Amnesty International Accuses Sudanese Oil Companies Of Human Rights Abuse
Text of report in English by Sudanese news agency SUNA on 4th June
BBC Monitoring International Reports
Khartoum, 4th June: The London-based European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council published a study Saturday [3rd June] refuting a report issued by Amnesty International organization recently entitled "Sudan: The Human Price of Oil."
The council described in its study headlined "The Displacement of Truth". The European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council's study pointed out that while clearly seeking to bring pressure to bear upon oil companies working in Sudan, the Amnesty International report was not able to produce a single piece of evidence that any oil company has been involved in human rights abuses.
It added that at the same time Amnesty International chose to ignore ample evidence of serious human rights violations by the rebel movement within the oil producing areas, violations amounting to war crimes. Amnesty International also chose both to rely on claims made by a rebel commander, patently guilty of serious human rights abuses including the use of child soldiers, and to ignore the fact that he was guilty of war crimes, the council said.
It went on to say that it must be asked why Amnesty International chose to ignore reputable, firsthand accounts of events in the oil-producing areas, accounts which included credible reports of child soldiers and the aily bombardment of towns by the rebel movement? It must also be asked why Amnesty chose instead to publish claims made by rebel commanders and partisan journalists?
The European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council's study concluded that for any human rights report to be credible the report must be balanced, impartial and even handed, saying that the Amnesty report was neither. The report was demonstrably unbalanced and demonstrably questionable in its content, sources, analysis and conclusions and Amnesty International's reputation can only but suffer as a consequence, it said.
Source: Suna news agency, Khartoum, in English 0403 gmt 4 Jun 00 |
