-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Please pray about thisw.

Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 08:30:02 -0700

From: "Bruce Atchison" <ve6xtc@telusplanet.net> To: "Ted Hilts" <thilts@help-for-you.com>

Dear Ted;

Fully realizing how busy you are, please take time to pray about Sudan and that people will realize how evil the Khartoum regime is. Here's an open letter which explains all about their crimes against the body of Christ.

From: "Sudaninfo" <updates@freedom-quest.ca>

To: "Freedom Quest International" <info@freedom-quest.ca>

Subject: Letter to Calgary Mayor Over Renaming of Lindsay Park Center to "Talisman Center"

Date: Thursday, April 04, 2002 6:46 AM

April 3, 2002

Mayer Dave Bronconnier

City of Calgary

Dear Mr. Bronconnier,

I returned to Alberta recently to learn, to my horror, that the Calgary city council has made the decision to change the name of the Lindsay Park Center to the "Talisman Center". I can only assume that this action was taken in ignorance of the destruction which this company has wrought on the people of Sudan through its lucrative business partnership with the Islamist military regime in Sudan and the state owned companies of communist China and Islamist Malaysia.

Hence I am sending you this letter so that you can acquaint yourself with some of the ugly facts.

The Sudanese community is baffled at how a political body in a democratic country can show such honour to a company which has taken such a callous attitude to the very real suffering that oil development is bringing to their people. Thus the city council's decision is an offensive affront to the thousands of suffering Sudanese who have been brutalized and to the thousands of Sudanese Canadian refugees (many of whom live in Calgary), who have first hand experience of Khartoum's brutality.

I have worked in Sudan for over 10 years, and can attest to the devastating impact that oil development has had. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians are being forcibly displaced, raped, enslaved, starved, terrorized, and killed in a cruel genocidal "jihad" which dwarfs the tragedies of Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda combined. Over 2.5 million people have died, and almost 5 million have been displaced, making Sudan the greatest humanitarian crisis of our day. It is a crisis which is almost entirely "man-made" -a genocide motivated by racism and religious extremism. The Khartoum military junta is one of the world's worst violators of human rights in the world. It is also Talisman Energy's business partner...a partner which Talisman defends at every turn, providing it with critical moral cover as well as strategic resources to expand and continue its horrific activities.

Talisman Energy is now facing serious charges in a New York court of law for collaboration in ethnic cleansing and forced displacement carried out by Sudan's security forces. There is even a document which alleges that Talisman requested Sudan's military to carry out "clean up" operations in the oil field areas of its civilian population. (See attached press report below). There are reports from numerous sources which state that Sudan's military have used Talisman's facilities to store ammunition, and launch helicopter gunship raids on innocent villagers. Talisman has regularly provided transport and other services to these security forces and maintains close, co-operative relations.

This past weekend there were articles in the Albertan press about the role of Swiss banks (and other western companies) who provided financing and resources to the Third Reich enabling Hitler to build up his war machine. Some of these banks are currently under prosecution in western courts for charges of complicity in crimes against humanity. Your council should take this issue very seriously, especially in light of the imminent establishment of an International Criminal Court, where corporate complicity (of the Talisman Energy variety) will certainly be one of the central judicial themes in the Court's efforts to stamp out the international "culture of impunity".

Lest you feel that I am speaking alone, I am attaching below a list of a small sample of statements from well known individuals and/or organizations which know the reality on the ground in Sudan, and have taken the time to investigate all sides of the issue.Documentation for all of these quotes can be provided upon request. Also, I have included a brief bibliography of some of the most recent, thoroughly researched studies on the situation with regard to oil in Sudan, as well as a recent press report on the lawsuit against Talisman Energy.

I have also included a list of statements made by senior Talisman executives which, when juxtaposed to the independent research and observations cited below, clearly highlight the extent of misinformation and moral cover being provided by this oil company. Lastly, there is a set of arguments commonly used to justify Talisman's existence in Sudan, and responses from Canadian church leaders.

The Calgary City Council should reverse its decision at once, before this becomes even a greater embarassment to the people of Calgary. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Mel Middleton

Executive Director

Freedom Quest International

404 Devilder Ave, Trochu, AB, T0M 2C0

Tel: 403-442-2177; 403-703-9497; Fax: 403-703-9486; Email: mmiddleton@freedom-quest.ca

STATEMENTS OF CONCERN ABOUT TALISMAN'S ACTIVITIES

FROM SUDANESE CIVIL SOCIETY

Natalina Yoll, Calgary resident and refugee

I am a victim, and a witness who has experienced first hand, slave raids being carried out against my people. I have personally escaped from three of these raids, the last being as recent as 1998, after which I left my country. During these raids, many people were killed; others were taken alive. My village, and other villages nearby were burnt down. Our properties, food crops, and cattle were looted. Many young girls were raped and left in critical condition as nearly dead. All who were captured were treated in such an inhumane way.

My father, who couldn't run due to sickness, was caught along with my oldest brother. They were tied up and put into a hut with many other men. The hut was put on fire, and they were burned to death. Some of my relatives are now alive, but are being kept as slaves in the north of Sudan. Even my grandmother, along with her children Akech, Akuot, Akuei, and Deng were all taken, as were my twin cousins Awet and Chan. I am alive only by the grace of God, who enabled me to escape by running into the bush. With help from my uncle and my husband I was able to come here.

My people are being attacked and displaced because the government is committing genocide against us, and wants to clear the land for the oil companies. What Talisman is doing is leading to more suffering in terms of forced displacement, slavery and abduction by these government sponsored militias, because Talisman is supporting, and assisting the government.

Since Talisman arrived in my country, the situation has gotten worse, not better.

