundin, chairman of the board, writes that ECOS “reiterates inferences, insinuations and false allegations based on partisan and misleading information which were refuted [years before].”

“Lundin contributed to peace and stability in the region”, and was “actively engaged with stakeholders,” the letter claims.

According to Mr Wesselink, Lundin Oil made an extremely biased selection of stakeholders for their dialogue. “Their stakeholders consisted of two of the political leaders in the region. But when these leaders turned against the consortium, they chose other stakeholders”.

The Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry has refused to react to the report. “We do not comment on individual companies and we do not investigate them,” spokeswoman Irena Busic told ‘IPS’. “The prosecutor will do that.”

The Ministry is hiding behind the possibility of a criminal prosecution, holds Mr Wesselink. “They miss our point. There are good reasons for criminal punishment, but that is not our objective. That is not what the people of southern Sudan are waiting for. We want the governments to ensure appropriate compensation for all persons whose rights have been violated, and the companies have to pay their fair share.”

ECOS estimates the necessary compensation at US$ 300 million. “The local people now are very bitter,” explained Mr Ninrew. “They want the company to acknowledge they made mistakes. That also means compensation, to the people who suffered damages.”

“Lundin thinks this storm will go over,” Mr Wesselink said. “We think this time it will not.”

By Frank Mulder

Sigh of relief over new Sudan unity govt

afrol News, 16 June – Despite a global rejection of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, the international community is relieved Mr al-Bashir’s party and the SPLM of South Sudan managed to agree on a renewed unity government in Khartoum.

President al-Bashir already on Monday announced the composition of the new government, which was sworn in today in Khartoum, two weeks after general elections were held in both halves of Sudan.

The forming of a new unity government after these elections forms part of the 2005 peace accord that ended the country’s north-south civil war. Despite continued distrust between north and south and rebel warfare in both halves of the country, a renewed unity government was necessary to go through with the next, difficult step op the peace process.

These are next year’s referenda, which probably will lead to full independence for South Sudan and will decide which border provinces will remain in Sudan or go to the new nation.

The peaceful and orderly announcement of a new Sudanese unity government therefore was strongly welcomed by the international community. This is despite the fact that the government is led by President al-Bashir, who is charged by crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Along with others, the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS) today congratulated Sudan’s north-south parties on the formation of the new government. UNMIS voiced hope that the new Sudanese government “will persevere in its resolve for achieving a stable and durable peace.”

UNMIS further called for “credible referenda” to be carried out in South Sudan and Abyei, which are meant to be the final phase of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The UN mission today also underlined the need for “realising the popular consultations” in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Contrary to Abyei, referenda are not to be held in these two border states, and observers fear the vague “popular consultations” phrasing could lead to open conflict here.

Sudan’s new government, UNMIS said, “shoulders the historic responsibility of implementing the CPA during the final year of the interim period.” The mission said it was committed to help the parties during the “coming crucial period for the people of Sudan.”

The formation of Sudan’s new government comes two months after the holding of historic presidential and parliamentary elections, the first of their kind in Sudan in 24 years.

By staff writer

The American media operates exactly like Hollywood. It jumps on the next sensational world incident and as soon as the incident loses its newness they move onto the next tragedy it can exploit to get the most viewer or the most papers or magazines sold.  Darfur is still n the midst of one of the biggest humanitarian tragedies of the modern age and the media is ignoring it at the moment. Let us not forget our brothers and sister still suffering under regime of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Click the links below for updated information of the goings on in Darfur.

The words below the photographs says:

This photo is the Pulitzer Prize winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan Famine.

The picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards a United nations Food Camp located a kilometer away.

The vulture is waiting for the child to die so it can eat it. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photo was taken.

3 months later he committed suicide due to depression stemming from the memories of this photo.

http://darfurdaily.blogspot.com/

http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/clips/opinion-once-again-world-is-silent-on-darfur/