Darfur Rebels in Sudan Attack Chinese Run Oil Facilities

[XXPANTHAXX]

Mohamed Hasni
Wed, 12 Dec 2007

Darfur rebels said on Tuesday that they had seized control of a
Chinese-run oilfield in Sudan, in the second such attack targeting
Khartoum's main arms supplier and oil client in as many months.

"We attacked the oilfield of Rahaw this morning at 6am (3am GMT) and
took control of the facility" in the south Kordofan region, Justice and
Equality Movement commander Abdel Aziz Nur al-Ashr told AFP by
telephone.

A Sudanese military spokesperson acknowledged that some 20 rebels had
attacked an army camp near an oil facility and seized a Chinese oil
company vehicle but insisted that the attackers had fled as soon as they
met resistance.

"No oil factility is under JEM control and the security of oil
infrastructure has been preserved," the official SUNA news agency quoted
the spokesperson as saying.

The JEM commander said two of his fighters died in the attack, which had
also left "several dead and wounded" among the government protection
forces.

"Our attack is another attempt at telling Chinese companies to leave the
country," Ashr said, vowing that attacks on the oil industry of the
Kordofan region east of Darfur would continue until China ends its
operations in Sudan.

"We have neutralised the site's protection force... and we have
destroyed their installations which has halted production," Ashr said.
"We have seized vehicles, artillery and we totally control the facility.

Oil for the people

"We are implementing our threat of attacks against foreign companies,
particularly Chinese ones, and we will continue to attack," he warned.

"Our goal is for oil revenues to go back to the Sudanese people and that
is a strategic plan of our movement."

The Rahaw facility run by China's Great Wall company produces 35 000
barrels a day and is located northwest of the Hajlil field which JEM
attacked on 23 October, according to Ashr.

The October attack was on a field in Kordofan run by the Greater Nile
Petroleum Operating Company (GNOPC), a consortium involving China's
CNPC, India's ONGC, Malaysia's Petronas and Sudan's state-owned Sudapet.

Five oil workers were kidnapped in that attack.

The rebel group had warned it would target foreign oil companies and
Chinese firms in particular because Beijing supplies arms to Khartoum.

China is Sudan's top oil buyer and weapons provider in a relationship
that has drawn much criticism in the West.

Beijing's ambassador to Khartoum last month voiced deep concern at
Darfur rebel threats to target Chinese peacekeepers being deployed as
part of a bolstered African Union-United Nations force in Darfur.

Darfur rebels have warned that as "allies" of the government in
Khartoum, the Chinese are not immune from attack.

Invested more than $400m

China is Sudan's biggest foreign trade partner and has invested more
than $400-million in the country's western and largely impoverished
Darfur region alone, according to Chinese figures.

However, Beijing has often been accused of failing to exert pressure on
President Omar al-Beshir to stop the bloodshed in Darfur, where conflict
has left at least 200 000 people dead and displaced more than two
million, according to UN figures.

The conflict erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels rose
up against Khartoum to demand an end to the political and economic
marginalisation of their huge region the size of France.

Khartoum's response was to back the Arab Janjaweed militia and give it
free rein to crack down on the rebels and their backers.