Darfur explained - the REAL story?

Want to know why the FRENCH(oppose UN sanctions) and CHINA(abstains on Darfur UN vote) are being such assholes in the UN about Sudan? You see, Sudan has oil - quite a lot of it, and quite a bit of refining capability along the coast as well.

Being the treacherous weasles they are, the French would not jeopardize their claim to a $200B deal over a bunch of dirt poor folks down in the south. The Chinese are squishy on the genocide thing at the UN for the same reason O.I.L.

If one were just a tad conspiracy theory oriented, it would be easy to imagine a French/Chinese/Khartoum scheme to eliminate John Garang(check!) and eliminate the people who were supporting his movement(in progress, semi-check!) so the Garang/White Nile deal could be completely disavowed by the Khartoum government. After all, these are the same wonderful folks who bombed the Rainbow Warrior.

The French and Chinese are also looking to get "cozy" in WEAPONS SALES. Note that this French push for the Chinese weapons sales thing occurs in early 2004 -- coincidentally this is roughly the same time John Garang is putting together the White Nile deal with the Brits and roughly the same time the Janjaweed crew kicks into high gear eradicating/dislocating Garang supporters in the south. Pure coincidence? Maybe, maybe not...

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

BBC ARTICLE

Garang played an important role in a deal that gives White Nile a 60% stake in developing the Block Ba oil concession, a region thought to contain $200bn worth of untapped oil at current prices...

...founded by a former star of the England cricket team, Phil Edmonds, who developed a strong working relationship with the ex-rebel leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement...The company says Garang's death won't affect its exploration concession as the deal it signed is backed by other high-ranking figures in southern Sudan's semi-autonomous government...

...Meanwhile, the French oil giant Total claims to have rights over the same area under a 1980 agreement it signed with the other side in the civil war - the national Sudanese government.

Further, we see Garang disavowing the French claim to the oil fields HERE (gasandoil.com)

Total, along with partners Marathon and Kuwait Petroleum, says it is confident it will regain access to the stake, which it abandoned in 1984 after an employee was killed in civil-war related violence. Total executives say the central government is the only authorized body to grant oil concessions and that the provisional government of South Sudan wasn't a legal entity when it signed with White Nile.
Garang disagrees: "Total can cling to whatever (reasons) they like. We will cling to the oil, because it is ours."

THE CHINA CONNECTION

Harvard University feels strongly enough about the Chinese connection to the Darfur slaughter that they move to divest university investments in PetroChina in April 2005

The HARVARD GAZETTE had this to say about the divestiture action:

...Oil production is widely understood to be a crucial source of revenue for the Sudanese government, essential to the government's capacity to fund military operations, and an asset of exceptional strategic importance to the regime. According to a recent report of the U.S. Department of Energy, "With the start of significant oil production (and exports) beginning in late 1999, . . . . Sudan's economy is changing dramatically, with oil export revenues now accounting for around 73% of Sudan's total export earnings." [Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, Sudan Country Analysis Brief, July 2004.] As of January 2004, Sudan's estimated proven reserves of crude oil stood at 563 million barrels, more than twice the 2001 estimate. As of June 2004, crude oil production had risen to 345,000 barrels per day, up from 270,000 barrels per day just a year earlier. [Ibid.]...

Stay tuned - this saga will be updated as I find more