Death Rates in Sudan vs the Congo and AIDs

Not only is the Islamic northern part of Sudan in a protracted civil war with non-Islamic southern Sudan, but relations with the US became bitterly hostile after Clinton's August 7, 1998 cruise missle bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in the capital, Khartoum. The damage is shown on the right.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told a House subcommittee that "there is perhaps no greater tragedy on the face of the earth today than the tragedy that is unfolding in the Sudan."   From www.sudan.net 21mar01

To understand US policy -- the supply of equipment through Uganda and Eritrea and the training of Uganda troops in the US -- one has to understand where Roger Winter is coming from. The credibility that Winter picked up from his presence at Rwanda has enabled him to become something like US intelligence on refugee matters.

House Whip Thomas DeLay argues that the US must get involved to stop the persecution of Christains in Sudan. LATimes 25mar01

Washington Post 16mar01 calls for a "Sudan Policy"

"The reason for urgency is oil... Last week, Lundin (which includes Carl Bildt, Sweden's ex-prime minister, among its directors) announced a "significant and exciting" oil discovery in Sudan. It did not mention the scorched-earth campaign that made the prospecting possible. Nor did it refer to villages such as Chotyiel, which was cleared by soldiers in helicopter gunships and is now no more than an army post called Kilo 15 on an oil road."

While the West refuses to give Sudan debt relief, it seems to be taken as given that Sudan will not be using oil money to retire their debt.

Black Gold -- $4mil/day

through a new (July 1999) 1000 mile pipeline   ( large map   small map) completed with the help of 7000 laborers from China (in exchange for a future supply of oil)

Since the oil is pumped from southern fields lying within rebel territory the difficulty of protecting it has led to reports of serious human rights abuses:

"government troops have killed male villagers in mass executions, while women and children were nailed to trees with iron spikes... "

According to MBendi 9/00,

"In November 1997 the United States imposed sanctions against Sudan on the basis that profits from oil were being used to fuel the civil war."

Canada's largest independent oil and gas company, Talisman, is 25% owner of the Sudanese oil project. On Feb 16, 2001 the US Treasury listed GNPOC (Greater Nile Pipeline Operating Company) as one of the firms against which US sanctions against Sudan applies.

CONCERNS OVER THE NILE