O Petróleo Muda Tudo, Para Pior

É uma maldição, todo país que descobre vastas reservas de petróleo se torna vítima de bandidos. O caso do Sudão é de livro-texto. Numa entrevista do ditador Bashir a Spiegel ele fala sobre a relação com os americanos e revela: Spiegel: Is it even possible to conduct business profitably in Sudan, on which the European Union and, more importantly, the United States, have imposed heavy sanctions?

Bashir: We are willing to cooperate with the German economy in all areas, and to protect German projects if requested. The sanctions are not causing any problems for us. On the same day that Siemens announced that it planned to withdraw from Sudan, we signed an agreement with a large Chinese company. In the petroleum sector, we have now signed contracts with Chinese, Indian and Malaysian companies, and these contracts are significantly better than the ones we had with the Americans. The Americans kept 70 percent of the oil proceeds for themselves, and the Sudanese government got only 30 percent. Today the government receives 70 percent. The Chinese also train technicians and experts. Most of the engineers working in the oil fields today are Sudanese.