Swedish oil firm blamed for war crimes in Sudan - Global Witness hopes oil revenue may pave the way for peace in Darfur

A consortium led by Swedish Lundin Petroleum is partly to blame for war crimes committed in Sudan between 1997 and 2003, a report by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan charged Tuesday.

Swedish oil firm blamed for war crimes in Sudan
Report from The Swedish Wire - Tuesday, 08 June 2010; 12:56
Author: AFP / The Swedish Wire:

ECOS, an umbrella group of European organisations "working for peace and justice in Sudan", said it believed Lundin and its consortium partners Petronas Carigali Overseas from Malaysia and OMV Exploration from Austria "may have been complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity" in Sudan.

Lundin Petroleum, previously called Lundin Oil, denied the allegations.

The 100-page report said Lundin's consortium, which also included the Sudanese state-owned oil company Sudapet, had signed a contract with Khartoum for oil exploitation in a concession area called Block 5A in the south "that was not at that time under full government control".

"The start of oil exploitation set off a vicious war in the area. Between 1997 and 2003, international crimes were committed on a large scale in what was essentially a military campaign by the government of Sudan to secure and take control of the oil fields in Block 5A," it charged.

The crimes -- including widespread "killing of civilians, rape of women, abduction of children, torture and forced displacements" -- were mainly committed by the Sudanese army and its main opponent the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

The ECOS report, written with the support of European Union-funded NGO-network Fatal Transactions, however argued that the Lundin consortium had set the wheels in motion by signing its contract with Khartoum "without any guarantees that human rights and international law would be respected".

The report also charged that the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments had "failed in their international obligations to prevent human rights violations and international crimes".

It called on them to investigate whether the consortium members knew or should have known that their activities "assisted those who were responsible for gross human rights abuses".

According to ECOS, some 12,000 people were killed or died from hunger, exhaustion and conflict-related diseases in the Block 5A from 1997 to 2003, while around 160,000 people were forcibly displaced.

In an open letter to Lundin Petroleum shareholders posted on the company's website, Chairman Ian Lundin insisted the report presented no new evidence of any wrongdoings, pointing out the company had refuted similar charges in the past.

"We again categorically refute all the allegations and inferences of wrongdoing attributed to Lundin Petroleum in the report. We strongly feel that our activities contributed to peace and development in Sudan," he wrote.

Last Updated (Tuesday, 08 June 2010 14:34)

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UNPAID DEBT The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Sudan, 1997-2003
http://www.ecosonline.org/reports/2010/Press_release_UNPAID_DEBT/
Copy of press release from ECOS published Tuesday, 08 June 2010:

ECOS calls for Oil Company Investigation Over Sudanese Human Rights Abuses

A group of aid agencies that worked in Sudan during the civil war, reporting together as the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS), have called for an investigation into the role played by a consortium of oil companies in the conflict and their possible complicity in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

ECOS’ report, UNPAID DEBT: The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Sudan, 1997-2003, says that the start of oil exploration in Block 5A in Southern Sudan set off a spiral of violence as the Sudanese government and forces loyal to them set out to secure and take control of the oil fields in that block. Thousands of inhabitants died, and almost 200,000 people were violently displaced.

Atrocities included killings, rape, child abduction, torture, the destruction of schools, markets and clinics and the burning of food, huts and animal shelters. Thousands died, and almost 200,000 people were violently displaced.

The terror began after the Sudanese government signed an oil exploration contract with a consortium comprising Swedish company Lundin Oil AB, Petronas Carigali Overseas from Malaysia, OMV (Sudan) Exploration GmbH from Austria, and the Sudanese company Sudapet Ltd.

The oil consortium, the report says, ‘should have been aware of the abuses committed by the armed groups that partly provided for their security needs. However, they continued to work with the Sudanese government, its agencies and its army’.

Now ECOS is calling on the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate whether, as a matter of international law, the companies ‘were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others during the period 1997-2003.’

