THE TORONTO STAR
Wednesday, June 17, 1998
INSIGHT
Oil gushes amid slavery, hunger
Canadians say their work in Sudan is `completely unrelated' to the civil
war
By Martin Regg Cohn
Toronto Star Middle East Bureau
MALUAL KON, Sudan - SURROUNDED BY slavery, civil war and the spectre of
famine, a Canadian company is quietly cashing in on an African oil boom.
Ignoring threats of attack by rebel soldiers and condemnation by human
rights groups, Calgary-based Arakis Energy Corp. is drilling for oil in
the heart of Sudan's war-torn south and even expanding its operation to
include a pipeline.
The local commander of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, Salva Mathoc,
has set his sights on the Arakis concession, 100 kilometres north of this
isolated military base. He accuses the company of complicity with the
military dictatorship in Khartoum.
``The oil is taken from here and the cash goes to Khartoum to buy bombs
that then kill our people,'' says Mathoc.
Scattered among the fig and mango trees here, his troops - many of them
barefoot teenagers in tattered uniforms - are training for a final
assault, drilling with AK-47 assault rifles and carrying rocket-propelled
grenades on their shoulders. The rebels are closing in on Arakis after
capturing several government garrison towns during their latest offensive.
Yet the Canadians reject calls from Ottawa to leave. They are dug in at
Heglig oil camp, protected by more than 1,000 government troops.
The oil workers - usually about 80 Canadians are on the site at any time -
are on the front lines of the world's longest-running civil war in which
slavery and hunger are among the weapons of choice. An estimated 1.3
million Sudanese have died from the fighting and famine in the past 15
years of war and tens of thousands of blacks have been enslaved.
Fighting erupted after Khartoum's Arab-dominated government tried to
impose strict Islamic law over the majority black African Christians and
animists in the south. After a 1989 military coup, a hardline Islamist
regime formally declared a jihad (holy war) against southern ``infidels.''
Now, the Dinka tribesmen fighting against Islamic rule vow never to forget
the Canadian contribution.
``They are our next target. You had better tell them to leave quickly,''
warns the Sudan People's Liberation Army's Mathoc.
``Chevron was here once and we closed them up.''
The commander is referring to the killing of four oil men from the
American oil firm in 1984. Chevron reacted by writing off its $1.4 billion
investment and selling the Heglig concession at a huge loss.
Arakis moved in with its wholly owned subsidiary, State Petroleum Corp.,
and formed a consortium with the state-owned oil companies of Sudan, China
and Malaysia. But southern Sudanese politicians and soldiers suggest that,
far from cashing in, the Canadians will pay a heavy price for their
investment.
``Canadian citizens will at the end of the day be casualties of the
politics of oil,'' says Bona Malwal, a Dinka from Malual Kon who sits on
the opposition National Democratic Alliance.
``We warned Chevron. Its workers died - and they left. I can assure you,
they (the Canadians), too, will die,'' Malwal says.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army has publicly warned that Arakis
``personnel and its holdings in the area are legitimate military
targets.''
When a Star reporter visited the oil camp last year, some Canadian
staffers privately expressed concern about the military risks. They live
in metal trailers and fly out every few weeks on a chartered Canadian Twin
Otter plane from their base camp near Bentiu, 725 kilometres southwest of
Khartoum.
Ottawa is clearly concerned that the oil workers are in the line of fire.
``My responsibility as ambassador is to tell these people that they are in
danger,'' says Canada's ambassador to Sudan, Gabriel Lessard.
He has written to Arakis and its employees directly, and the Canadian
government has issued an official travel advisory recommending that
``Canadians depart from this area.''
``Arakis is an embarrassment to Canada,'' a Toronto-based monitoring
group, the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa, told Foreign Minister Lloyd
Axworthy last year. ``No Canadian company should be working in partnership
with a military regime that commits genocide, promotes slavery, tries to
strip its citizens of their ethnic, cultural and religious identities and
systematically bombs civilian populations.''
But Arakis says it is determined to stay in Sudan and reap the enormous
financial rewards for its shareholders, despite the fighting, the slavery,
the famine threat and the risk to its workers, says spokesperson Kristine
Dow.
``They are completely unrelated subjects. We're there on a completely
commercial project,'' Dow says. ``It really has no direct bearing on our
project.''
Asked about allegations of human rights abuses, she says Arakis has never
chosen sides in the civil war, nor financed the Sudanese military machine.
``We intend to remain as neutral as possible on the subject of Sudan's
internal politics.''
In fact, Arakis depends for its security on the protective cordon of
troops operating from a military base beside the oil camp. In return,
Arakis offers free medical services to the soldiers, provides water and
electricity to their barracks and repairs the army's trucks.
That close collaboration enrages local rebel leaders, who also resent
Arakis for plowing more than $200 million into Sudan so far. Now, the
consortium is building an $850 million, 1,500-kilometre pipeline that will
carry 150,000 barrels a day within a year.
To pay for its ambitious drilling and pipeline plans, Arakis is trying to
raise $290 million from investors this year. And that flow of funds
provides welcome political capital for an embattled regime.
``This is going to be the beginning of a new dawn for our country,''
Sudan's president, Lt.-Gen. Omar Bashir, said at a pipeline ceremony last
month.
Arakis president Raymond Cej added that the start of construction was ``a
momentous occasion for the people and government of Sudan.''
But Gaspar Biro, who served as the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Sudanese
human rights abuses over the past five years, wonders how Arakis can
continue pumping oil when slave-raiding has been documented so close by.
``Are they looking over the fence of their (oil) camp?'' Biro asks
incredulously. ``After the publication of this information in your
newspaper, they simply cannot ignore the question.''
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