I am here today to beg you, in God's name; in the name of all that is good and just, to stop your activities in Sudan. Please end your partnership with the brutal Sudan government. Please stop supporting the genocide of my people. Why should your future deprive my people of theirs? Natalina Yoll,

Calgary Resident, Sudanese Refugee, Statement to Talisman's Annual Shareholders' Meeting

Other Testimonies of Victims Who Fled from Oil Field Region

(Testimonies compiled by church and NGO officials visiting the region) Malong Kilang, Nuer tribal Chief

"Before oil, our region was peaceful. People were cultivating with their cattle. When the pumping began...Antonovs and helcopter gunships began attacking the villages -- sometimes four times every day. All the farms have been destroyed. Everything around the oil fields has been destroyed. Oil has brought death" Malong Kilang, Nuer tribal chief (Interview recorded in Scorched Earth: Oil and War in Sudan; Christian Aid March 13, 2001)

John Pouk - Mankien

"There is killing in Heglig. People are disappearing daily. (They are) coming out to the villages and are rebellious against the GoS. Mankien was attacked in April 2001 by the GoS mixed with the Baggara militias.

We were attacked at night. It was terrible.Gunship(s) searching for us in the bushes. Antonov bombing the villages. "My father was burned alive in his luak. My aunt is missing with her children." Her husband is dead. "I came here with my four brothers. This suffering is caused to us by this oil. There are new companies coming up and they are being established in our former villages." Recorded by New Sudan Council of Churches, Sept 29, 2001

Elizabeth Shipak - Bakuony, Wichthef

"I don't know where my parent(s) are. The bombing was too much on us like a rain. Some people lost their sight. They remain behind. A man called Gatluak Deng Shang (was) blinded and has a big wound in his mouth. All of his teeth are missing. Also a lady called Nyibol Thei Gai (was) blinded and lost her hand when the GoS attacked Kual Kuony village.

Recorded by New Sudan Council of Churches, Sept 29, 2001

Anjelina Nyahok Kuony

"I was sitting under the tree with my one-year-old son. Then, the gunship suddenly appeared and starting to shoot us. My baby was shot and his leg was cut right from the thigh. He was taken to Lopiding in Lokichoggio by his father. I remain behind with the rest of my children."

Recorded by New Sudan Council of Churches, Sept 29, 2001

Mary Nyalen Bure

"Gunship(s) killed many people. The day we decided to leave, five girls, two men and 100 cows were killed." Names of those who lost their lives:

1. Nyakuola Gai (girl)

2. Kuyoc Lieny, his wife, nose was wounded, she has no nose now;

3. Nyagai Koang (girl);

4. Nyarika Wor;

5. Nyaluak Bidong;

6. Nyaboth Koang;

7. Palul Mawet (Yang Mau);

These are the names of these who died in the gunship attack. There are many more, but I don't know their names.

Recorded by New Sudan Council of Churches, Sept 29, 2001

Veronica Nyahok Nger - Roob Nyagai, Leek County near Bentiu

"We (were) chased during the attack toward Naam River by the GoS soldiers.

The GoS soldiers came with Chinese workers from the oil companies to open the old closed wells of Chevron. Our village was burned to ashes. Many (were) drowned in Naam River. Names of those who (were) drowned:

Spiritual leaders, Majok Thon Nyadouth; Nyaruena Thou, her grandmother , and many others.

Recorded by New Sudan Council of Churches, Sept 29, 2001

Statement from New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC)

(The NSCC is a coalition of all the main church denominations operating in southern Sudan)

"We believe that the extraction of oil by a consortium of multinational companies, led by the Canadian Talisman Energy Inc, is fuelling the war in Sudan and contributing to the suffering of our people. The revenue from this recently developed oil industry is likely to be used to pay for the state-led genocide upon the African peoples of southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and southern Blue Nile. The link between wealth and military power cannot be over-emphasized. Furthermore, the extraction of oil is most likely to make the National Islamic Front (NIF) regimne in Khartoum unwilling to negotiate to grant political and socio-economic rights to the said peoples and to end the war peacefully.

We therefore ask your governmnet to support the international campaign to halt current oil operations in Sudan until there is a just and comprehensive peace." Letter from the NSCC,

January 29,2001

Sudan Civil Society Forum

"The Sudanese participants felt strongly that the exploitation and flow of oil is exacerbating the war, and has raised the stakes, with the clear prospects that war atrocities will increase. Speakers underlined that they had seen and felt the negative effects of oil on the people of the south.

The Sudanese participants are particularly concerned by the role of the Canadian company, Talisman Energy, in oil development in Sudan....The participants felt strongly that Talisman is not dealing with the realities of the situation on the ground, or with the evidence of ongoing atrocities committed by the government of Sudan.

The participants endorsed the view that considerable pressure must continue to be applied on Talisman so that it acts appropriately and stops its support to one side in the conflict.

Sudan Civil Society Form, A Conference Sponsored by the Sudan Inter-Agency Reference Group, which brought leaders from civil society in Sudan to Canada for discussions on the Sudan peace process. June 2000 .

Sudan Bishop's Conference

"Since several countries have rushed to show interest in the trading of oil with Khartoum, the GOS has lost interest in pursuing a peaceful solution to the war. Khartoum is now interested in a military settlement aided by new allies who covet the oil wealth. Moreover some foreign countries are assisting the GOS to drive people from their ancestral land to facilitate the exploitation of the oil wells.

We are convinced that the oil revenues will not be used for the welfare of the Sudanese. The fact that numberless government employees have gone without pay for several months attests to this.

Indeed, Christ was sold for 30 pieces of silver and our people are being sacrificed in exchange for barrels of oil.

The prolongation of the war will increase the fragmentation of the Sudan, tribal divisions and the instinctive personal quest for food, money and security and will engender additional internal displacement."