ECOS is calling for the oil companies to recompense survivors of the violence. A material right to compensation for past injustices that occurred as a result of oil exploitation is created in both Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the country’s Interim National Constitution, but no adequate compensation has been received to date.

Lundin, which led the oil consortium, denies that it violated the norms of international law or that it participated in or had, or ought to have had, knowledge of any of the illegal acts that are documented in the report.

It says that it at all times acted in accordance with all applicable local and international laws and its operations have been and continue to be conducted in a manner which seeks to have a positive influence on the country and
people of Sudan.

There should be no more war over oil in Sudan. The parties to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) are discussing arrangements for the future management of the oil industry. These should include compensation, and the oil companies and their home governments can play a key role in bringing that about. Moreover, ECOS contends that it is their duty. A compensation process that will do justice to the victims and is designed to create the conditions for reconciliation and forgiveness, would bring crucial peace dividends and contribute to a much needed environment of trust in the oil-producing areas and beyond.

Therefore, to promote peace and achieve justice for the victims of the oil war in Block 5A, ECOS recommends that:
1. The Governments of Sweden, Austria, and Malaysia investigate the alleged violations of norms of international law by their national oil companies.
2. The Governments of Sweden, Austria, and Malaysia account for their failure to prevent the alleged human rights violations and international crimes.
3. The Governments of Sweden, Austria, and Malaysia ensure appropriate compensation for all persons whose rights have been violated in the course of the war for control over Sudan's oil fields.
4. The international guarantors of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) take urgent initiatives to ensure implementation of the right to compensation as established by the CPA.
5. The members of the Lundin Consortium open all records and fully cooperate with investigations into their role in the reported events.
6. The members of the Lundin Consortium create enabling conditions for reconciliation with victims of the oil war, starting with the allocation of their fair share of compensation for the victims, which ECOS estimates at US$300 million.
7. Investors divest from all companies that do not fully cooperate with investigations into credible allegations of complicity in international crimes or fail to compensate the victims of Sudan’s oil wars pursuant to the terms and conditions of the CPA and the UN Guidelines.

The full report is to be found at www.ecosonline.org from June 8, 10AM CET.

Note to Editors:
The Stockholm launch of the report takes place Tuesday June 8 from 10AM -11.30AM (CET) at Nalen Conference, Hallituskatu 74, Stockholm. Egbert Wesselink presents the ECOS report. Pastors Ramadan Chan Liol, Secretary General of the SCC (Sudanese Council of Churches) and James Koung Ninrew, representing the victims in Unity State, come directly from the Sudan to present the report. Olle Asplund and Percy Bratt, Chair of Civil Rights Defenders, will comment on the legal dimensions of the report. To book interviews contact: Kathelijne Schenkel, +31 64 89 814 98 / schenkel@ecosonline.org

The London launch of the report takes place Thursday June 10 from 3.30PM to 4.30PM at Chatham House, 10 St James's Square, London SW1Y 4LE. Speakers will include ECOS Coordinator Egbert Wesselink.

Further reading

European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) - ECOS unites 50 European organizations working for peace and justice in Sudan. We do research and call for action from governments and the business sector to ensure that Sudan’s oil wealth contributes to peace and equitable development Read more...

Hot Topics

• COMPENSATION
• Referendum
• Revenue Sharing
• Contract renegotiation
• Abyei area

Facts & Figures

• GOSS: Revenue, Transparency and Pro-Poor Spending
• Oil Blocks and Concession Holders (September 2006)
• Timeline for the Implementation of the 2005 CPA
• EIA Country Analysis Brief: Sudan
• ECOS Oil Map, colour, large

New on this site

• UNPAID DEBT The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Sudan, 1997-2003 (text only) (Jun 8, '10)
• UNPAID DEBT The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Sudan, 1997-2003(Jun 7, '10)
• Press release: UNPAID DEBT The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Sudan, 1997-2003 (Jun 6, '10)
• Satellite Mapping of Land Cover and Use in relation to Oil Exploitation in Concession Block 5A in Southern Sudan 1987–2006(Jun 6, '10)
• Global Witness uncovers evidence of oil exploration in Darfur (Jun 5, '10)

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Global Witness Hopes Oil Revenue May Pave The Way For Peace in Darfur
Report from SRS (Sudan Radio Service):

4 June 2010 - (Nairobi) – Global Witness says oil exploration in the north of Darfur in Sudan could provide an incentive for peace if revenues are distributed equally in the area.

