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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=546274023-10082004>Unfortunately, oil is behind the ongoing civil war in
the Sudan. While not a Saudi Arabia, Sudan produces 250,000 bbls/day. The war
started in the 80's when the government employed Arab horsemen to drive black
farmers off the land, to clear the way for oil development. The story from Human
Rights Watch, can be found at:</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=546274023-10082004></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=546274023-10082004> <A
href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/8.htm#_Toc54492556">http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/8.htm#_Toc54492556</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=546274023-10082004></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=546274023-10082004><!--StartFragment --><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> <FONT face=Arial size=2>"</FONT></FONT>The first export of crude
oil from Sudan in August 1999 marked a turning point in the country’s complex
civil war, now in its twentieth year: oil became the main objective and a
principal cause of the war. Oil now figures as an important remaining obstacle
to a lasting peace and oil revenues have been used by the government to obtain
weapons and ammunition that have enabled it to intensify the war and expand oil
development. Expansion of oil development has continued to be accompanied by the
violent displacement of the agro-pastoral southern Nuer and Dinka people from
their traditional lands atop the oilfields. Members of such communities continue
to be killed or maimed, their homes and crops burned, and their grains and
cattle looted...<FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>"</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=3> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT color=#000000><SPAN class=546274023-10082004>"...</SPAN>Under the
George W. Bush administration starting in January 2001, two domestic U.S.
lobbies flexed their muscles in seeking to influence U.S. policy toward Sudan:
one extremely powerful—the oil industry—and one just beginning to test its
foreign policy strength, on Sudan—a conservative religious grouping concerned
about treatment of Christians. This conservative religious lobby scored a
victory over the oil and business community when the Sudan Peace Act passed the
U.S. House of Representatives by 422-2 on June 13, 2001. This act contained an
amendment imposing capital market sanctions on foreign companies doing oil
business in Sudan, prohibiting them from any access to U.S. capital markets.
This would have required that Talisman Energy be de-listed from the New York
Stock Exchange.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000>The oil and financial industries prevailed, however. The
Senate subsequently passed a version of the bill lacking these capital market
sanctions. In October 2002, in light of Bush administration hostility to any
capital market sanctions, the House passed another version of the Sudan Peace
Act, one which omitted such controversial sanctions. This passed the Senate also
and was signed by the president.<SPAN
class=546274023-10082004>"</SPAN></FONT></P></FONT></DIV>
<P><FONT size=2>**********************************************<BR>Ron
Force Moscow ID <SPAN
class=546274023-10082004>USA</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2> <A href="mailto:rforce@moscow.com">rforce@<SPAN
class=546274023-10082004>moscow.com</A></SPAN><BR>**********************************************</FONT>
</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV><FONT size=4>While we try to fix a mess we have created in Iraq -- a
mess likely to continue for years with far more innocents dying than if Saddam
were in power (latest news: Iraq government [installed by us] may fail)
-- over a <STRONG>million African people</STRONG> <STRONG>may
die</STRONG> at the hands of Arab/Muslims insurgents in the Sudan. Why
have we been so slow to even discuss some sort of intervention? Wouldn't
an invasion to alleviate the suffering and displacement of Africans for
humanitarian reasons be far more easier to justify than our invasion of a
cruel but hapless Iraq? (Oh, I forgot. Oil has yet to be
discovered in the Sudan and the oppressed/slaughtered are only a bunch of
African Native Savages. Pardon me, how could I be so stupid and narrow
minded.)</FONT></DIV>
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