Statement by the Sudan Bishop's Conference, Sept 15, 2000

Network of Sudanese Indigenous Organizations (NESI)

The NESI Includes the following Indigenous Sudanese Organizations:

New Sudan Women's Federation (NSWF); Nuba Relief , Rehabilitation and Development Organization (NRRDO); Sudan Medical Care (SMC); Widows, Orphans and the Disabled Rehabilitation Association of New Sudan (WODRANS); Sudanese Women Voice for Peace (SWVP); Mundri Relief and Rehabilitation Association (MRRDA); Relief Organization of Fazugli (ROOF); Hope Agency for Rehabilitation and Development; Jongli Association for Relief, Rehabilitation &amp; Development (JARRAD);

"Furthermore, the GOS has continued to depopulate entire regions in the oil rich areas of south Sudan in order to exploit oil, whose revenues are used by GOS to fuel the war. Evidence is rife of gross human rights violations currently committed against the local population by GOS troops around the oil fields, where helicopter gun ships are used to kill and traumatise many innocent civilians. Humanitarian intervention by local and international humanitarian agencies is hindered because the GOS, which is a member state of the UN, claims sovereignty over its land - which it doesn't actually control - and claims the right to deny any call to allow accessibility of humanitarian assistance, even if it comes from the UN or a super power like the United States of America.

In our perspective and strong conviction about humanitarian principles, the GOS cannot be allowed to commit all these injustices with impunity, nor should the GOS be allowed to destroy the very people it claims are its sovereign subjects....

Network Members also urge the international community to urgently step up pressure on the GOS to cease exploitation of oil reserves, since the oil revenues are used by the GOS to fuel its war machinery which is exterminating people and depopulating the regions surrounding the oil fields."

Press Statement, March 2001.

Federation of Sudanese Civil Society Organizations (FOSCO)

"We also call upon the oil companies working in Western Upper Nile to cease extraction of oil until peace is achieved in this country. We call also for a UN Security Council Resolution imposing an immediate oil sales embargo until peace has been negotiated in Sudan...Further more FOSCO urges IGAD members and IGAD Partners Forum (IPF) to restrain the GoS from carrying out its Scorch Earth Policies."

FOSCO Press Release, March 5, 2002

From the Sudanese Community in Calgary and across Canada:

"We strongly appeal that Talisman Energy Inc. and all other companies currently drilling oil in Sudan cease their operations and pull out of Sudan forth with; that Shareholders who value and believe in human rights should withdraw their shares from the company"

Federation of Sudanese Canadian Associations, Press release, May 1, 2001

FROM INTERNATIONAL NON GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS, CHURCH LEADERS, AND HUMAN

RIGHTS GROUPS

Canadian Ecumencial Mission to Sudan (Joint Statement)

(The mission included: The Very. Rev. Bill Phipps, former moderator of the United Church of Canada; A.J. Finlay, Anglican Church of Canada and member, Central Committee, World Council of Churches; The Rev. Arthur Van Seters, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada; The Most Rev. Donald Theriault, Bishop for the Department of National Defence; Janet Somerville, general secretary, Canadian Council of Churches )

"We are outraged that a Canadian company is a major producer of oil located in southern Sudan and is paying huge royalties to the unaccountable northern military dictatorship led by General Omar al Bashir. We hold the Bashir government largely responsible for the atrocities committed against southern Sudanese peoples.

It is also clear to us that a major factor in the suffering of millions of innocent people is the rapid exploration, development and production of oil located in the south. Oil development has killed and displaced untold numbers of people, forcing them to flee their homes and land for an uncertain future."

Statement by the Canadian Ecumenical Mission, to Sudan, "Stop the oil, start the peace," Canadian church leaders say, April 10, 2001

John Ryle & Georgette Gagnon (Researchers)

Following the finding by the Canadian Assessment Mission to Sudan (the Harker mission) in December 1999 that helicopter gunships and Antonov bombers of the Government of Sudan had armed and re-fueled at Heglig and from there attacked civilians, Talisman acknowledged formally that its Heglig airstrip had been used for military purposes. (Heglig is a government garrison town that is the center of Talisman's oil operations in Sudan.)

In January 2000, the company stated that it had received undertakings from the Government of Sudan that military use of the Heglig airstrip would be limited to defensive purposes. However, in its Corporate Social Responsibility Report released in April 2001, Talisman conceded that in spite of what it described as its advocacy efforts regarding the use of oil infrastructure for offensive military purposes, "there were at least four instances of non-defensive usage of the Heglig airstrip in 2000."

The present investigation concludes that the incidence of military usage has been considerably higher and that it has continued. The pattern of military usage is one of intentional targeting by gunships of settlements without regard to whether they are occupied by civilians or combatants - in non-government controlled areas in and around the concession.

The Government of Sudan is the only warring party with access to combat aircraft, ie helicopter gunships and aircraft that can be used for aerial bombardment.

The investigation has determined that at least two of the government's helicopter gunships have been based at the oil facilities in Heglig. Defecting soldiers from the Government of Sudan army base in Heglig and civilian victims of gunship attacks testified to the investigators that gunships had flown regular sorties from Heglig to attack civilian settlements.

The investigators obtained eyewitness accounts from people attacked by gunships in non-government controlled areas of the concession throughout 2000 and 2001. These eyewitnesses identified flight patterns of the attacking helicopters that indicated they came from and returned to Heglig and other oil facilities in the concession. The incidence of other human rights violations in and around the concession area escalated in 2000 and early 2001. The investigation documents a range of abuses connected with forced displacement of the inhabitants of the area.

Defecting soldiers from the Government of Sudan's military base at Heglig testified that they had been ordered to participate in ground attacks on non-government controlled settlements around Pariang (a government-controlled garrison town in the concession). This was part of an attempt to force the inhabitants out of the area. The soldiers said they had been instructed to kill civilians and any persons believed not to be loyal to the government. This, they stated, was for the purpose of securing the oil fields for development.