Global Witness campaigner Mike Davis said that after an analysis of the area, there was evidence which suggests the presence of oil in block 12A.

He spoke to SRS from London on Thursday.

[Mike Davis]: “What we found through analyzing the satellite images that there is a grid of over 500km of entirely straight lines which are characteristic of a seismic exploration for oil. This occurred between September 2009 and March 2010. We then obtained a much more detailed, close-up image of what appears to be an oil exploration camp in the same area. That image was taken in January this year. The outline of the camp, the vehicles within it, the accommodation huts are all characteristics of an oil exploration site. What we have done is we have contacted the companies concerned, to ask for their views on the block that we have analysed but they have decided not to reply to us.’’

Mike Davis added that it is in the interest of the people of Darfur to know what is going on in the area.

[Mike Davis]: “We think that this is an issue of huge public interest that people who live in Darfur and the whole of Sudan more widely should know about. We also think that it is something that should discussed more widely and quite openly in the context of the peace negotiations between the government and JEM and other rebel groups that are going on in Qatar. Its important and a very positive and useful thing that the potential of oil if it exists in Darfur is addressed directly and it could in fact help the warring parties to focus more closely on how thy can forge an agreement which could be in the best interest of the people of Darfur.”

There is currently a small amount of oil produced in South Darfur, in block 6. Block 12A, the area in the satellite images reviewed by Global Witness is allocated to the Great Sahara Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium of Yemeni, Saudi, Jordanian, Libyan and Sudanese oil companies.

Coup attempt underway in Niger

See reports at Niger Watch, Thursday, 18 February 2010.

CNPC drilling first overseas offshore well in Sudan

CNPC drilling first overseas offshore well in Sudan
February 16, 2010 BEIJING (Reuters):

Top Chinese oil and gas firm CNPC has started drilling its first overseas offshore exploration well in the Red Sea Basin off Sudan, CNPC’s inhouse newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Tokar-1 is one of two exploration wells in Block 15, located some 130 kilometres southeast of Sudan port, that CNPC and its partners plan to complete drilling in six months, the China Petroleum Daily said.

The wells have a designed drilling depth of 3,700 metres, and water depths of 38 metres and 52 metres respectively.

Sudan awarded Block 15 in 2005 to a consortium of five firms including CNPC, Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas, Sudan’s state oil firm Sudapet, Nigeria’s Express Petroleum and Sudanese firm High Tech Group.

Petronas and CNPC each have a 35 percent interest in the block while others hold the rest.

CNPC and its partners will drill five wildcat wells with total minimum expenditure of $58 million over six years, according to a Petronas statement in 2005.

CNPC is the parent of PetroChina, Asia’s largest oil and gas producer.

Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) says interested to explore Sudan’s oil

Do Huu Hao, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade met executives from Sudapet earlier this week in Hanoi, the ministry said in a statement released in Vietnam capital on Thursday.

Sudan now produces 500,000 barrels a day, most of which is exported to China, Japan and Indonesia.

Vietnam says interested to explore Sudan’s oil
From Vietnam Business Finance News, Thursday, 11 February 2010:

(VNBusinessNews.com) - State-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) said interested to invest in oil and gas exploration and production in Sudan.

The Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade today expressed hopes that Sudanese government and the state-run Sudapet will create favorable conditions for PetroVietnam to invest in projects in the African country.

Do Huu Hao, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade met executives from Sudapet earlier this week in Hanoi, the ministry said in a statement released in Vietnam capital on Thursday.

