Report 28: The Boy in the Film – Testimony of Plaintiff 7
It has become an almost iconic image of the nearly year-long Lundin Oil trial. Taken from a 2001 SVT documentary, it shows Ian Lundin standing in front of a white Jeep, wearing wraparound sunglasses and apparently engaged in conversation with a group of Sudanese child soldiers. The three boys framing Lundin all wear military clothing. One holds an automatic rifle that is nearly as tall as he is. Another smiles back at the camera. The third boy, in the lower right-hand corner of the photograph, is the smallest of the group.
This image is a still from a 2001 SVT documentary by Swedish journalist Bengt Nilsson, who at the company’s invitation traveled to Block 5A in the spring of 2001. The clip of the boys’ interaction with Ian Lundin is by now familiar to those who have been following the trial. In it, Lundin is asked his thoughts on child soldiers protecting the oil fields, to which he replies that as a father himself, it was very upsetting to see children of that age carrying weapons. The prosecution, however, played the raw footage of the interview during their opening presentation, revealing that this was not in fact Lundin’s first response. His initial answer was to say: “This is obviously very disturbing. What has happened is that they have been taken by the militias which operate in this area.”
On Tuesday 13 August 2024 – over twenty years after he was filmed standing in a dusty oil field in southern Sudan talking to the man against whom he was about to testify – one of those boys took the stand in Stockholm District Court. The courtroom’s public gallery was unusually packed with media, NGO representatives, and others eager to hear the story of this former child soldier. Gatkuoth Liah Diu, now a tall, lanky 35-year-old, contemplated the image projected onto the screens of Courtroom 34. “Is there anyone in this photograph that you recognize?” asked prosecutor Annika Wennerström. The question and its response filtered through the layers of Nuer-Swedish-English translation. “Yes,” came his reply at last, as he pointed at the smallest boy in the frame. “That’s me.”
How he came to be in that field with Ian Lundin was but one of the memories that Gatkuoth Liah Diu related to the Court over the course of his two-day testimony. Day one began with a short presentation of evidence by the prosecution. They first displayed a series of photographs of the plaintiff’s injuries, which had been taken during his police interview. Because of the poor quality of the images, the plaintiff’s counsel had recently taken new photographs in which the injuries were more clearly visible, and which the prosecution intended to use during their direct examination. The prosecutor then played clips from the Bengt Nilsson documentary, explaining that the plaintiff had been shown these clips during his police interview and had identified himself. As with the photographs, they planned to ask him about the film clips during his testimony.
Percy Bratt, counsel for the plaintiff, then had the opportunity to introduce his client, explaining that Gatkuoth Liah Diu had been a child soldier during the conflict. His mother and four siblings were killed and he himself was injured during a helicopter gunship attack. Following his mother’s death, he joined his father, General James Liah Diu, and became a soldier in his army. With that, the prosecution welcomed the plaintiff and began asking introductory questions about his background and childhood.
Background and personal details
Gathkuoth Liah Diu was born in January 1989 in a southern Sudanese village called Duar and is a member of the Nuer tribe from the Jikany area. He described Duar as a good place during his childhood, where the children could play outside and go to parties and people took care of their cattle. They lived in grass huts, and the village had schools, hospitals, and religious places of worship. There was also a big United Nations building in the area, and Duar itself was surrounded by many other villages. Although he could not say how many inhabitants there were, he said there were many people. People also came to Duar for medical care. Gatkuoth grew up in Duar and lived there nearly his whole life, except for interludes when he was forced to flee due to the war. During periods of peace, he attended school in the area and ultimately completed his high school education at a school in the refugee camp where he was living at the time. He now lives in Finland, where he has been for nearly six years.
Asked about his family, he said that he had three sisters and three brothers, but that his father had had 28 wives and many other children. As a child, he lived with his mother and maternal siblings. His father was James Liah Diu, the commander of the SSIM militia group who held responsibility for the entire Jikany area, as well as the nearby oil fields. Gatkuoth testified that his father was the highest commander of the SSIM. Riek Machar had previously been their commander until he left the group, leaving James Liah Diu as the highest-ranking officer from 2001 onwards. Peter Paar was also with the group at one point. Gatkuoth explained that SSIM had two goals. The first and foremost, when Riek Machar was with them, was to have their own state. The second was to prevent oil exploitation in the area. He testified that his father started the SSIM movement in 1983 when he left the Sudanese government and together with their then-leader Riek Machar fought against the regime for independence. However, Riek Machar and James Liah Diu would eventually part ways after the signing of a peace agreement that brought SSIM, and James Liah Diu, onto the side of the Sudanese government. From approximately 2001-2002, SSIM was allied with the regime until they split once again in December 2003. Gatkuoth testified that the government sought cooperation with SSIM so that the militia group would protect the oil fields and road construction against attacks. James Liah Diu entered into the agreement on the condition that the regime refrain from attacking or killing the civilians living in the area. Gatkuoth also addressed his father’s relationship with Paulino Matiep, the leader of SSUM who was also allied with the regime, describing Matiep as the militia leader upon whom the regime relied most. SSIM also clashed with Matiep’s group, SSUM, which controlled Bentiu. James Liah Diu passed away in 2020.
Lundin Oil comes to Duar
The prosecution then turned to the arrival of the oil companies in the region. Gatkuoth recalled that in the beginning, the company built roads and when they would find something in the ground, they would mark the spot with red flags. He clarified that it was the Lundin company building the roads. He knew this because sometimes the workers would give the local children T-shirts that said Lundin. He said that in the beginning, things were peaceful. The problems began when the road construction started because the company wanted the local inhabitants to move out of that area. When they told the company that they had nowhere to go, he testified, the company brought Sudanese army troops to shoot and bomb the people, so they fled.
Asked to describe the company’s activities, Gatkuoth said that they would use some type of measurement device that would identify the presence of oil under the ground, and then they would plant flags in the ground to mark those locations. They used machines to conduct these measurements, but the children would never go near the machines because they were guarded by soldiers. It was only when they left the area that the children, out playing, found the flags and took them to play with. An excavator vehicle came first to clear the area, then people would come with the machines to measure the ground and set out the flags. He repeated again that he and the other children never went too close to the machines – they were frightened and only came around because occasionally the workers would give them shirts. Asked to describe the soldiers he saw there, he said that they were Sudanese army soldiers who were there to protect the company’s operations. They carried different types of weapons, usually Kalashnikovs but also RPGs, and had their own vehicles. At that time, Gatkuoth’s father and his militia were posted in a different area. Gatkuoth himself still lived at home with his mother.
According to Gatkuoth, the trouble started when Lundin Oil went to the local chiefs and asked the chiefs to tell the civilians that they had to leave Duar because oil had been discovered in the area. The chiefs responded that they could not leave: it was their home area where they had lived for a long time. As Gatkuoth testified, it was then that the company changed from being good people who were just looking for oil to forcing the local inhabitants to leave – attacking and bombing them to force them out of their villages. He and his family were affected and left Duar together with the other residents, who were forced to flee for their lives. The attackers killed people and used gunships to kill and bomb the village, making it impossible to stay there. He testified that other areas nearby were also burned and bombed. Those in Duar learned about these other attacks because they were nearby – close enough that if a bomb was dropped, it would be heard in Duar. If a nearby village was burning, they would know, and people were fleeing the whole time.
The gunship attack
Gatkuoth described the helicopter gunship attack in detail. It happened in the morning. He had been helping his mother who was milking the cows while he helped let out the calves. They heard a very loud noise near the ground and wondered what it was. The other inhabitants, all the elderly residents and children, also came outside, curious to see what was happening. Then, when the gunship came nearer to the ground, they could see four armed soldiers inside carrying weapons that they used to shoot at the people on the ground. The soldiers were wearing military uniforms and he testified that he thought they were probably Arabs judging from the color of their skin, which was different from his own skin color. The gunship had weapons on the wings, and it was those weapons that burned the villages – when they shot at the huts, they would explode and burn. When Gatkuoth and his siblings realized that they were being shot at, they ran to their mother, who by then had stopped milking the cows. It was then that his mother was shot. The children watched as she was immediately killed, along with others who also died. They saw that the area was burning. When Gatkuoth regained consciousness, he awoke to the weight of his mother’s lifeless body lying on him. His mother had held him and his four siblings in her arms. His siblings – his three sisters and brother, all younger than him – had also been killed. He himself was injured but managed to escape to safety. When his father learned of this attack, he returned to the area along with his soldiers and told Gatkuoth that his mother had died. It was then that Gatkuoth, now without his mother and siblings, decided to join his father and become a soldier in his militia. Gatkuoth was ten years old.
Asked when this attack took place, Gatkuoth said he had initially thought it was in 1998. However, when he spoke to his father later, his father told him that it had happened in 1999. He also recalled that it was during the dry season – it had stopped raining. He explained that he lived in Duar all year. Those adults responsible for taking care of the cattle would take them out to the grazing pastures, while children and elderly people would stay home.
The prosecution then asked about the injuries he had suffered when he was shot. Gatkuoth testified that the attackers had started shooting, but he only realized afterwards that he had been shot in the arm and in his right thigh. He recalled that he was shot in the hand and that shrapnel had hit his thigh. When he and his siblings realized that the attackers were shooting at them, they started running towards their mother. His mother put her arms around all of them, holding them, and it was then that he was shot. He remembered how his mother held them as she died. It was indescribable, he said. When he came to, he was bleeding a lot and his mother lay next to him, dead. He tried to get up and move but could not. He did not receive any medical care. Many others from the village had also been killed. No one had been there to defend the village, and it was only the gunship helicopter that had attacked them and destroyed the village – there were no ground troops. When his father’s soldiers arrived, they checked the area and saw all the dead villagers, but there was no one there for them to fight. As to the family’s property, it was destroyed and burned. Nothing was left. Only Gatkuoth survived, and when his father’s soldiers came, they took him with them. The village itself was razed to the ground: nothing remained. It was empty.
Gatkuoth clarified that his father did not actually come to the village himself, but rather his soldiers came and brought Gatkuoth to his father. Once reunited with his father, his father told him about his mother’s death and comforted him, saying that he should not worry because he would take care of him, and they would be together and Gatkuoth could go wherever he went. Gatkuoth’s wounds were tended to, and he was cared for until they were healed. However, he could not relax long as they had to keep moving all the time to avoid attacks. It would take months until he was healthy and able to walk again. After that, he said, he became a soldier like his father.
Life as a child soldier
The prosecution asked Gatkuoth to describe what it was like being a soldier. He replied that it involved many different things. He did not usually go into conflict, but rather stayed mostly at their base. When something would happen somewhere, they would go to that place to defend it. If soldiers were wounded, the others would go as a team to give them food and help them. As Gatkuoth grew older and able to think more, he would take turns going to another post to relieve the soldiers posted there and working with others. He also got a weapon – a Kalashnikov. He received some training on how to use it, but not much, instead learning by watching how others used their guns. He said that the majority of the soldiers did not have good training on how to use weapons. Asked whether he knew where the weapons the SSIM soldiers used had come from, he said he did not know, but maybe his father or Riek Machar knew. The prosecution attempted to clarify the timeline from the attack on Duar to the time he became a soldier. He said that in the beginning, after he first joined his father, he followed the soldiers but did not have a weapon himself. It was only in 2001 that he received a weapon. He was a soldier from 2001 until 2005, when there was peace, and he was told that he had to go to school and stop being a soldier.
As the prosecution tried to pinpoint the area in which his father operated, Gatkuoth referred to various locations as Kilo 7, Kilo 30, and so on. He explained that he learned that distance was measured in meters and the kilo system was used to say where a military post was located, where soldiers would be posted for protection. Lundin used these kilos so that they would know if an attack occurred, where it had come from. In the beginning, Kilo 5 was the central point where different roads met. Some went to Rubkhona and others to Leer. Kilo 7, now called Thouan, was near his home village. Kilos 10 and 15 were areas where nobody lived, but Kilo 30 was Nimne. Kilo 50 was Kwash. Going from Kilo 50, one would then come to Thar Jath, where the oil area was. The prosecution was able to clarify that when he could name a place, then it was a place where people lived. These included Kilo 30, 40, and 50. He testified that he had been to all of these location markers.
After the lunch break, the prosecution asked further questions about Gatkuoth’s time as a soldier. He said that they did not have any rules about engaging with civilians, but that if there was an incident, he could inform his father and James Liah Diu would address it. He also said that he had been involved in fighting, and that even if his group did not attack others, they themselves were attacked and had to defend themselves. When asked, he said that he himself had not carried out an attack, but he and his group had been attacked in Leer.
Here, the prosecution returned to the infamous image of Ian Lundin talking to child soldiers. After identifying himself, Gatkuoth named the other boys in the photo. One of them, he said, was dead. The other he did not know about as he had heard different information about who was still alive. The prosecutor showed additional images from the documentary and Gatkuoth again recognized himself and identified the other boys. The photographs had been taken at an oil location near Thar Jath – Kilo 60 as he knew it then. They had been there as soldiers. His father had told them that they were there to protect the oil leads. James Liah Diu’s soldiers were responsible for protecting the area. There were also government troops as they had a big base nearby. They were protecting the oil, he testified, against groups like the SPLA who didn’t want people drilling for oil.
He identified the cars visible in the photos as belonging to the Lundin company. Only the government and the company had access to such vehicles, he said; his father’s group did not have cars. The road, which he testified started in his home village and went all the way to Thar Jath, had been built by Lundin. He knew this, he explained, because the company had asked his father, James Liah Diu, to protect the road construction. Describing the other boys in the images, he said that they were all older than him, some by a few months and some a few years older. Pointing to a boy holding a gun, he said that that boy had been some years older. Gatkuoth himself had not been old enough, or strong enough, at the time of the photograph to be able to handle such a weapon. Asked if there was anything else he wanted to say about the film or the images, Gatkuoth appeared moved as he pointed out his uncle, whom he said had been killed later on. He said that it was only much later that he had learned of the existence of these photographs and the film.
The prosecution then turned to the plaintiff’s recollections of the attacks he had personally experienced and of the situation more generally for civilians living in the area. Gatkuoth testified that he himself had never been part of attacks on civilians. After attacks, his group might go to the site to check on survivors. He recounted an attack in which Antonov planes, which he described as white, had been used to bomb a civilian location. The bombs looked like barrels. When they hit the ground, they exploded and splintered everywhere, injuring anyone in the vicinity. The bombs hit a Catholic church, killing about 15 people he estimated. It was hard to say exactly how many, he explained, because there were only body parts. Those killed were ordinary people who had come to church to pray, both men and women, older and younger people.
Involvement in the investigation
Later in the questioning, the prosecution’s focus turned to how Gatkuoth had become a party to the investigation. He explained at length what had happened. While he was in Kenya for a wedding, he learned that some people were going to sue the Lundin company. He then attended a meeting in a Nuer community. Another man later tried to convince them not to participate in the lawsuit, arguing that Lundin had done good deeds like building schools. Gatkuoth said that he would bear that in mind but ultimately make up his own mind. He said that he had forgotten about the discussions until later on when he was living in a refugee camp in Uganda and was approached by some people who asked him to meet with them. He testified that he initially said no, but his friends convinced him to see what they wanted. He went to Kampala where he met with three men at a restaurant. The men talked about the positive things Lundin had done, including building the school and a hospital. When Gatkuoth told them that he had been in the area where the company was and knew about these things, and the men understood that he had knowledge of what had happened, they presented him with money in an envelope. They pointed out that he was currently living in a refugee camp and that his life was bad. They told him to speak to his father and say that Lundin did good things for the community and that they should not say bad things about the company. Gatkuoth testified that he told them that the incident with Lundin had killed his mother and siblings, and that their money had no importance for him anyway. They repeatedly tried to make him accept the bribe, but he kept refusing. It was only when he said that he would contact the authorities that they left him alone and he returned to the refugee camp. Some time passed and then he learned that they had begun threatening his father and other siblings as well. One of his brothers fled to Ethiopia and the others back to South Sudan. When his father found out, he called and confronted the man who had been threatening them, which put Gatkuoth at even greater risk in Uganda. His father would occasionally ask him to come back and be a soldier, but Gatkuoth said no, that he would not give up and would continue to sue the company. Things got worse after he made some Facebook posts, including photographs, expressing himself. A man who saw the posts told him that he was being misled by the people from America, that he should distance himself from the proceedings, and that if they found him, they would kill him. Fearful, Gatkuoth called his father who again urged him to come back and be a soldier. However, Gatkuoth said no, that he had to go to court and sue the company. He testified that this was actually what made him want to take part in this trial. Eventually the Swedish police approached him and showed him the photograph of him in the oil fields and he identified himself.
