"Compensation needed for oil company displacement" land commission
head in Unity
BENTIU, Sudan, April 14, (Gurtong) – The head of the Land Commission
in South Sudan’s most famous oil-producing area of Unity State said on
Thursday that little was known about whether and how people were going to be
compensated for land utilized by oil companies during the war years.
“Nobody has been compensated, if they do it, it will be good as everybody
is eager to get it because of the great loss they had,” said Chol Deng
Dakir who added that displacement from oil producing areas had happened all
over Unity, which neighbors northern Sudan.
Dakir said that his state’s arm of the land commission was expecting
the issue of compensation to be complicated as displacement because of oil exploration
was coincidental with forced movement due to conflict between northern and southern
Sudanese forces in Unity State.
Dakir said that displacement of local inhabitants from oil fields continued
until 2002 and 2003.
Although Dakir has concerns about further ‘exploration going ahead in
the block’ and what this might mean for inhabitants, he says there are
also other pressing problems for the state.
“The big problems are issues of resettlement, especially for refugees.
Then there is the big problem of the north-south border,” he said.
According to the UN Mission in Sudan’s ‘Comprehensive Peace Agreement’
(CPA) Monitor, the Technical ad hoc Border Committee set up to demarcate the
1956 border line has already completed a review of maps and has visited states
bordering the elusive line.
A final recommendation is due to the Presidency by October 2007.
“We don’t know where the border is,” said Dakir about the
1956 line, “there are people near the border but they don’t know
where the line is, whether it is in front or behind them”.
Between 11 and 13 April a land and property workshop, headed up by the Land
Commission in South Sudan and funded by the Norwegian Refugee Council, the United
National High Commission for Refugees, was held in Bentiu. This is the seventh
of the state-based meetings.
“We are using these workshops as part of a consultative process with
stakeholders so the Land Commission can come out with a comprehensive land policy,”
said Emmanuel Pitio who is working with one of the funding agencies.
Problems are being encountered during the interim period across the South because
there are no new land laws that conform to the Interim Constitution for Southern
Sudan said Pitio.
The issue of land and natural resources are not clearly dealt with in the CPA.
“Some people come back and find their land has been occupied,”
said Pitio about challenges facing returnees to the South, “there is no
clear institution to appeal to, which court doyou go to? What evidence do you
have that this land was yours?”
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