Bridge

Canoe, people fishing

Sign post

09.20

It could be some quiet little African backwater. But it isn’t. This is the village of Rubkona in southern Sudan, and nothing here is as it used to be.

This is where the road begins - the road that is said to have forced a whole rural population to flee from their homes.

People in a dusty street.

Children swimming

09.41

A year ago, Rubkona was a village with just a few thousand inhabitants. Today, it’s a market town, where tens of thousands of people live. They have come here to escape the fighting in the region.

Militia soldiers sitting in the shade

Ian Lundin

09.58 Sitting with the local military leader is Ian Lundin, Managing Director of the Swedish company, Lundin Oil. He’s trying to get to the bottom of the accusations that have been hurled against his company.

Sync Ian Lundin

10.10 I would also like to say that for us to be able to work here and to develop your resources in the best way, it’s very important that one day there will be peace in your country.

White woman talking to tall, black man

People working in a garden

We are looking for eye-witnesses to the latest skirmishes and find Susanna Garrood, who has worked in the area for eight years. She runs a German relief organisation, which provides education for farming folk. We ask her about Lundin Oil, and to what extent the company is responsible for driving people from their homes.

Sync Susanna Garrood

10.53 I don’t see the responsibility of Lundin, they don’t have a responsibility the way that I see it.

Q: It has been said that people were driven away from their homes because Lundin wanted to build this road?

A: Well that, I don’t agree with. I read recently the accusations that thousands were displaced to make way for the road. Well that’s not true because actually the majority of people who were displaced because of the fighting were on the old Chevron road going to Lea and not on the current Lundin road. And the old road going to Leer also forms the boundary between the Leek and the Jikan. So when there’s fighting in Leek they push towards that boundary and vice versa, and when there’s fighting in Jikan, people push towards that road because they are fleeing into respective safe areas.

Q: When you talk to people in this area what kind of reactions do you get, how do they feel about the oil companies?

A: Well, we speak to a lot of people, nobody says anything about them, I mean a lot of people have jobs with the oil companies.

Q: Those who have been displaced because of the fighting, do they blame the oil companies for that?

A: They never mention the oil companies. In this area we have 3,000 households that we are giving seeds to – agricultural extensions – and they’re not coming in and saying ‘oh it’s terrible we’ve been displaced because of the oil’, people come in and say they’ve been displaced because of the factional fighting.

Sign “Medecins Sans Frontieres”,

Flagpole with UN-flag,

Signpost with CARE sign

12.42

The picture Susanna Garrood gives is confirmed informally by other foreign relief workers. But they refuse to be interviewed on camera. That’s how sensitive the question of guilt is here in southern Sudan. To publicly finger someone as guilty of displacement and torture of civilians could create serious problems for relief organisations, whose work is dependent on both the good favour of the SPLA and the government.

From the top of a small truck

13.13

This is the infamous Lundin road. Ian Lundin is trying to weigh up the SPLA commander, Peter Gadet.

Conversation in the car between Rich Ramsey, Lundin Oil, and Ian Lundin.

13.20

RR: He wanted to be the new commander and when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to take over he then just took his followers away and formed his own group.

IL: Do we know how many troops he has?

RR: It’s always difficult to get any estimates from the authorities on how many rebels there are, I think partly because they don’t know themselves. Rebels seem to drift in and drift out.

Light trucks on the road.

Child soldiers walking towards the camera.

13.56

We stop to take a break and suddenly we’ve got visitors. A group of child-soldiers appear as if from nowhere. They are from one of the militia groups who are fighting one another in the area, though it’s hard for an outsider to say which group it is.

Sync Ian Lundin about child soldiers

14.13

Q: How do you feel about these child soldiers protecting the oil fields?

A: well I think protecting the oil fields is a generalisation. I’m very upset about seeing child soldiers in general. I have children myself and to see children of this age carrying arms is a very disturbing fact.

Old man, close up.

14.36

The civilians here describe the fighting between the SPLA and the militia.

Sync Stephen Kai

14.42

”All our cows, mosquito nets and food were taken - our houses burned and we were left with nothing except this water that you can see.”

Sync Ali Abol

14.53

“Gadet says he is coming to kill people again even though we lost all of our cattle since last autumn. For example my cattleshed was burnt in the last attack. All we are looking for now is food, we are starving.”

Woman, close up.

15.22

The picture that emerges of the war in the region is complicated. Various Nuer groups are fighting among themselves, mostly over livestock. Peter Gadet, who is also a Nuer, but belongs to the SPLA guerrillas, creates political unrest in the region with raids on the civilian population.

Sync Ali Abol

15.40

“Liah Diew said: Let these people develop our area. We accept this wholeheartedly. Only Gadet doesn’t like it. We can now use cars without even paying. That’s never happened before.”

Sync Stephen Kai

16.02

”It would be good if the company could provide job opportunities for us, and food.”

Sync Ali Abol

16.15

“I live here. Most people left this area not only because of Gadet but also because of hunger. Sometime ago Liah Diew said that water will be provided for us. Only three things contributed to people deserting this area - no water, no food and no cattle!”

Cows.

People walking on a road with bundles of wood on their heads.

16.32

To the Nuers cattle mean wealth. Those Nuers who manage to get jobs with the oil companies, usually spend half their salary on cows.

The nearer we get to the oil rig, the more people we see. We meet some women who are selling food by the wayside.

Sync Mary Nyachat

16.49

“What concerns us women about the road is that it can bring trucks full of food even during the rains. We like it except that our own people are working against it.”

The oil rig

17.06

Lundin discovered oil in the area at the end of February this year, and has now moved its rig further south. Soon it might have two sources to exploit.

The oil business in southern Sudan has been heavily criticised by human rights’ organisations.

Susanna Garrood is not convinced that these organisations have got it right.

Sync Susanna Garrood

17.28

Let’s say Londin moved out. Definitely, if they gave up their concession it would be given to somebody else and there is a possibility that it would be given to Chinese. It could be given to anybody, but the Chinese are a possibility and I don’t think they would be so vigilant about observing human rights as Londin would be, or as the Canadians are in the Neglige Area.