Dateline: NAIROBI, KenyaSudanese rebels will continue to attack oil installations and will not share oil revenue with the Sudanese government, despite a recommendation by a U.S. envoy that such a move could be key to ending Sudan's 19-year civil war, a rebel official said Friday.
Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which controls much of southern Sudan, said it would be immoral for the rebels to share the country's oil revenue while the conflict continued.
"The oil exploration, the oil installations, are legitimate military targets because it fuels the war," Kwaje told The Associated Press. "Right now, one side (the government) is using it to oppress other parts of Sudan. So why don't we suspend operations of this natural resource, work very hard on the peace process of Sudan, then we can have a fair way of sharing the resources."
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said it would be impossible to share oil revenue unless there was a cease-fire.
"With a cease-fire it's possible, but now fighting is going on, how can we distribute it?" Ismail said in a telephone interview from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
Ismail said the government had "no problem" sharing oil revenue with the south if there was peace, but it would not share oil money with the SPLA.
Earlier this month, U.S. envoy John Danforth submitted a report to U.S. President George W. Bush outlining recommendations to end the conflict in which at least 2 million people have died, mainly through war- induced famine.
The report said that fair allocation of oil wealth could be the key to "working out broader political issues if it were possible to find a monetary formula for sharing oil revenue between the central government and the people of the south."
"Any peace process should address the oil issue in order to resolve a major cause of conflict and serve as the basis for a just peace," a copy of the report obtained by The AP said.
The White House has not made the report public, but copies have been leaked and have appeared on Internet websites and in Sudanese newspapers. The SPLA has a copy.
Sudan joined the ranks of oil exporters in 1999, when an international consortium, which includes Canadian company Talisman, began producing oil near Bentiu, 750 kilometers (465 miles) south of Khartoum.
The consortium is pumping more than 220,000 barrels of oil day, but other concession sites are not producing oil because of the conflict.
Sudan has proven oil reserves of over 1 billion barrels and prospects of an additional one to 4 billion barrels, the report said.
Most of the reserves lie along a line that divides the predominantly Arab, Muslim north from the south, which is inhabited primarily by people who follow traditional African beliefs. Five percent are Christian.
The SPLA took up arms in 1983 to obtain greater autonomy for the south.
The conflict is often simplified as a religious war, but competition for oil, land and other resources also fuel it.
Kwaje said Danforth's report was generally balanced but said it downplayed the issue of self-determination for the south.
Danforth said secession would be "exceedingly difficult to achieve."
"A more feasible, and, I think, more preferable view of self-determination would ensure the right of the people of southern Sudan to live under a government that respects their religion and culture," Danforth said.
Kwaje said the SPLA will seek clarification of this position from the U.S. administration.
Foreign Minister Ismail said the government's main concern is that the report blames the Khartoum regime for most of the human rights abuses that have taken place during the conflict, and not the rebels, Ismail said.
"Danforth's report puts responsibility on the government although we would say that both parties could be condemned," he said.
(ae/sl)
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On The Net:
Read the report: http://www.sudan.net/news/press/postedr/129.shtml
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