The prosecution followed up with additional questions asking the plaintiff if he knew someone called Petter Bolme and if so, how. He stated that Petter Bolme had been at the community meeting and had had his photograph. Later, after he had been threatened, he contacted Petter Bolme via his brother, who could speak English. He told his brother that they had to tell Bolme that he was at risk, that people were trying to kill him and he needed protection, and that he had been offered money not to sue the company.
Asked if anyone had tried to influence him to say things that were untrue, Gatkuoth replied that the people who had offered him money wanted him to deny everything and say that nothing had happened. They told him that others had been interviewed, and that if he was called to an interview to just say that he had no idea. They also told him to speak to his father and tell him the same thing. When he refused to comply, that was when all the problems began. He emphasized that when the threats continued, he realized that he wanted the opportunity to tell the story in his own words.
Following the prosecution’s direct examination, the plaintiff’s counsel asked additional questions to elicit further details about the gunship attack that Gatkuoth had described. He estimated that his family had lost about 400 cows in the attack. They also went through the newer photos of his injuries and he described how he had received them. He also clarified some language confusion, explaining that in Nuer, in saying that he was hit by a bullet in his “hand” he was referring to what in English or Swedish would be called his arm. Finally, he told the Court the names of his three younger siblings who had been killed, and – in response to a final question from the prosecutor – that of his mother.
Cross-examination
The following morning, it was time for Alexandre Scheiter’s defense to cross-examine the plaintiff. After some questions to clarify details about Gatkuoth’s childhood and his father, in which Gatkuoth made clear that it was his choice to become a solider and not his father’s, they resumed their tactic of trying to undermine the witness’s credibility by showing that he had previously given different responses to the same questions. For example, they asked him whether he had handled a weapon prior to becoming a child soldier in 2001. When he replied that he had not, they displayed the response he gave to police when he was interviewed in Nairobi during the investigation, in which he said: “As a Nuer man you must have a weapon to protect yourself and if your father had cattle, he could give you a gun to protect yourself and your cattle. So I know how to use a gun.” Asked about this discrepancy, he explained that there was a difference between owning a gun yourself and seeing others holding guns. As a child, he could observe how his father’s soldiers used their guns so he felt he would have been able to use one to protect himself if he were alone. However, this did not mean that he himself knew how to use a gun.
The defense asked about SSIM’s role in protecting civilians and about the other militia groups. It became clear that there were different Nuer groups within the military. James Liah Diu’s group, SSIM, was Nuer, as was Paulino Matiep’s SSUM, and the SPLA, led by Peter Gadet. They also asked several questions about James Liah Diu’s relationships with other militia commanders, including Matiep, Gadet, Tito Biel, and Peter Paar, focusing in particular on the disputes between them and why Matiep, Gadet, and James Liah Diu parted ways. When Gatkuoth expressed reluctance to talk about the split between his father and Matiep, saying that he did not know the details of what had happened between them, the defense confronted him with an email that he had written to Petter Bolme in which he described the conflict. Gatkuoth confirmed what he had written, but repeated that he had gotten the information from his father and that he himself hadn’t know what had happened and did not ask his father detailed questions. The defense also elicited testimony that Peter Gadet had attacked James Liah Diu’s areas, raiding cattle, and that Gadet had switched sides multiple times.
Returning to the helicopter gunship attack that Gatkuoth had described, the defense tried to pin him down on the year in which it took place. He testified that he initially believed that it happened in 1998, but later, when he asked his father about it, his father told him that it was actually in 1999. He stated in court that he was going on what his father said, because he himself had been a child and illiterate. After he was interviewed by the Swedish police in 2017, he told his father what he had said to the police about the attack and his father said that it had taken place in 1999. The defense went back through his recollections about the Lundin company coming to his village, Duar, and his recollections of the red flags, the white company T-shirts the children were given, and the road construction. He said that the attack had happened in connection with the road construction, after the chiefs refused to leave the area. It was the dry season – his mother had been out milking the cows, which she would not have been doing had it been raining. The construction vehicles also came during the dry season because they would not have been able to drive otherwise. He believed that the helicopter attack had occurred during the same dry season. Again, the defense challenged him with his responses from a second police interview that took place in Kampala, Uganda, in which he stated on multiple occasions that the attack was in1998, even though he had already spoken to his father at that point and been told that it was 1999. Gatkuoth explained that his had been under stress during the police interview as it was during the time he was being threatened, and he forgot the conversation with his father.
At this point, the defense asked Judge Zander for permission to play an audio transcript of the police interview to challenge the plaintiff’s statement that he was stressed during the interview. The prosecution raised concerns about confidentiality as they did not know if the audio file contained sensitive information. Initially they asked for a short break to be able to consult with lead prosecutor Henrik Attorps, who was not present that day, but after the judge said he would close the hearing to the public, they agreed to proceed. As such, Judge Zander asked the public audience to leave the courtroom, which they did. After only a few minutes, everyone was summoned back and the judge explained that the prosecution no longer asserted confidentiality over the material, which therefore could be shared upon request, and that the open hearing would continue.
The defense continued with its line of questioning, pointing out that in the recording, Gatkuoth was heard to say 1998 repeatedly, even correcting the interpreter on this point and even though he had already been corrected by his father. Gatkuoth acknowledged this, but again reiterated that he had been under great stress at the time of the interview. He was being asked about his brother, who had been murdered in Sudan, and he had trouble keeping his mind on the interview rather than on his brother. He was very stressed and scared and just kept repeating what he had said in a previous interview – that the attack had been in 1998. “At the time, I didn’t remember talking to my father. I was thinking ‘what should I do, where should I hide’ – that’s what I was thinking about,” he said. The defense continued to inquire about this point, asking him why he believed that his father was right – his father had not even been present in Duar during the attack. Gatkuoth, however, maintained that he relied on what his father said, that he had been a child at the time and that his father was older and knew more. He reiterated that his father had sent soldiers to Duar to look after them and knew that day well.
Here, the defense began displaying on the courtroom screens excerpts from the Lundin company’s records from that time. The first document was a map of the area, on which the locations of Duar and surrounding villages could be seen, as well as the seismic line which had been marked by the red flags and which ran almost right through the middle of Duar. The map showed that the line had been made in the last week of February 1998. The records also showed the specific dates in February 1998 on which the Caterpillar construction machine that Gatkuoth recalled had been present at that location. “So it’s impossible for your father to have been right,” the defense pointed out. Gatkuoth repeated that although he had said 1998 to begin with, he trusted his father’s word and that was why he had said it was 1999.
The defense showed another document, a report prepared in July 1998 about the company’s seismic activities that specifically mentioned Duar. The English interpreter read the relevant portion of the report out loud. It did not mention anything about a helicopter attack. To the contrary, it appeared from the report that the road construction was welcomed by the local villagers, who benefited from it. Asked to explain this, Gatkuoth was adamant. “They haven’t told the whole truth. We refused the construction of this road and they didn’t write that. They wrote what fits their purposes.” The defense persisted: “The author of this report will come here and if he confirms the contents of this report, then he’ll be lying?” “Yes, if he comes here,” replied Gatkuoth. “But we lived there, we are from the actual village. If we would have given our consent, why would they have come and killed us?” “Yes, well that’s the question,” said Per Samuelsson, “if this really happened.”
