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The
current emphasis on combating terrorism
should not obscure serious human rights
issues, such as the 18-year-old war in
Sudan, in which 2 million people have died
and 4 million people have been displaced.
This is one of the longest and most ignored
conflicts since World War II. At the root
of a brutal war waged by the Islamic military
regime in Khartoum against black African
southerners is a struggle for resources.
Oil, which has been flowing steadily in
Sudan since 1998, has increased the government
capacity to wage war against its own people.
The international community should put
increased pressure on the government of
Sudan and on international oil companies
to stop the use of oilfields and their
revenues for war purposes, and to take
positive steps to end that country's fratricidal
war.
For
the past year, government forces have conducted
a ruthless campaign aimed at depopulating large
oil-rich areas of the country. In the process,
tens of thousands of civilians have been killed,
maimed, or displaced from areas around oil
fields. By allowing the airstrips and roads
in oil fields to be used by the government
forces, foreign oil companies have been complicit
in the human rights abuses carried out by them.
Several human rights organizations have called
on foreign companies from Canada, Sweden, China,
France and Austria to suspend their operations
in Sudan. Christian Aid has demanded that British
Petroleum (BP) and Shell dispose of their shares
in firms whose parent company is involved in
oil extraction operations. BP has indicated
that it didn't intend to dispose of its interests
in PetroChina because that company is not active
in Sudan. However, PetroChina's parent group,
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)
is.
In a seriously
damning report entitled "Winning
Oil, Losing People," Amnesty International
details the human rights abuses committed by
government forces. According to this report,
since early 1999, tens of thousands of people
have been terrorized into leaving their homes
in Western Upper Nile. Government forces have
used high-altitude bombardment, helicopter
gun-ship and ground attacks to displace the
local population from oil-rich areas. In addition,
they have destroyed harvests, looted livestock
and committed serious human rights violations
against civilians to prevent the return of
the displaced population. The displacement
from their homes has considerably increased
the civilians' risk of famine, a situation
aggravated by the deforestation and desertification
of large areas in the country.
Amnesty International blames oil companies
for the way local communities are treated as
a result of their operations, and believes
that there is a clear connection between oil
revenues and the government's capacity to purchase
arms. An army spokesman, General Mohamed Osman
Yasin, has reportedly stated that thanks to
oil revenues Sudan will be self-sufficient
in light, medium and heavy weapons. Several
countries (among them Poland, China and Bulgaria)
have violated a long-standing UN embargo on
arms sales to the Sudanese government.
Economic aid to the government of Sudan should
be conditioned on its ceasing the aerial bombardment
of civilian targets and allowing unrestricted
access to humanitarian agencies and human rights
monitors to all government-controlled areas
for a proper assessment of the situation. Once
the real situation is better known, pressure
should be also put into oil companies doing
business in Sudan. It is important to make
sure that their interests do not collide with
those of the people living in oil-rich areas
in that country, and that the government does
no use oil exploitation and the companies'
infrastructure for committing human rights
abuses against its own population. Not only
the quality of life but, more importantly,
the survival of Sudanese people is at stake.
(Dr. César
Chelala, an international medical consultant
living in New York, writes
extensively on health and human rights issues.
A co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America
award for an article on human rights, he has
conducted health-related missions in over 40
countries worldwide.)
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