Sudan now produces 500,000 barrels a day, most of which is exported to China, Japan and Indonesia.

In December, PetroVietnam and Sudapet signed an oil cooperation framework agreement. The pact will enable the two companies to jointly invest in oil and gas projects in Sudan, Vietnam and in third countries.

Since March 2007, Sudan and Vietnam agreed during a held by Sudanese presidential aide Nafi Ali Nafi to promote friendly ties and multifaceted co-operation.

In October 2009, Sudanese State Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Karti was in Hanoi where he attended a Vietnam-Sudan business forum and visited several economic and cultural establishments.

Vietnam’s Vice President Mrs. Nguyen Thi Doan told the visiting official at the time the two countries should boost bilateral cooperation in the areas of economic and trade to fully tap their potential.

PetroVietnam will invest billions of dollars in projects overseas this year to expand its investments and exports.

Last year, the group signed agreements with partners in Nicaragua, Bolivia, Argentina, Kazastan, Mozambique and Angola. It also founded Gazpromviet Joint Venture Company with Russian giant Gazprom.

PetroVietnam during the past year earned $5 billion exporting services and equipment to international clients. The earning was a record with 47% increase year-on-year.

Le Minh Hong, PetroVietnam’s deputy general director, said the firm produced 16.3 million tons of crude oil and 8 billion cubic meters of gas in 2009, 7-9 more than a year earlier. It exported 14 million tons of crude oil, or an 11.5 percent annual increase, in 2009. The group aims for $18.27 billion in revenues this year.

Meme: Joe Trippi's Eleven-Eleven 1111Campaign - America's and Britain's Veterans have given so much. Now, you can give back.

Joe Trippi, one of America's greatest bloggers, has launched Eleven Eleven Campaign. The objective of the Eleven Eleven Campaign is simple: to get 11 million Americans to donate $11 to support America’s Veterans. Here is a copy of Joe's latest tweet on Twitter:

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, and now is our moment to encourage our friends, family members and colleagues to join us... http://bit.ly/9Iu9s
33 minutes ago from Facebook
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Eleven Eleven

Hey Joe! Britain's Veterans have given so much too!

Stand with 11 million Brits and Give £11 to Support Britain’s Vets!

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November 11, 2009

IMF Helping Africa Through the Crisis

As a reminder, the IMF agreed to mobilize $17 billion through 2014 for lending to low income countries, mostly in Africa—trebling our lending capacity to these countries. This goes far beyond the promise given by our Managing Director in Tanzania to seek a doubling of concessional resources. The financial terms of IMF support have also become more concessional, with zero interest until the end of 2011, and will remain more concessional thereafter.

And the IMF has moved quickly to deploy these resources in Africa. Among international institutions, it has an extraordinary capacity to react early to a country’s needs, as I know from my own experience as a policymaker in my home country of Liberia. Indeed, in the first eight months of 2009, we committed over $3 billion in new resources to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, trebling the total stock of outstanding commitments this year alone.

Full story: iMFdirect - The International Monetary Fund's global economy forum, Sep 10, 2009 by Antoinette Sayeh - IMF Helping Africa Through the Crisis

FOCA: China, Africa hold summit to reinforce bilateral trade

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao can expect a warm welcome from Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and finance and foreign ministers from 50 countries when the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCA) starts in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Sunday.

Ever-eager for raw materials and markets to sell its products, China has said the new meeting will lay down a “road map” to further boost cooperation between 2010 and 2012.

Direct Chinese investment in Africa leapt from $491 million in 2003 to $7.8 billion in 2008. Trade between the two has increased tenfold since the start of the decade.

Last year, China-Africa trade reached $106.8 billion - a rise of 45 percent in one year and on a par with with the United States, which estimated its two-way trade with sub-Saharan Africa at $104 billion for 2008.

Chinese imports from Africa last year were worth $56 billion, dominated by oil ($39 billion) and raw materials.

Its $56 billion of exports in 2008 consisted mainly of machinery, electrical goods, cars, motorbikes and bicycles.

