The right of development for minorities in the Southern Sudan

Geneva, 2000
The question of the right of development is not only an issue of individual economic well-being but also that of collective development. This is particularily true for the different ethnic minorities of Southern Sudan. For more than 30 years they lived in an area of civil war, hunger and genocide. Their land though contains big reserves (up to 3 billion barrells) of crude oil. Since August 1999 this oil is drilled and exported. The government of Sudan and a coalition of international oil companies built conveyor systems, a 1610 km pipeline and othern means of infrastructure they need for effectively drilling and exporting the oil. At no point of time was the local population asked to participate in decisions concerning the extraction of the oil and the distribution of the revenues. These are issues touched on in the Convention on the right of development (Dec, 4th 1986). According to this convention the sudanese government violates the convention's articles 1 (1); (2); Art. 5 and Art. 8. Also the international oil companies are not employing local personell which would be a means for reducing unemployment in the area and of integrating the local population into the oil extracting process.

The Sudan government and representatives of the international oil companies stressed that now by extracting and exporting the oil Sudan will become a wealthy country. For the peoples of Southern Sudan the contrary is the case: The government uses Antonov-bombers and helicopter gunships bombing villages and fields, burning down houses and destroying cattle and crops. The local population is forced to flee into the swamp where diseases spread quickly and people die from hunger. Since July 14th 1999 the government prohibits relief organizations from flying into the region and from providing the urgently needed help to the refugees. The World Food Program (WFP) has warned that the region around Ruweng, land south of the river Bhar El Ghazal and the area of Block 5 A, where european companies are drilling oil will be the place of a famine. 30 – 40% of the population will not be able to harvest as they were repeatedly forced to flee. About 400.000 people are threatened to become victims of a famine. It is obvious that the government of Khartoum has the aim to depopulate the region around the oilfields and the pipeline. They employ scorched earth politics to reach this aim.

Instead of building hospitals, schools and roads in the oilregion, people are arbitrarily killed, women and children are abducted and forced into slavery. Instead of providing jobs for Southerners their land is destroyed, they are subject to genozide and war. The government of Khartoum in alliance with international oil companies prevents a whole region from the slightest chance for development. The situation in the oilregion of northern Southern Sudan with the most drastic violations of basic human rights needs to arouse the attention of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and protection of Minorities. The Society for Threatened Peoples therefore urges the UN Sub-Commission to demand from the Sudanese government the free entry of human rights and relief organizations and journalists into the oil region. The refugees must be enabled to return to their villages and they must be provided with urgently needed humanitarian aid. Please urge the government of Sudan to put an end to the severe human rights violations in this area and urge the international oil companies to stop extracting oil untill there exists a peace treatey accepted by all sides.