A group of aid agencies claim several international oil companies may have been involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan.

By Miles Ashdown

Human Rights Watch found that oil revenues enabled the Sudanese government to triple its helicopter fleet with twelve new attack helicopters in 2001 which were allegedly used to clear out the population from oil rich areas so that the oil companies could move in.

A report released last month by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) details international crimes committed during a military campaign led by the government of Sudan to secure oil fields.

ECOS estimates that some 12,000 people were killed and 160,000 were displaced in the oil concession area known as Block 5A. ECOS coordinator Egbert Wesselink, who is from the Netherlands, said the military attacks constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“We’re talking about rape, torture, arson and arbitrary bombing by high-altitude bombers as well as by helicopters, driving people into uninhabitable areas where many people died of hunger and disease,” says Wesselink, who worked on the ECOS report entitled 'Unpaid Debt'.

Listen to an interview with Egbert Wesselink from ECOS

Attack on food distribution
In a February 2002, for example, a Sudanese helicopter attacked a food distribution centre in Bieh in Sudan’s oil-rich Unity State. James Ninrew saw the attack happening as thousands of residents waited to receive food from the World Food Programme.

“All of a sudden, a helicopter appeared from nowhere,” tells Ninrew. “Those of us who knew what kind of helicopter this was, warned people and told them to run because we knew it wasn’t a relief plane. This helicopter was coming to kill us.”

Ninrew says people fled and sought shelter in nearby bunkers. The gunship attacked, firing five rockets and killing 17 people, according to the UN.

Now the director of Assistance Mission for Africa, Ninrew says targeting a food distribution site was part of a systematic effort by the army to clear out the population so that the oil companies could move in.

Wesselink says now it’s in the oil companies’ "best interest" to reconcile with the population through compensation to allow for better oil development in the future.

“Many, many important and the most advanced companies in the world would not wish to work in such an environment,” he explains, “and that is limiting Sudan’s oil industries perspective to become more profitable and to produce the maximum of oil. So I think it’s detrimental both for the companies and for the country.”

'Contribution to peace'
The Malaysian energy company Petronas and Lundin Petroleum did not respond to repeated attempts for a reaction. In an open letter to shareholders, Lundin’s chairman "categorically” refuted all of the allegations in the ECOS report and stated that the company’s activities “contributed to peace and development in Sudan.”

And an Austrian energy group OMV spokesperson asserted that the company had fulfilled its “social responsibilities” in Sudan.

The Swedish public prosecutor announced June 21 that he would investigate the involvement of Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum.