Bildt accused of war crimes
Swedish police and prosecutors are currently investigating allegations about Lundin Oil's activities in Sudan. There is information to suggest that violations of international law may have been committed during the time that Carl Bildt was on the company’s Board of Directors.
The Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was member of the Board of Directors of Lundin Oil (now `Lundin Petroleum`) for part of the period during which the company allegedly supported the war that cost 12,000 lives. The allegations that Lundin Oil has been complicit in war crimes in Sudan culminated when a group of 50 European NGO´s (ECOS) presented new evidence early June.
According to Tomas Ackheim, head of the department of International Law and War Crimes Commission at the Police, the implication of ECOS’ report is that new incriminating evidence has emerged.
`I personally believe that it is sufficient to initiate an investigation," he says.
Preliminary investigations are done on people and not a company. In the present case it is therefore primarily the Board of Directors of Lundin Oil that is under investigation. People who then sat on the board, such as Carl Bildt, can therefore, if there is evidence that crimes were committed, be indicted for crimes under international law or actions that facilitated crimes.
Prosecutor Magnus Elving, at the International Office of the Prosecutor, is in charge of the case. He will now ask for more investigators from the National Criminal Police to perform an investigation, but would not want to precede the events.
‘Much suggests there will be a preliminary investigation in Sudan regarding the offenses described in the report. In this case, it would investigate the suspicions of individuals. That is all I can say.’
Magnus Elving says he has been in contact with ECOS for several months. He stresses that the often very resource-intensive investigations of crimes committed against international law must be made regardless of cost.
Carl Bildt said, through his press secretary Irena Busic, that he welcomed a court investigation. On the issue of guilt, he would not comment.
- Database Search
- Unpaid Debt A comprehensive overview of the role of the Lundin Consortium in the oil war. ECOS calls upon the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate whether, as a matter of international law, Lundin, OMV and Petronas 'were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others during the period 1997-2003.’ In response, the Swedish Public Prosecutor for International crimes opened a criminal investigation into ‘links between Sweden and the reported crimes’.
- In Depth For more specific information about the Lundin court case please visit the Unpaid Debt dossier.
