Sweden must stop waging war in Africa

A journalist and Sudan expert says Sweden must stop facilitating military build-up in southern Sudan by sending aid money to the troubled region.

Bengt Nilsson believes Sweden should not contribute to the conflicts in southern Sudan by sending aid money which can be used to buy weapons.

In an article he wrote for the Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, Nilsson claims that the government of Sweden is using taxpayer money “to release funds for arms purchases in southern Sudan.”

Sweden is making the same mistake it did in sponsoring armed conflicts in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda and the Swedish people should not accept that their money is used by governments to wage war, he added.

Written based on his book Sweden’s African War, Nilsson’s report also states that Swedish development assistance to Sudan amounts to about SEK 1 billion (USD 151 million) between 2008 and 2011.

Sweden cooperates with five other countries in what is called the Joint Donor Team to profit various forms of assistance to the Khartoum.

According to Nilsson, the Swedish Lundin Petroleum was recently accused of supporting militia rebels in southern Sudan, who chased people away from places where they wanted to drill for oil.

While the current Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, was on the board of the company, people were displaced with no compensation and some were even harassed, raped and killed.

South Sudan achieved the majority required in a referendum on its secession from the north.

As he writes in the book, Nilsson believes that the new nation being born will be controlled by former SPLA rebels who are known for their dictatorial rule, their forced recruitment of child soldiers, their reliance on support from the Afro-Stalinist regime in Ethiopia and the terrible atrocities against civilians in southern Sudan.

Swedish people, therefore, should not pay for the weaponry and military equipment in southern Sudan, something that the Swedish government is “unashamedly dedicated to this.”