“This happened,” Gatkuoth stated firmly.
The defense continued probing Gatkuoth’s recollections of the details of the gunship attack. When he said that he could see the soldiers in the helicopter gunship because the doors were open, they showed photographs of combat helicopters used by the Sudanese regime, none of which had doors. Gatkuoth agreed that the regime’s helicopters could look like that, but made clear that the one he had seen, that attacked him and killed his mother, had been smaller and the doors had been open, enabling him to see the people inside.
He was also presented with another report that described an attack on Duar by Tito Biel’s SSIM forces, but did not mention helicopter gunships. He said this was a different incident and repeated that a helicopter gunship had attacked Duar. The defense also showed him several photographs that an acquaintance of his had reportedly taken during the time they were child soldiers, as well as photos of his father in uniform. Their cross-examination concluded with questions about the bombing of a church in Kwargeng, which Gatkuoth had described during the prosecution’s questioning. The defense attempted to pin him down on the exact location of the incident, asking if it could be the same one that other witnesses had described, in which a church in Nimne was attacked. It was ultimately inconclusive as Gatkuoth repeated that what he had seen with his own eyes was a bomb falling on a church in Kwargeng, but also explained that Nimne and Kwargeng were very close to each another and people unfamiliar with the area could confuse them.
Here, the Schneiter and Lundin defense teams switched places in the courtroom and counsel for Ian Lundin, Torgny Wetterberg, began asking questions. The majority of the short cross-examination focused on the role of James Liah Diu’s militia group in helping the villagers protect their cattle, and in particular on an incident in which Peter Gadet attacked their area, taking cows and abducting girls and women, leading to fighting between the two groups.
The company’s defense did not have any questions, so the prosecution asked the final questions of the day which were mostly about an incident in which Matiep’s forces attacked Duar, clarifying that this attack was separate from the one in which Gatkuoth’s mother was killed. Following this brief re-direct, Judge Zander thanked the plaintiff, who in turn thanked the Court.
The defense requested that the hearings on Tuesdays start slightly later, at 9:30 a.m., so that the two defendants could fly into Stockholm that morning instead of having to arrive the day before. When no one objected, the Court agreed to the change, saying that “Counsel for the plaintiffs can just tell their clients that they will have to wait a bit longer those days.”
New legal developments
As the day’s hearing wound down, it was confirmed that an earlier police investigation into allegations against Lundin Oil of obstructing the course of justice, or interference in a judicial matter, had been reopened.
The obstruction of justice allegations were first reported in a 2018 article in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The article cited sources alleging that several people who had been in contact with the then-ongoing war crimes investigation against the company had been offered money and other benefits, threatened, harassed, and even physically assaulted by Lundin Petroleum representatives in efforts to pressure them into not testifying or to recant statements they had already made. Swedish prosecutors opened a formal investigation into the allegations later that year. Both Ian Lundin and Alexandre Schneiter were implicated, though both have consistently denied any involvement. Numerous individuals were interviewed and the lead prosecutor stated publicly that the witnesses’ allegations of threats and bribes had been substantiated, but ultimately the investigation was closed shortly before the current trial began in September 2023.
However, after Gatkuoth Liah Diu testified about the attempts to bribe him and the threats he had faced after becoming involved in the Lundin Oil investigation, discussions in the courtroom led to growing speculation that the previous investigation was still open. The Swedish police subsequently confirmed that it had been reopened in an email communication to the journalist Martin Schibbye.
Next report
The second plaintiff scheduled to testify this week was reportedly unable to obtain a visa to travel to Stockholm and therefore his testimony will be rescheduled. Our next report will cover the testimonies of the following two plaintiffs.
