NP? Sudan, oil & terrorism

[Doug Millison]

http://www.pacificnews.org/content/pns/2001/dec/1213sudansomalia.html

"[...] Sudan has already negotiated a deal with the United States to combat
terrorism, in exchange for a U.S. pledge to withhold capital market
sanctions that would bar foreign investment in Sudanese oil production,
according to Salih Booker, executive director of the African Public Policy
Information Center. The Bush administration recently pushed Congress to set
aside the Sudan Peace Act, which would have barred foreign oil companies
doing business in Sudan from selling shares and other securities in the
United States.

The deal to exchange oil for support was made despite reports that
terrorist organizations still operate out of Khartoum, Sudan's capital.

The British humanitarian group Christian Aid has called for foreign oil
companies to pull out of Sudan because of the government's practice of
securing southern oil lands by burning houses and killing or driving away
thousands of people.

According to Christian Aid, the Sudanese government has burned 48 villages
and displaced 55,000 people from oil zones during the past year. U.S.
Christian groups have also lobbied Washington to take a tougher stance
against Sudan in the civil war, which pits Sudan's Islamic government
against the largely Christian south.

But according to Booker, the need for oil is sufficient motive for the Bush
administration to endure the political flack over its Sudan connection.
Sudan's untapped oil reserves are becoming increasingly attractive as oil
extraction in Western countries grows more costly and Middle Eastern oil
reserves decline. [...]"


It's worth reading the whole thing.