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| President Obama and South Sudan's (Flunky) President Kiir |
Less than a year ago, Sudan was split in
two after decades of U.S. support for the secessionist South. Newly independent
and deeply impoverished South Sudan has now seized much of what remains of the
North’s oil fields. The South refuses to return to its borders, despite
widespread international denunciation – a boldness that is inconceivable without
the connivance of the United States.
The West Wants to Take the Rest of
Sudan’s Oil
“South Sudan refuses to return
to its borders, and its generals are talking about marching all the way to
Khartoum.”
The campaign to chop away more territory
from the African nation of Sudan is in full swing. South Sudan, which comprised
one-third of the country until becoming independent, last year, seized the oil
town of Heglig on the northern Sudan side of the border and is refusing
international calls to withdraw. The region around Heglig contains half of
Sudan’s remaining oil fields. Most of the country’s oil went to South Sudan when
the country was partitioned. But the Heglig fields indisputably belong to
northern Sudan, having been awarded to the Khartoum government by a
Permanent
Court,
in 2009. Nevertheless, South Sudan refuses to return to its borders, and its
generals are talking about marching all the way to Khartoum.
The European Union describes the South
Sudanese seizure of northern territory as “completely
unacceptable,” and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed his
“grave
concerns” directly to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir. But President Kiir,
who wears a signature cowboy hat given to him by President Bush in 2006, shouted
back at the UN chief, “I am not under your command.”
So, who does have influence on South
Sudan? That would be, overwhelmingly, the United States, which supported South
Sudan’s secessionist movement for more than a generation and steamrolled African
and international opinion into accepted the dismemberment of what had been the
continent’s largest country. It was an especially bitter pill to swallow for
that African Union, whose predecessor, the Organization of African States, in
1964 declared that national boundaries left by colonialists should be left
alone. The founding statesmen of Africa feared that tampering with borders would
expose the continent to foreign intrigues, as Europeans and Americans stirred up
secessionist movements for their own gain.
“Green Berets now operate in
South Sudan and neighboring Uganda, Congo, and the Central African
Republic.”
That time has fully arrived. No sooner had
South Sudan declared itself independent, than President Obama devised an excuse
to move U.S. Special Forces into the country – one of the poorest on Earth, if
you don’t count the oil. Green Berets now operate in South Sudan and neighboring
Uganda, Congo, and the Central African Republic. American money keeps the
Sudanese army equipped and paid. And President Kiir met with
Obama
only two weeks ago. The official press release on their talks said Obama had
expressed concern about the tensions between North and South, and “emphasized
the importance of...reaching an agreement on oil.”
Well, it looks like Obama and the
cowboy-hatted President Kiir reached their own agreement: to seize the North’s
oil fields. South Sudan is a U.S. client state that owes its independence to the
U.S. and Europeans and Israel, which was deeply involved in the Sudanese civil
war. It is inconceivable that South Sudan would defy the United Nations and the
European Union to invade North Sudan and seize half of its oil reserves without
the connivance of the United States. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, who
has been calling for the head of Sudanese President al-Bashir since George Bush
was in office, will pretend that she is “concerned” with the fighting between
the two Sudans, and so will Obama. But U.S. client states like South Sudan don’t
invade their neighbors without Washington’s blessing.
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