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Sudan

My Lords, I congratulate the right reverend Prelate on securing this debate on the hugely important topic of the biggest country in Africa. Perhaps it should not be one country, but it is. He pointed out clearly the problems with the elections and, in particular, the census, which has gone so badly and about which there are so many quarrels. That leads me to reflect often concerning Sudan and, indeed, Afghanistan, whether we are right to push our form of democracy on to people that we know little about. Sometimes, we should reflect on that. My noble friend mentioned the problem of oil revenues, as did many noble Lords. It is interesting to reflect that Global Witness recently produced a report that stated that Khartoum’s official figures on the volume of oil produced do not match official Chinese National Petroleum Corporation figures. Specifically, the volumes reported by Khartoum are smaller than those reported by the Chinese by up to 26 per cent. The one productive oil block located entirely in the north—and therefore not subject to revenue sharing—was the only block where the volumes tallied. That is an interesting snippet. Sadly, as my noble friend pointed out, in the south, the SPLM Government are not declaring how much they are getting from oil revenues either, although people have made estimates. In my view, as a former shadow international development Minister in the other place, this is key. There is no evidence that much development has taken place in Southern Sudan since the comprehensive peace agreement. Nine years ago I was in Bahr-el-Ghazal just when the famine was easing during the civil war. The only thing those people had were cartridge cases which were melted down and made into jewellery. I see that the noble Baroness is nodding in agreement. That was all that was left for those people. They had no food, no nothing, but they did have plenty of cartridge cases. Indeed, this necklace was given to me to remember Southern Sudan and not to take it off until there was peace. I have not taken it off yet, and I wonder how many more years I will be wearing it. Development is key to Sudan. People will be happier, they will not rebel or join rebel groups if they have healthcare and education as well as the basic amenities for living. But we see little of that, despite the oil revenues and the amount of aid being pumped into the country. In those days, the Janjaweed were known as the Murahaleen. They are willing recruits to join in the pillage, burn and rape of the population of Southern Sudan and in Darfur because they have nothing either. Their lands are gone due to climate change. It is getting drier and they have to move south to access more resources for their cattle. I repeat: development is the key here, but even if the oil revenues were used properly and development were to take place, we doubt whether there would be the capacity in Southern Sudan to govern, a point made by the noble Duke, the Duke of Montrose. What plans do the Government have to increase that capacity so as to ensure that the administration will be a proper one after the election? I reiterate, as a vice-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sudan, that we are holding a series of hearings to look at the implementation of the CPA and its implications in the run-up to the elections. I hope that many noble Lords will join in and give evidence to those hearings.