Lundin welcomes UN probe in Sudan - Upstream, March 30
By James Tham
Sweden's Lundin Oil has rolled out its welcome mat in Sudan for independent observers led by United Nations.
The company's chief executive Ian Lundin said: "We have invited the special rapporteur to our area in order to assess the situation and our impact there. We welcome visits to the area by objective and impartial parties."
"Like the rest of the world we hope that the recent media attention on Sudan will help in finding a solution to the conflicts in Sudan," he added.
Lundin was responding to a preliminary report issued yesterday by the UN's special rapporteur for Human Rights in Sudan Gerhard Baum. A final report is expected in a few months.
Gerhart Baum, who took up the independent post three months ago and visited Sudan from 9 to 17 March, accused the Islamist government of bombing civilians in the rebellious south and forcibly uprooting local populations to allow oil exploitation.
The German lawyer, in a speech to the UN Commission on Human Rights, said both government forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the main rebel group in the 18-year civil war, continued to kill, abduct, rape and starve civilians.
But Baum stopped short of calling on Western and Asian oil companies to suspend oil activities.
"During my visit I gathered further evidence that oil exploitation leads to an exacerbation of the conflict with serious consequences on civilians," Baum told the main UN rights body, holding its annual six-week session in Geneva. "I received information whereby the government is resorting to forced eviction of local population and destruction of villages to depopulate areas and allow for oil operations to proceed unimpeded," he said.
Baum declared: "While the main responsibility for stopping this forced displacement is with the parties to the conflict, I appeal to all oil companies operating in Sudan to fully comply with their corporate responsibilities with a view to minimising any negative impact of their operations, particularly before planning new ones." He said he hoped to visit the oil areas in the autumn at government invitation, Reuters reported. |