John Ryle & Georgette Gagnon, Report of an Investigation Into Oil Development, Conflict, and Displacement in Western Upper Nile, Sudan, October 2001

Amnesty International

"By turning a blind eye, in the name of security, to the violations committed by government forces and troops allied to them, [the oil companies] indirectly contribute to violations continuing. The silence of powerful oil companies in the face of injustice and human rights violations cannot be seen as neutral...The civilian population living in oil fields and surrounding areas has been deliberately targeted for massive human rights abuses---forced displacement, aerial bombardments, strafing from helicopter gunships...."A direct link between the nature of the war and guarantees for security for oil exploration by foreign oil companies became most obvious in intensified war in the beginning of 1999...There is a clear connection between the new-found oil wealth and the [Government of Sudan's] ability to purchase arms....The oil companies involved in Sudan frequently assert that there are no settlements in the oil-rich areas and that allegation of mass displacement are therefore inaccurate. This is clearly not so."

From the May 3, 2000 Report: "Sudan---The Human Price of Oil"

Human Rights Watch

"[T]he government stepped up its brutal expulsions of southern villagers from the oil production areas and trumpeted its resolve to use the oil income for more weapons. Under the leadership of President (Lt. Gen.) Omar El Bashir, the government intensified its bombing of civilian targets in the war, denied relief food to needy civilians, and abused children's rights, particularly through its military and logistical support for the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which held an estimated 6,000 Ugandan children captive on government-controlled Sudanese territory...Fighting spread further into the southern area of Western Upper Nile, inhabited mainly by the African Nuer.

The government continued its campaign of creating a cordon sanitaire around new oil fields by forcibly displacing the Nuer population. In addition to aerial bombardment and scorched-earth..attacks by government troops, the government armed Nuer proxies to fight against anti-government Nuer. The government routinely banned U.N. relief aircraft from Western Upper Nile on security grounds, although its military campaigns produced tens of thousands of freshly displaced civilians, who were burned and looted out of their homes by pro-government Nuer militia and the government army...The government announced that its new oil revenue, constituting 20 percent of its 2000 revenue, would be used for defense, including an arms factory near Khartoum.

Defense spending in dollars increased 96 percent from 1998 to 2000. Not coincidentally, government use of air power and bombing ncreased."

Human Rights Watch Annual Report on Sudan (December 2000);

[Factional/tribal fighting] also exposes to danger of retaliation the tens of thousands of Nuer internally displaced persons who took refuge in Dinka areas....

These displaced Nuer were expelled from their homes by the Khartoum government in 1999-2000 to erect a cordon sanitaire for the oil companies...In Eastern Upper Nile, the Nuer government militias and [Government of] Sudan army are fighting against Riek Machar SPDF (Nuer) forces and the SPLA. Militia Cmdr. Gordon Kong of Nasir is active in trying to drive out these forces from areas adjacent to oilfields that are in development. In the process many civilians have been killed and forcibly displaced...As usual, a key actor in the current violence among southerners is the Khartoum government, which arms whichever factions and militias are fighting the SPLA.

The Khartoum strategy of divide and destroy has worked extremely well in the past, keeping southerners split---Dinka from Nuer, and Nuer from Nuer.... By provoking divisions among Nuer and other southerners, Khartoum can develop the rich oil resources that lie beneath Nuer territory [largely south of Bentiu."

Human Rights Watch letter/analysis on crisis in southern Sudan, March 1, 2001

Eyewitness Testimony from Gary Kenny, Researcher, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)

"I visited Tuic Country, Bahr al Ghazal, southern Sudan for 10 days in February 2002. In the village of Maper, I met with and recorded the eyewitness testimony of many members of the Nuer tribe whose home area is the village of Mankien in Western Upper Nile province. Mankien is located well within Calgary-based Talisman Energy's block 4 (Kaikang) concession.

According to those I interviewed, on January 27, 2002 Sudanese government forces and allied militia attacked their village. The attack was preceded by one week of sporadic high altitude aerial bombing. Then the area was overrun by government soldiers in vehicles and murahaleen (militia) on horseback. They were supported by a helicopter gunship that fired rockets and a machine gun.

"The Nuer I interviewed -- men and women -- all told essentially the same story. The government soldiers, militia and helicopter gunship fired into tukuls (traditional mud, wood and grass houses) and set them on fire. People fell dead and wounded. How many wasn't known since those who were able to, fled for their lives. One young woman escaped with her infant son. But before fleeing she saw her husband and brother shot down (and presumably dead) and the tukul her elderly parents were in set on fire. She believes they were burned alive. She and her fellow villagers said that many people were killed and wounded. They said that about 500 people had fled the area to Tuic County.

"These stories of attack, massacre and displacement concur with stories recorded by many other human rights researchers who have visited Sudan's oil field region in the past three years. The attacks and displacement appear to be a regular feature of oil development. The Government of Sudan forcibly and brutally drives indigenous people from the oil fields to secure those areas for development by foreign oil companies like Talisman, who are formal business partners. I believe these companies, including Talisman, are aware that these gross violations of human rights, these atrocities, are occurring. How can they not be, especially when so many independent human rights experts have provided eyewitness testimony"?

Gary W. Kenny, Africa Human Rights Researcher/Policy Advocate, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice

Initiatives, Statement, March 12, 2002

World Vision Canada

What is constructive engagement's record in Sudan? In a word tragic....We must support the people of Sudan who are paying with their lives; force a delay in oil development until there is peace, and put more pressure on Sudan's government to stop bombing civilians and take the peace talks seriously;

DaveToycen, president and CEO, World Vision, Reported in Globe and Mail February 15, 2001,

Safe Harbor International Relief

"On their most recent trip, SHIR was able to interview chiefs and civilian administrators from the area and estimated close to 300,000 internally displaced people in the region who are at immediate risk of starvation and disease. The chiefs told SHIR that their people had fled with nothing more than the clothes on their backs from attacking bombers, gun ships, GOS troops and GOS backed militia.

Pastor Gary Kusunoki, Executive Director of Safe Harbor International Relief, stated, "The magnitude of the displacement that we witnessed was overwhelming. People are living in fear and desperation, choosing to risk starvation and dehydration rather than come to the areas that are accessible not only to humanitarian agencies but also the GOS Antonov bombers and Hind 24 helicopter gun ships. SHIR saw evidence of displacements of large groups of the Nuer people, as many of the population centers that we had visited on previous trips were now largely deserted. Most of the areas immediately adjacent to oil installations remain off limits to the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan, due to the GOS flight bans.

Fear is a major factor being experienced by the population of the region, especially since the February 20th attack on the World Food Program distribution center in this same area. Village chiefs stated that their people were now too afraid to come to airstrips for food distribution for fear of GOS bombardment"

Safe Harbor International Relief, March 27, 2002

Humanitarian Aid Pilot,

"I landed in Nimne (an area of displaced people), just northeast of Bentiu. Nimne was attacked and suffered much devastation as a result of scorched-earth tactics between July and October 1999. In this area there are thousands of displaced people, and most have lost everything, including family members.

The testimonies of these people, and the accounts of what they went through are horrific...huts are burned down, crops destroyed, cattle have been taken or killed, and water has sometimes been poisoned. A mother, Nyala Tor had her home burnt down in October, and was forced to watch as a number of government of Sudan soldiers raped her 20 year old daughter and finished her off by forcing a burning piece of wood up her uterus. This same women told of hundreds of women that are still hiding in the swamp area, naked and in fear; they are living off water lilies and fish if they manage to catch any.

I received many testimonies of brutal killings along with the raping of women. Three young women, Victoria Sulwa, Ruth Kuothra and Raina Deng lost their husbands...Victoria's husband was mown down by a helicopter gunship. Rya Deng saw her son killed...I saw evidence of destroyed villages and homes for many miles. In this particular area, 105 people have been murdered in recent weeks with another 26 young men who were suspected of being pro SPLA being given the "RIVER JOURNEY", mutilation of limbs and then tied in a sack and thrown into the Nile River."

Derek Hammond, Humanitarian Relief Pilot and Eyewitness, Letter, April 2000

European Coalition on Oil

We, a coalition of European organizations working for peace for Sudan are calling for action by European governments and oil companies to ensure that Sudan's oil wealth ceases to fuel war. Oil should bring peace and prosperity to Sudan, but it causes massive human suffering.

We invite the oil companies operating in Sudan to become a force for the good and to suspend their operations until there is peace. We urge the European governments to actively discourage investment in Sudan's oil sector as a necessary step towards peace in the country. In the oilfields of the Sudan, thousands of civilians have been killed and displaced, their villages burned to the ground. This is how the Government of Sudan ensures a safe way for the international oil companies to extract the country's natural wealth. Over 200,000 km2 of concessions have so far been sold to foreign oil companies and more are planned.

The many hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who live in these vast areas are in constant danger of being bombed and forced away from their villages and ancestral lands.

European Coalition on OIl in Sudan, Public Appeal, May 2001

Justice Africa

"The fundamental reason is that the GoS counter-insurgency strategy has long been based on the displacement of civilians, and air attacks are a highly effective way of achieving this. In many cases this has been policy. More broadly, however, the South has been an 'ethics free zone' for the army. Officers are instructed to do what is necessary and not report back. After nearly 19 years of war, this culture of impunity has become deeply ingrained in the Sudanese army command.

Facing determined ground forces that mingle in with the local population, the GoS defence of strategic areas hinges on these tactics. The SPLA-SPDF unity agreement of January 2002 has increased the military threat in Upper Nile, putting pressure on the GoS forces there and threatening oil extraction. Hence GoS generals argue that they will be military vulnerable unless they can continue their established practices of air attack. As well as facilitating the evacuation of civilians from strategic areas such as the oilfields, air attacks send a powerful message to civilians in SPLA controlled areas that there is no such thing as 'normality' while the war continues.

Air attacks are therefore a morale weapon. Lastly, the GoS is deeply reluctant to have international monitors the war zones."

Justice Africa Briefing, February 2002

Project Ploughshares

"The moral obligations are obvious to anyone who has witnessed or read about the extraordinary suffering of people attacked by helicopter gunships and driven from their homes in the oil regions, of schools bombed and children killed.

What are the legal obligations of private firms operating in the midst of (and benefiting from) such an environment? They are less clear, but conventions such as the one on the Rights of the Child and the 1949 Geneva Convention relating the treatment of civilians in conflict must apply.

After months of talk, our group presented a three-fold proposal to the company. It was simple and modest (indeed, some in the NGO community criticized us sharply for being too accommodating and too modest)....The company rejected the plan. Its refusal leaves little hope that Talisman is prepared to acknowledge even minimally its responsibility toward the people of Sudan in whose midst it has chosen to operate.

In all discussions of what governments should do about Talisman, it's important to remember that the primary moral and legal obligations rest with the company. Its shareholders have a responsibility to inform management that their continued investment is contingent on specific, verifiable efforts to address these moral and legal responsibilities. And if the company's owners and managers will not meet their obligations voluntarily, then the rest of us -individuals, the business community and government leaders -- will surely find the national and international means of compelling Talisman Energy to do so."

Ernie Regehr, Article in Globe and Mail, March 20, 2000

US Committee for Refugees

"In addition, uncounted villages, markets, and displaced persons centers have also been bombed. These bombings continue in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and all international norms with respect to the treatment of civilians caught up in war situations...Moreover, the revenues that go to the Sudanese government from oil are still being used to puchase weapons and equipment that are used against the civilian population of Southern Sudan."

