The Hindu Monday, Jun 24, 2002
India joins Sudan's war By Ninan Koshy Oil has fuelled Sudan's civil war... The ONGC is stepping into ethnically-cleansed areas. IN APPROVING the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's proposal to buy Canadian Talisman Energy Inc.'s 25 per cent stake in the Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan, the Indian Government has committed a grave error politically, ethically and even from a business point of view. For some time, the Canadian company has been trying to divest its shares in the Sudan project mainly as a result of protests from human rights groups and shareholders who have accused it of complicity in human rights violations including ethnic cleansing in the ongoing Sudanese civil war. Yet, Ram Naik, our Minister of State for Petroleum, said that "the civil war in Sudan and protests from human rights groups" did not worry him. Sudan has endured the longest civil war on the African continent, with 40 years of intermittent fighting. More than two million people have died in the last 19 years of the new stage of the war and twice as many have been displaced, making it one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of our lifetime and one of the less, if not the least, reported. Reports of official bodies such as the U.N. Human Rights Commission and Canada's Harker Commission as well as those of non-governmental bodies including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Christian Aid have documented evidence on how the presence and activities of oil companies are fuelling the war. Companies from the West and Asia have helped build the Sudanese oil industry, offering finance, technological expertise and supplies, to create a strong and growing oil industry in the central region. In the name of oil, Government forces and Government-supported militias are emptying the land of civilians, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese. The oil industry's infrastructure — the same roads and airstrips which serve the companies — is used by the army in the war. Exports of Sudan's estimated reserves of two billion barrels of oil are paying for the build-up of a fast growing Sudanese arms industry as well as for increasing imports of weapons. The war, being fought between the Government and the main opposition force, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), at a stalemate without oil, has escalated with oil. The Government claims it is capable of carrying on the war indefinitely with the revenue from the oil. Under agreement with the oil companies, oil revenues are shared between the companies and Sudapet, the Sudanese national oil company. Military protection is also part of the agreement. As in many conflict-ridden countries, the oil companies themselves have become targets. The problem of extracting and exporting oil in a country in the midst of a devastating civil war cannot be over-stated. In Sudan, geography compounds the problem. Although oil is being exploited by a Government controlled by northerners, most oil reserves lie in the south — in areas where the SPLA and other southern groups are fighting against the Government for a more equitable share of economic and political power. The Muglad basin is classic geography for oil, a sedimentary plain exposed by two plates being pulled apart. Critically, the same area roughly defines the boundary between Sudan's north and south. For unhindered activities as well as the safety of their staff, companies need protection. But the relationship between oil and security has moved far beyond protection as in some other countries. The Government is following a strategy of driving out local inhabitants considered potential enemies — Nuer and Dinka civilians who have lived in the region for ages — from the oil fields and their vicinity. Oil has fuelled Sudan's civil war, further stoking outrage especially in the West over the Sudanese Government's human rights violations and the complicity of the oil firms. While no American companies are involved — U.S. law prohibits them from doing business in Sudan — the involvement of Canadian and European firms in extracting Sudanese oil has prompted "disinvestment" campaigns such as those directed against firms that did business with apartheid-era South Africa. The criticism has fallen hardest on Talisman Energy Inc., a firm little known outside Canada till it began its controversial Sudanese exploration. The company has been accused of being directly involved in forceful displacement of people. In a complaint against Talisman before a U.S. Federal Court in March, a secret Sudanese police communiqué about the plan for an attack on African villages near Talisman's oil fields at the behest of the company was filed. The memo issued on May 7, 1999, said "... fulfilling the request of the Canadian Company (Talisman)... the armed forces will conduct cleaning up in all villages from Heglig to Pariang". Two days later, a major offensive was launched and villages in the area mentioned destroyed. The attacks reduced the overall population in the area by 50 per cent securing it for the oil company. The ONGC is stepping into ethnically-cleansed areas. Except on maps, the country's two halves, the north and the south, have never been really one. The Muslim Arabs of the arid north historically exploited the Africans who live in the wetter south and practise Christianity or traditional beliefs. British colonialists actually separated the two. Independence in 1956 was quickly followed by a sporadic war for southern secession. The Addis Ababa agreement of 1972 negotiated mainly by the World Council of Churches granting autonomy to the south brought peace for some time. Fighting started again in 1983 after talks failed over new arrangements for distribution of resources and power, both of which had considerably increased after the discovery of oil. Chevron Corporation, the U.S. oil company which sank wells in Sudan in 1978, pulled out in 1984, after rebels killed three of its employees. The oil fields stood largely idle till 1997, when the Sudanese Government made peace with some of the rebel factions and formed a consortium to renew exploration. The partners included the China National Petroleum Corp., the Malaysian national oil company, Petronas, and the Sudanese company, Sudapet Ltd., but Talisman was the star of the show. Not only did it bring technical expertise to build a 1,450-km pipeline from the Heglig oil field to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, it also brought the prestige of a Western oil firm, much needed by the Government at a time when it was under U.N. and U.S. sanctions because of its support to international terrorism. Naturally Sudan is pleased that when the Canadian firm pulls out it will be replaced by a firm owned by India and considered close to the West. For Talisman, it is an attractive deal at a time of increasing pressure, litigation and falling shares. In his report to the U.N. General Assembly last year, Gerhart Baum, Special Rapporteur of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, said "exploration of Sudan's oil reserves has led to a worsening of the conflict, which has also turned into a war for oil". He added, "no matter what oil companies do in terms of providing such social services as hospitals, schools and roads in the area where they operate, their doing business in a war-torn country... will continue to face international criticism until military warfare ends". The Government of India has decided to be unconcerned about such criticism. Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. 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