NGO REPORT:

Lundin again haunted by "unpaid debt" in Sudan

subscriber | 03 June, 2010

A new report done by European Coalition on Oil in Sudan, ECOS, maintains that Swedish oil company Lundin Oil has an "unpaid debt" to pay in Sudan. The main claim is that there is a direct correlation between the oil company starting exploration in southern Sudan in 1997, forced resettlement of some 160 000 people and an escalating war in the area.

This claim has haunted Lundin Oil ever since the first signs of forced resettlement of villagers in the area started to appear more than 10 years ago. After present Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt became the chairman of the company - at the time, not anymore - the company's activities were critisised even more.

The claims are by no means new, but the details may be. This is naturally a report with a mission and it would need to be followed up independently. It is a bit late in the day to come up with these claims but then, from an activist and people point of view, someone must pay for the damage done. Be it Lundin, the Sudanese state or aid agencies.

If Lundin did the right thing is hard to say. There was no access for independent observers at the time it happened. Lundin, as was necessary, had a cosy relationship with Khartoum and obviously not critisise the Al Bashirs government.

The company did it best t deflect bad publcity through various PR actions, one being Mr. Lukas Lundin, the CEO of the company, setting off on a motorbike ride across Sudan and down south, with the aim to raise awareness and money for an orphanage in Khartoum.

Related Link: www.ecosonline.org