FOCAC is held every three years and this will be the fourth since it started in 2000.

Source: AFP report via Saudi GazetteFriday 06 November 2009. Copy:
China, Africa hold summit to reinforce bilateral trade

CAIRO - Leaders from China and Africa start a three day summit on Sunday that will again throw the spotlight on Beijing’s strategic sweep for energy, minerals and political influence in the continent.

China has over the past decade paid for dams, power stations, football stadiums across Africa and scooped up copper, oil and other fuel for its breakneck economic expansion from Algeria to Zimbabwe.

It has invested billions of dollars while raising eyebrows in the United States and its allies by pursuing the hunt for oil and other resources in Sudan, Somalia and other nations that the West has shunned.

Many African leaders praise China however for not preaching about rights and corruption. So despite neo-colonialist qualms, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao can expect a warm welcome from Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and finance and foreign ministers from 50 countries when the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation starts in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Sunday.

FOCAC is held every three years and this will be the fourth since it started in 2000.

Ever-eager for raw materials and markets to sell its products, China has said the new meeting will lay down a “road map” to further boost cooperation between 2010 and 2012.

Direct Chinese investment in Africa leapt from $491 million in 2003 to $7.8 billion in 2008. Trade between the two has increased tenfold since the start of the decade.

Last year, China-Africa trade reached $106.8 billion - a rise of 45 percent in one year and on a par with with the United States, which estimated its two-way trade with sub-Saharan Africa at $104 billion for 2008.

Chinese imports from Africa last year were worth $56 billion, dominated by oil ($39 billion) and raw materials.

Its $56 billion of exports in 2008 consisted mainly of machinery, electrical goods, cars, motorbikes and bicycles.

Some in the West have accuse China of worsening repression and human rights abuses in Africa by supporting countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe.

US intelligence director Dennis Blair told a Congress committee in March that US agencies are keeping close tabs on China’s expanding influence in Africa, especially in oil-producing countries like Nigeria.

Cross-posted to:
China Tibet Watch
Congo Watch
Egypt Watch
Ethiopia Watch
Kenya Watch
Niger Watch
Sudan Watch
Uganda Watch

AGI: Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative

From The Office of Tony Blair
November 05, 2009
Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative to create development through good governance becomes charity

The Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative has become a registered UK charity after creating a unique 'hands-on' approach to development and poverty eradication over the past eighteen months.

The Charity Commission approved the application from this relatively new organisation, which is underpinned by the belief that good governance and sustainable development are key to poverty eradication in the long term.

Tony Blair, founder of the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), said:

"I'm extremely proud of our excellent project teams who are working in partnership with the governments of Rwanda and Sierra Leone to reduce poverty and develop new opportunities for growth.

"It is a privilege to work with leaders as talented and as committed to their people as President Koroma and President Kagame who represent a new generation of leaders in Africa with a commitment to building a new future for their people.

"The developed world needs to keep up its commitment to Africa expressed at the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles. But lasting change in Africa will only come in the end from African solutions. By building the capacity to create sustainable long-term development through good governance and providing high level advice, we have already started to help deliver that change.

"And it won't stop here. Whilst developing our work in Sierra Leone and Rwanda, we want to launch new projects with other countries, sharing our knowledge, experience and expertise. We want more countries to develop sustainably, paving the way to a prosperous future.

"This work has reinforced my optimism about Africa's future, as well as my conviction that governance and growth are the key ingredients to effectively reduce poverty across the continent."

Commenting on Tony Blair and the work of the Africa Governance Initiative, Ernest Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, said:

"Mr. Blair has demonstrated an enduring commitment to Sierra Leone and its people. The work comes at a critical stage in Sierra Leone's development. I believe together we have an opportunity to ensure that Sierra Leone puts in place the policies, people and institutions to achieve real and lasting change."