Roger Winters, US Committee for Refugees, March 30, 2000

Sudan Ecumenical Forum

Resolution:

The delegates confirmed that the oil business has aggravated the suffering of the civilians, especially in the concession areas. People are being systematically driven out, their settlements are being destroyed, and their crops are burned. Delegates confirmed the Sudanese churches' position that oil exploitation should be suspended until a just and sustainable peace and an agreement on the equitable sharing of resources have been achieved.

Sudan Ecumenical Forum, March 6, 2002,

(The meeting was facilitated and organised by CAFOD, Christian Aid and Tearfund on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Delegates included the Sudanese churches, the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) and the Sudan Focal Points Africa and Europe, the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Fellowship of Councils and Churches in the Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa (FECCLAHA), churches from Great Britain, the United States of America, Norway and Germany and church related agencies from Great Britain, the United States of America, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and France)

Joint Statement

"We believe oil development, in the midst of a vicious civil war, is completely unacceptable, the more so since revenues accruing to one of the warring parties reduce the incentive to negotiate a just peace."

Joint Statement February 13, 2001 Signed by Amnesty International, the Canadian Labour Congress, World Vision Canada, the Primates World Relief and Development Fund, the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa; the Religious Liberty Commission, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada; Christian Solidarity International; the United Church of Canada; the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa; the Sudan Anti-Genocide Campaign Committee (UK); InterAct Sweden; Citizen's Coalition for Human Rights in Sudan; The Simons Foundation; Co-ordinated Christian Ministries; Emergency Response and Development Fund, Crossroads Christian Communications; Center for World Mission; Institute on Religion and Public Policy;

Joint Statement

"Chief among the forces presently sustaining conflict, and leading directly to the displacement of many tens of thousands of people, is oil development.

As things now stand, all Sudanese revenues from oil development go directly to the current Khartoum regime, which uses these revenues to further its military ambitions, ambitions which include the most savage of war crimes and human rights abuses, religious persecution, and a general policy of scorched earth warfare in the south."

Joint letter to President Bush, April 26, 2001, Signed by Franklin Graham (Samaritan's Purse); Dr. James Kennedy (Coral Ridge Ministries); Pastor Gary L. Kusunoki (Safe Harbour International Relief), Gary Evans (Living Water International); Rev. Louis P. Sheldon (Traditional Values Coalition); Frank Blackwood, (Aid Sudan Foundation); Brad {Phillips, (Persecution Project Foundation); Christian Aid (UK)

The scorched earth: oil and war in Sudan, presents eyewitness testimony showing that Sudanese government forces and sponsored militias are mounting a systematic 'scorched earth' strategy in and around the oilfields where foreign companies operate. "Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and displaced by a systematic policy of depopulating the oil-rich areas "Each time an oil concession is developed, it is accompanied by massive human rights violations. "Lundin, Talisman and other foreign oil companies operating in Sudan should immediately suspend operations until an agreement for a just and last peace is achieved.

After numerous authoritative reports demonstrating the scale of the disaster, they cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the atrocities being carried out in the name of oil.

Mark Curtis, head of policy, Christian Aid, PRESS RELEASE , March 15, 2001, London, UK

World Council of Churches

Resolutions Dealing with Oil in Sudan: 10.5. notes with concern that the oil revenue earned by the Government of Sudan is diverted to its war effort and contributes to the escalation of fighting in Southern Sudan rather than being utilized to meet the urgent needs of the people affected by the hostilities;

10.6. requests member churches to undertake lobbying and advocacy efforts with governments and oil companies based in their countries for the cessation of further petroleum exploration and development in Southern Sudan until such time as a peace agreement is reached between the parties;

World Council of Churches Document No. PI 6.2, CENTRAL COMMITTEE, Potsdam, Germany, 29 January - 6 February 2001

Bishop Macram Gassis (Bishop of El Obeid Parish)

We can not bring back the fourteen children martyred under the trees in Kauda. There are many "Rachels" there today, weeping for their children. What we can do is call upon the international community to refuse to stand idly by while the African and Christian peoples of Sudan are exterminated.

Stand with us. Do not let the deaths of these little ones be in vain. Help us bring an end to this hidden holocaust. " Macram Max Gassis, Bishop of El Obeid

Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft fuer bedrohte Voelker)

"We...are shocked by reports from the oil region of Southern Sudan. Here the severest human rights violations, killings, rapes and scorched earth politics are linked to Talisman operations. Oil only adds to the suffering of the people of Southern Sudan as Mr. Harker could prove. Please be aware of your responsibility as a shareholder and please use your influence and power to urge the Talisman management to move out of Sudan until there is a peace agreement."

Ulrich Delius, Society for Threatened Peoples. Letter to shareholders, April 2000

Evangelical Fellowship of Canada

(In an open letter to Talisman shareholders)

We do not believe that you, as a shareholder or as a Canadian, wish to have a part in this horror. We encourage you to join with other shareholders at the Shareholders' Meeting to pressure Talisman Energy to stop its complicity with the government of Sudan. Simply signing a code of conduct and building hospitals and roads that benefit the government but not the southern population is not enough. And if shareholder action fails to produce positive action on the part of Talisman, we urge you to pull all your shares out of the company."

Janet Epp Buckingham, Director Religious Liberty Commission, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada; Open letter to Talisman shareholders, April 2000.

Baptist Union of Western Canada

"It was evident from our review that the oil revenues are instrumental in exacerbating the civil conflict which causes great human suffering, death and the displacement of upwards of four million people according to reports.

