South Africa Spurns Deal with Sudan

Cheryllyn Dudley MP - ACDP

Tuesday, 7 August 2001


Cheryllyn Dudley MP for the African Christian Democratic Party and
spokesperson on Minerals & Energy has congratulated President Thabo
Mbeki and Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for what she called
their uncompromising stand in turning down a trade and oil exploration
deal with Sudan.

Mrs Dudley said, "Concerns about the African state's poor human rights
record are fully justified as Khartoum has for years abetted a terrible
trade in human slavery. Tens of thousands of human beings have been
taken as chattel slaves according to reports by the UN Special
Rapporteurs for Sudan, from the research of Human Rights Watch and other
human rights organizations, and from the countless testimonials of those
who have escaped enslavement."

According to Mrs Dudley Khartoum has recently extended its brutal
assault on African civilians to provide "security" for international oil
companies working in southern concession areas. She said that an
authoritatively documented campaign of scorched-earth warfare against
indigenous southern populations serves to create a cordon sanitaire for
present and future oil development. And though the oil is extracted
from the south, all Sudanese revenues accrue to Khartoum, which has
boasted publicly of its military ambitions for these revenues.

This war is the longest and most destructive in Africa. Over the last
18 years, more than 2 million human beings, overwhelming civilians from
the south have perished, and as many as 5 million have been uprooted.
The UN's World Food Program has recently estimated that 3 million
Sudanese are at risk of famine and drought exacerbated by war.

The African Christian Democratic Party also applauded Soeker, the South
African parastatal oil company, who has now also stated that it "is not
about to enter into any agreement with the Sudanese Government" to
prospect for oil in southern Sudan and that it shares "the concerns of
the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference [SACBC] that an
insensitive pursuit of oil interests in the Sudan might contribute to
the escalation of the civil war."

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For more information please call Cheryllyn Dudley MP at 082 8906520 or
ACDP Media Liaison Liza Lambert at 082 4781037