Commenting on the work of AGI, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda said:

"What I would like people to know is that the type of partnership we have with Tony Blair is totally different from the type of consultancy people are used to. We work in very strong partnerships whereby not only gaps are filled where they exist, but there's also the notion of transfer of skills, mentoring, actually doing things that are measurable such that over a period of time, we will be able to know what kind of impact was made."

Cross-posted to:
China Tibet Watch
Congo Watch
Egypt Watch
Ethiopia Watch
Kenya Watch
Niger Watch
Sudan Watch
Uganda Watch

Judge: British coup plotter Simon Mann, 4 South Africans, pardoned in Equatorial Guinea

By AP November 3rd, 2009 (via Breaking News 24/7)
Judge: British coup plotter Simon Mann, 4 South Africans, pardoned in Equatorial Guinea
Coup plotter Simon Mann pardoned in Eq. Guinea

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — British coup-plotter Simon Mann and four South African mercenaries have been pardoned for plotting the overthrow of the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, the country’s chief judge told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Obono Olo said Mann and his accomplices would be freed Tuesday morning and flown home. Olo said President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on Monday gave the five men “a full pardon for humanitarian reasons” for the 2004 coup plot.

The men were convicted in a spectacular trial where Mann implicated Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, as a chief bankroller along with Equatorial-Guinean based Lebanese businessman Elie Khalil. Mann said Khalil told him the government of Spain, the country’s former colonial power, was aware of and supported the plot to overthrow Obiang. He has led the African country for three decades, and is accused by human rights groups of using the oil wealth to make his family fabulously rich while most of his countrymen live in squalor.

The government of the United States was reported to have gotten wind of the plot and blown the whistle, though no U.S. government official ever confirmed that. Several leading U.S. oil companies operate in Equatorial Guinea, including Exxon Mobil, Amerada Hess, Marathon Oil, ChevronTexaco, Devon Energy and CMS Energy Corp.

The plan was to put opposition leader Severo Moto, who is exiled in Madrid, in power and get some control over the country’s oil wealth.

Mann first was arrested in 2004 when his plane landed in Harare, Zimbabwe, with 70 other alleged mercenaries to collect weapons purchased from Zimbabwe’s state arms manufacturer.

Olo, who was the attorney general who prosecuted the coup plotters, denied rumors that Mann was unwell, saying he is “fine, fit.” He also denied that any pressure had been brought by foreign governments seeking their release from the notorious Black Beach prison.

But a statement at the Ministry of Information Web site noted that Mann and the others were being freed “with the hope that the accused return to their families and receive appropriate medical treatment according to their age and health.” The ministry noted that if he had served his 35-year sentence, Mann would have been more than 90 years old on his release.

It said the Ministry of Justice, Culture and Prisons proposed the pardon to the president, who granted “compassionate forgiveness.”

Eton-educated Mann, a 56-year-old former British military officer, was the failed coup’s ringleader. Thatcher pleaded guilty in a South African court several years ago to unwittingly helping to fund the operation. He was fined and given a suspended sentenced.

The South Africans involved are Nicolaas du Toit, Sergio Cardoso, Jose Sundays and George Alerson.

Obiang himself took power in a 1979 coup in which then President Francisco Macias Nguema, his uncle, was assassinated by a firing squad. Under pressure from Western backers, Obiang held the first multiparty elections in 1991 and has won every election since, most recently in 2002 with 91 percent of votes. New elections are scheduled Nov. 29.

Opponents say the electoral process and voting are rigged in his party’s favor.

Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s No. 3 oil producer. Despite its wealth, most of the country’s half-million people are very poor, child mortality rates have risen and government officials are accused of siphoning off oil revenue.

International human rights groups have accused U.S. oil companies of aiding corruption. A U.S. government 2004 report into Equato-Guinean accounts found that some $700 million was held at Washington’s Riggs Bank — making the country the bank’s biggest customer.

Riggs was fined millions of dollars in money-laundering fines. Nothing was done against Obiang, who was invited to Washington by then President George W. Bush in 2006 and called a “good friend” by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.