The Board of Directors voted unanimously to recommend to our churches and their members that they too consider divesting of Talisman Energy shares and of mutual funds that hold Talisman Energy shares...The Board of Directors did not take this decision lightly or quickly. We know that there are many ethical, moral issues in the world and that it is impossible to be knowledgeable about them all. However, the sheer volume of information on the Sudan conflict and oil development and our own people's first hand knowledge made it clear that we must take this stand."

Baptist Union of Western Canada, Letter to Churches, January 18, 2002

Steelworkers Humanity Fund of Canada

"It is clear, as well, that Talisman Energy is a key beneficiary of the application of a security policy and measures (by government of Sudan forces) which amount to crimes against humanity. It is also clear that Talisman's own business operations - and those of the GNPOC - have been the occasion for the intensification of hot war in Sudan...for us, these reports (of forced displacements around the oil fields) underscore an urgent need for actions by the Company which would reassure Canadians that Talisman's continued operations in Sudan will not subsidizze war nor support a continuing pattern of human rights violations. Regrettably those reassurances have not been forthcoming.... We do regret that our efforts to engender, and to facilitate, a Company commitment to open steps for peace and guarantees of human rights observances have been unsuccessful".

Gerry, Barr, Executive Director, Steelworkers Humanity Fund (in a letter to James Buckee, Feb 24, 2000)

Professor Eric Reeves, Sudan Researcher

"Apologists for oil development in Sudan, like the Canadian government and Talisman Energy, have touted the benefits of "constructive engagement" represented by such development. But the specious nature of this argument is readily apparent. As repeated human rights investigations (including one by the Canadian government itself) have found, oil development exacerbates conflict, has led to massive scorched-earth warfare in the oil regions, and has produced a huge upsurge in weapons acquisitions by the Khartoum regime.

Talisman has been present in Sudan since 1998: in that time Khartoum's military expenditures have much more than doubled; scorched-earth warfare has expanded significantly beyond the original concession areas explored by Talisman and its Asian partners; Khartoum's human rights record has deteriorated (this according to the most recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Sudan); and the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum has continued to distance itself from the IGAD peace process, confident that it can prevail militarily in Sudan's catastrophically destructive civil war."

Eric Reeves, E-mailed article, February 13, 2002

William J. Casey Institute

"Foreign oil companies are, regrettably, generating the bulk of the revenue flows, in partnership with Khartoum, to not only increase the intensity and lethality of its genocidal campaign against African Christians and animists in Southern Sudan, but also the means to support vicious terrorist groups."

William J. Casey Institute, Sept 12, 2001

Chuck Colsen, Christian Commentator

Yes, capital market sanctions against oil companies that finance genocide in Sudan would create a precedent, so, too, would sanctions (in Germany) in 1944 have been a precedent. But in extreme cases, humanitarian concerns trump worries about politicizing financial markets. We have such a case in Sudan. There, today, oil is fueling the machinery of death.

Chuck Colsen,

Breakpoint: The Bonds of Freedom, Sept 11, 2001

FROM THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT

Canadian Government Fact Finding Team, Led by John Harker (Harker Commission)

"It is difficult to avoid [UN investigator] Leonardo Franco's conclusion that a 'swath of scorched earth/cleared territory' is being created around the oil fields." [page 11]

"Displacement has gone on, and is still going on, and in Ruweng County [in Talisman's oil concession area], it is hard to deny that displacement is now, and has been for some time, because of oil." [page 11]

"The evidence we gathered, including the testimony of those directly involved, directs us to conclude that oil is exacerbating conflict in Sudan." [page 14]

"The underlying reality is that there has been, and probably still is, major displacement of civilian populations related to oil extraction. Furthermore, oil has become a major focus of the fighting. Worse, the oil operations in Government of Sudan-controlled territory are used, even if to a limited extent, and possibly without the knowledge or approval of the oil companies, to directly support Government of Sudan military operations." [page 15]

"The oil operations in which a Canadian company is involved add more suffering [to Sudan]"---a place "of extraordinary suffering and continuing human rights violations." [page 15]

"It is difficult to imagine a cease-fire while oil extraction continues, and almost impossible to do so if revenues keep flowing to the Greater Nile partners and the Government of Sudan as currently arranged." [page 16]

"Talisman Energy has yet to acknowledge that human rights violations which can be related to oil operations." [page 17]

Key conclusions of the report by the Harker assessment mission ("Human Security in Sudan: The Report of a Canadian Assessment Mission"); prepared for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ottawa, January 2000]

Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Foreign Affairs (former)

"Talisman Energy has not lived up to its obligations in Sudan....this is deplorable." Lloyd Axworthy, on CBC's Cross Country Check-up, January 2001

Joe Fontana MP, (Liberal Party)

"I'm sure that my life will never be the same," Fontana said. "I looked into children's eyes and I was crying when they told me how they saw their mothers' throats cut or their parents thrown into fires. The carnage and the killing of women and children . . . I think I spent half of my time crying.

It's incredible, man's inhumanity to man. The trip was kept secret in order to avoid offending the Sudanese government and possible retaliation from government forces. Canadian officials have visited northern Sudan to meet with government officials. But fears over heading into the rebellious south prompted Canadian officials to cancel two other attempts to get Fontana into the country. ....Canada should push for a moratorium on further oilfield development until there is peace. Canada should also pressure the Sudanese government to begin peace talks and allow food supplies and aid to get to the south....The message from southern Sudanese was clear: "Please, Canada. Please listen to us. You have to do something."

Liberal MP, Joe Fontana at a press conference, April 27, 2001, following a secret trip into Southern Sudan to investigate the oil issue and slavery in Sudan

The Hon. David Kilgour, Secretary of State for Africa and Latin America (former)

"David Kilgour, the secretary of state for Africa and Latin America, told a Calgary audience that they should follow his church and sell their shares in Talisman Energy Inc. as a form of protest. The Calgary-based oil and gas company has been criticized for its partnership with the Sudan government by those who say the oil revenues finance the government's war effort. A host of human-rights groups, including Amnesty International, say the Sudan government has killed or displaced tens of thousands of people in the southern part of the country in order to keep the oil-rich area open for development.

