Published 11 November 2021 at 15.39
Domestic. Ian Lundin and Alex Schneiter are now charged with aiding and abetting a serious violation of international law in Sudan 1999-2003. They are suspected of having contributed to the then Sudanese regime committing violations of the laws of war in order to secure the company's oil operations in southern Sudan.
Like the article p & aring; Facebook
& copy; & nbsp; Joakim Berndes
Carl Bildt.
Alex Schneiter was previously CEO of the Swedish oil company Lundin Oil. Ian Lundin is chairman of the board of Lundin Energy, as the company is called today.
The indictment concerns aiding and abetting a serious violation of international law during the years 1999 to 2003. According to the prosecutor, the duo had the decisive influence over Lundin Oil's operations in Sudan.
Carl Bildt, who joined the board of Lundin Oil AB in the middle of this, in 2000, escapes prosecution.
In connection with the prosecution, confiscation is also claimed from Lundin Energy AB for an amount of just under SEK 1.4 billion, which according to the prosecutor corresponds to the value of the profit of approximately SEK 720 billion that the company made from the sale of the business in 2003.
Lundin Oil has been operating in Sudan since 1991. There has long been a civil war in the country, which is characterized by a lack of respect for the laws of war. As the country opened up to oil extraction, the war also came to be about oil and control of the oil fields in southern Sudan. In 1997, Lundin Oil, through a wholly owned subsidiary, had begun oil exploration in an area called Block 5A, an area that is approximately the same size as Småland. Until then, this area had been relatively spared from the civil war, but until 2003 it became one of the worst affected areas.
According to a local peace agreement from 1997 between the Sudanese government and several militia groups in the southern states, responsibility for order and security in, among other places, Block 5A would lie with the military forces of the southern states, not the Sudanese military. In accordance with this agreement, these forces were responsible for the security of Lundin Oil's operations when it commenced in 1997.
In connection with the commencement of operations, a regimental militia group launched attacks in Block 5A to take control of it, but without succeed. The attacks came to affect civilians on a large scale.
Shortly after Lundin Oil encountered oil in Block 5A in 1999, the Sudanese military, together with the same regime-affiliated militia group, launched offensive military operations in the area to take control of it and create the conditions for Lundin Oil's oil exploration. This led to short-lived fighting until Lundin Oil left the area in 2003. According to the prosecutor, the Sudanese government, through military and regimental allies, used a warfare that violated international humanitarian law and which under Swedish law constitutes a violation of international law. crime.
– We believe that the investigation shows that the military and allied militia systematically attacked civilians or at least carried out indiscriminate attacks. For example, they bombed airplanes from transport planes, shelled civilians from combat helicopters, abducted and looted civilians, and burned entire villages and crops so that people had nothing to live on. The result was that many civilians were killed, injured and expelled from Block 5A, says the head of the preliminary investigation, chamber prosecutor Henrik Attorps.
The prosecutor further believes that the defendants in various ways participated in the violation of international law. It is this participation that is now being prosecuted.
Immediately after the military entered Block 5A in May 1999, in violation of the local peace agreement, Lundin Oil changed its view of who would be responsible for the security of the company's operations. The company then requested from the Sudanese government that the military continue to be responsible for security. This despite the fact that it meant that the military would therefore have to take control of Block 5A through combat. What makes this a criminal complicity is that they made these demands even though they understood or were at least indifferent to the military and the militia fighting in a way that is forbidden under the laws of war, says Chief Prosecutor Krister Petersson.
< p>The prosecutor believes that the accused persons from May 1999 continued to promote crimes committed by the military and its allied militia to enable oil operations until March 2003. Among other things, the company undertook to the Sudanese government to build roads in areas not controlled by the military or regimental ally. The company also informed the government that oil exploration was planned in such areas. All this required that the military and the militia before that had to take control of the areas through battle. In connection with these battles, the military and the regimental militia committed crimes against the civilian population.
The evidence in the case is extensive and consists of several different parts. Some are aimed at proving the main crime – crimes against international law, serious crimes – committed by unknown individuals within the Sudanese government, as well as the military and regime-affiliated militia.
– The main evidence here consists of a large number of civilians who have been subjected to attacks. We will also hear witnesses who worked with and studied the situation in Sudan and who, among other things, met refugees and heard their stories. In addition, we rely on written reporting from the area, mainly from the UN and other international organizations as well as from journalists who covered the area, says chamber prosecutor Karolina Wieslander.
Other evidence aims to prove that the accused contributed to the crime of international law. This evidence includes the organization within the company and the internal reporting on the situation in Sudan, as well as the communication that took place with the Sudanese government. In this part, several witnesses are invoked in connection with the activity and extensive written evidence.
The preliminary investigation began in 2010. During the investigation, a new civil war broke out, which is why it was not possible to travel to the area. Unlike crimes in, for example, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Syria, there are also no international courts or investigative mechanisms concerning Sudan, which have been able to assist the Swedish investigation.
– It is important that these serious crimes are not forgotten away. War crimes are one of the most serious crimes that Sweden has an international obligation to investigate and prosecute. A large number of civilians were affected by the crimes of the Sudanese regime, to which we believe the defendants participated. Many of the civilians who survived were forced to flee their homes to never return and still have no knowledge of what happened to their relatives and friends from whom they were separated, says Henrik Attorps.
The investigation has about 270 interrogations held and about 150 people have been heard. The preliminary investigation report covers just over 80,000 pages.