Government denies atrocities claim by aid agency

The Sudanese government has denied claims by British development agency, Christian Aid that atrocities are being committed by the government in areas around oil fields. In a report released on 15 March, the agency said the oil giants BP and Shell should divest their shares in companies whose parent corporation is "complicit in atrocities" in Sudan. The report presents new eyewitness testimonies about government attempts to clear the land of civilian populations for oil exploration. It said there had been thousands of deaths and displacements, and that oil companies "can no longer justify doing business in Sudan."

The Sudanese government has rejected the allegations and termed them as "part of a smear campaign against the Sudanese government" by some circles of the NGO community, deputy head of Mission in the Sudanese Embassy, Mohamed Dirdiery, told IRIN. He said the Canadian Foreign Ministry had sent a "fact finding mission" to Sudan on this issue and found "the allegations were baseless". Dirdiery denied that there was a "deliberate" government policy to move people from the oil areas. "There is no such policy" he told IRIN.

Dan Collison, head of Christian Aid's Sudan programme, told IRIN that a deliberate government policy of displacement around the oil fields had begun in earnest in 1999 - "that's when the government adopted a scorched earth policy to exploit oil". He said rebel activity also affected civilian populations, with the oil factor "making a bad situation worse". Long-term conflict between southern-based rebels and the government, and between southern parties, had always affected civilians, he said, but the "oil war" had intensified suffering.

According to Collison, Christian Aid has contacted oil companies directly involved, particularly Canada's Talisman Energy and Sweden's Lundin Oil. He said Talisman's response was that oil revenue would benefit the country, and that it had put human rights monitoring mechanisms in place. "Our response is that those mechanisms are not working because displacement is greater than ever", Collison told IRIN.

[For full text of report see http://www.christian-aid.org.uk]