Grids of red dirt roads stretch as far as the eye can see in all directions. We are in Bentiu in northern South Sudan, just a few miles from Thar Jath where Lundin made its oil discovery in 1999. Here is a camp for internally displaced people that has become home to more than 160,000 people.
In the camp, Peter Ring Patai and Gatluak Chiek Jang live with their families in cramped huts. They are two of the roughly 200,000 people who were driven from their homes during the so-called oil war that followed in the years after Lundin Oil arrived. Around 12,000 people lost their lives according to Amnesty and other aid organisations. Both men had family and friends killed and they themselves lost their livestock and all their possessions.
Double punishment
They know that we are from Sweden and know about the trial about crimes against international law that will soon be held. Both are eager to share what they have been through.
– Those who drove us from our homes were the company Lundin, says Gatluak Chiek Jang.
When we visit South Sudan, entire villages are under water in the worst floods the people here can remember. Over the past four years, large parts of the very poor country have been flooded by heavy rains and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes. They now live in huge camps for internally displaced people, surrounded by dikes that protect against the water.
Militia groups would be responsible for security
It is a sad coincidence that the people who were once forced to flee when oil was found on their land are now forced to leave their homes again because of the climate change caused by oil.
It was during the burning civil war that Lundin prospected for oil in southern Sudan. According to an agreement with the Sudanese regime, local militia groups would be responsible for security around the oil operations. Together with government forces, they carried out systematic attacks against the civilian population to take control of the area, according to the indictment in the Stockholm district court.
Villages were attacked
The men tell how their villages were attacked both from the air and by soldiers who came at night and killed everyone who did not manage to escape.
– They killed the children, they killed the old and the vulnerable, says Gatluak Chiek Jang.
Those who survived have waited a long time for compensation, but the men we meet do not dare to believe in a conviction in Stockholm.
– We do not trust the court until they show that they can access Lundin, says Peter Ring Patai.
“Justice must be served”
I’m engrossed in the men’s story and don’t notice the approach of armed guards. Our security officer judges that it is too risky to continue and the interview must be interrupted. Everything related to the oil war is still sensitive in South Sudan and we don’t want anyone here to find out what the conversation is about.
– The world knows what happened but now justice must be done, is the last thing Gatluak Chiek Jang says.