Over a barrel: Sudan's rich oil reserves have generated many of the regime's atrocities, whilst shielding its leaders from the consequences. Leben Nelson Moro lays them bare

New Internationalist, June, 2007 by Leben Nelson Moro

A Nuer man, his body almost entirely covered by bandages, was the sole patient in the men's ward. When I met him he had spent nearly a month in this most basic of hospitals. His ordeal began in February 2006, when he sought a job at Petrodar, a Chinese- and Malaysian-owned company which was drilling for oil in Melut.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Nuer man got into a brawl with four of the oil company's security men. They tied him up with ropes, covered him with dry grass and set him on fire. 'He suffered second-degree burns, but will live,' the only doctor at the hospital told me. Local people were understandably shocked by the attack and left to wonder how such a crime could occur, over a year after the return of 'peace' to Southern Sudan.

This cruel incident brings back stark memories of the crimes committed in oil-producing areas during the long, bloody war in Southern Sudan between 1983 and 2005. I spent most of 2006 there, and local people were quick to point out that what happened to the Nuer man was nothing compared to the atrocities meted out by government soldiers, members of the Mukhabarat (government security) and private security agents during the war. Killings, evictions, rapes, torture and the stripping of assets were the norm then.

They told me it was no coincidence that a large proportion of the nearly two million Southerners who perished in the war did so in the oil areas. With most of the indigenous people dead or forced to flee, Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and Arab companies explored and extracted oil without fear of opposition. War enabled Sudan to become a major oil exporter.

Awash with petrodollars, President Omar al-Bashir has now turned his savagery to Darfur. The atrocities perpetrated there are the latest bid by the ruling Arab and Muslim elites to crush attempts by marginalized black Africans to gain equal access to power and a fair bite of the national cake. In its quest to keep power in perpetuity, the Government has monopolized the country's oil resources and used the revenue to supply soldiers, co-opt opponents and enlist violent militias in its wars.

Sudan strikes oil

Oil was discovered in Sudan in late 1978 by US company Chevron in the southern area of Bentiu. At the time, President Nimeiry's regime was facing economic collapse. He had borrowed large sums of money as part of the so-called 'breadbasket policy', which aimed to transform Sudan into the main producer of food for the Arab world.

But by the end of the 1970s Sudan had become less of a breadbasket than a basket-case. The country's debts rose from $3 billion in 1978 to almost $9 billion in 1985. When he seized power in 1989, Bashir--a Muslim zealot--turned to Iran, Iraq and other Middle Eastern dictatorships for support. He also solicited assistance from extremist financiers, like Osama bin Laden, who lived in Sudan in the 1990s. But it wasn't enough: Bashir came to rely on oil to rescue the economy and buttress his limping regime, which was kept in power by naked terror.

However, oil was already a source of bitter struggle. In 1983 the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) had attacked Chevron's activities. The company responded by financing Arab militias, but security problems forced it to sell its assets cheaply in 1990 and get out of Sudan.

After that, Bashir's relationship with the 'bad guys' of the world spoilt Sudan's hitherto cosy ties with the American oil companies. In 1997 US President Clinton banned all Americans from engaging in economic activities with the Sudanese regime, which it accused of supporting international terrorism.

Other Western companies willing to operate on Bashir's terms were still welcome. Big Oil from Canada and Europe, including Talisman and Lundin, got involved in the late 1990s. Disregarding burgeoning reports of abuses in oil-rich areas, Mr Buckee, the Chief Executive of Talisman, claimed that its involvement was a 'positive engagement', bringing 'Western values' with it. The Dinka and Nuer civilians who fled to desolate camps in northern Sudan experienced these 'values' as death, displacement and violence.

Reverend Michael Mayuol, a priest from Pariang, a Dinka area, told me that over 95 per cent of the 500,000 Dinka population were killed or displaced between 1983 and 2004. First, Arab militias and Government soldiers devastated the area. Many people refused to leave, but a Kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis) pandemic ravaged the communities because health facilities had been destroyed and aid workers banned. Oil companies were then able to operate 'in peace'. This pattern was repeated in other oil areas all over Southern Sudan.

Chinese takeover

China has played a critical role in the oil-fuelled boom in Sudan. After Bashir visited President Jiang Zemin in 1995, co-operation blossomed. Sudan now supplies 10 per cent of China's oil. Production has risen to 500,000 barrels per day and is predicted to jump to a million barrels within two or three years. This year's revenues from oil will exceed $4 billion.