By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

The BBC reported yesterday that the UN commander in Sudan, Gen. Martin Agwai, declared the war essentially over…what now?

Since 2003: 300,000 deaths as reported by the UN (the government of Sudan says 10,000) with over 3 million people displaced. And in the midst of this, China, Malaysia, and India continue to invest heavily there in the oil production infrastructure. China purchases 80% of the daily production (almost .5 million barrels per day, 1 barrel = 42 gallons of crude).

What responsibilities should businesses have to promote human rights and sustainability in fragile nations like this?

Most Oil Companies, like China’s giant CNPC, have excellent websites and market their world reach as well as their local (human) development activities in various countries like Sudan. The industry learned lessons from public relations disasters like Total’s (the French oil company) in Myanmar (Burma) in the mid-90s, when the company was accused of using forced labor to build a pipeline.

The engagement in Africa seems to be headed by international businesses. So while we watched our Sec State make the rounds recently, business, not government, is the real shaping hand of international relations on the African continent.