Mr. Kilgour's remarks, made on Thursday at a day-long conference on corporate and social responsibility, prompted applause. But later, many in the audience expressed shock that a cabinet minister would publicly try to influence a stock. Mr. Kilgour also said he wants the federal government to pass an "economic measures" act that would penalize Canadian companies that are complicit in human-rights abuses overseas. And he lamented that Ottawa had not done more to make Talisman cut its ties with Sudan.

Remarks of David Kilgour, as Quoted by the Globe and Mail, March 10, 2001

Maurice Vellacott, MP, Canadian Alliance

"Mr. Speaker, the Canadian government is being complicit with the Government of Sudan in the perpetration of human rights abuses. The Government of Sudan has inflicted unrelenting misery on the people of Sudan. It bombs schools, hospitals and churches. It denies food aid to war affected populations. It incites slave raids. This brutal regime is financing its genocidal war by partnering with a Canadian oil company, Talisman Energy.

Some of the profits from that joint venture are supporting that Sudan government's genocide. The Liberal government acknowledged this to be true as a result of the Harker report released by the government one year ago, but it took no action. One year later, it is clear that the government's policy of constructive engagement has failed. Last month even Lloyd Axworthy acknowledged on CBC Radio that Talisman 'has not lived up to its obligations at all' and called the company's behaviour 'deplorable.' It is time the Canadian government put an end to any Canadian commercial complicity in Sudan's genocidal war."

Statement to Parliament by Mr. Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin, Canadian Alliance Party), February 22, 2001

Bill Bonner, Alberta MLA

THE SPEAKER: The hon. Member for Edmonton-Glengarry.

Civil War in Sudan

MR. BONNER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For nearly 18 years the government of Sudan has waged a brutal campaign of death and destruction. Over 2 million people have perished and 4 and a half million Sudanese have been driven from their homes, which makes them the world's largest displaced persons population.

Sudan's civil war and the Sudanese government's genocidal policies have taken a terrible toll on the civilians of that country. The situation is rapidly getting worse and must be seriously addressed before the scale of death and destruction increases. Until 1999 the government of Sudan was in default to the International Monetary Fund and other international lenders. In August of 1999 oil developed in south Sudan by foreign companies in a joint venture with the Khartoum government came onstream and has begun to provide windfall profits for the regime.

Talisman Energy of Canada and the Chinese government's PetroChina are Khartoum's two major oil partners.

On November 8, 2001, in the Southern District of New York a class action complaint was filed against Talisman Energy of Calgary, Canada. The complaint charges Talisman with violations of international law for participating in the Sudanese government's ethnic cleansing of black and non-Muslim minorities in an area where Talisman is exploring for oil.

In an article in the New York Times dated March 17, 2002, President Bush last May called Sudan "a disaster for all human rights."

About two years ago the Holocaust Memorial Day and Genocide Remembrance Act was passed in this House. It urged Albertans "to consider other times and incidents of systematic violence, genocide, persecution, racism and hatred that call out to us from the past or continue today."

Mr. Speaker, the heritage savings trust fund continues to invest in Talisman. When Albertans buy shares in a company through the heritage savings trust fund, it is taking partial ownership of that company. With ownership comes responsibility, including social and ethical responsibility. I believe we should support the Holocaust Memorial Day and Genocide Remembrance Act and establish a policy of ethical investing for the heritage savings trust fund.

Albertans deserve to know that their money is not being used by companies engaged in unethical activity such as human rights abuses.

Thank you.

From Alberta Legislature Hansard: March 21, 2002

Statement from Mr. Irwin Cotler (Mount Royal/Liberal Party):

"Mr. Speaker, oil development in the Sudan may not be a cause of one of the most deadly killing fields in the world, where two million have died and four million internally displaced, but it is certainly a catalyst, if not a condition, for its continuance and the obstacle to any peace.

Indeed, Sudan has not only used its oil revenue to double its military expenditures in the last two years, while using scorched earth warfare to secure the oil fields, but it has breached its promise to Canada, and the international community, to increase vital investments in agriculture and food security.

Rather, the warfare exposes its people to more depopulation, more human misery and more killing. There has been a warning from the United Nations of a war induced famine and a genocide warning from the Committee on Conscience of the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

Canada must use its good offices to press the Sudanese government to cease and desist from its scorched earth policy, to negotiate peace in good faith and to provide its people with food rather than target them with oil generated weapons. We in this place must explore the legislative means."

Irwin Cotler MP, Statement to Parliament, February 16, 2001

Statement from Sven Robinson MP NDP

The war conducted by Khartoum is a war of terror. It has involved widespread indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets throughout the south, the denial of food aid to starving people, the abetting of a ghastly trade in human slavery, and scorched earth warfare in the oil regions located primarily in the south. We must understand clearly that Canada is complicit in these actions to the extent that it allows Talisman Energy Inc. to continue to fund and fuel the terrible assaults on the people of Sudan.... Not only are Talisman's funds contributing to and fuelling the scorched earth policy. We know with certainty that some of Talisman's oil fields atHeglig are being used by the Sudanese military".

Sven Robinson MP, NDP, HOUSE OF COMMONS DEBATES, Septemer 26th, 2001

FROM THE UNITED NATIONS

Stephen Lewis, Canada's former Ambassador to the UN, and Deputy Director of UNICEF

"In my entire life I have never encountered such a venal mask of innocence in the face of such a wanton destruction of children...Talisman Energy is a terrible cross of dishonour for Canada."

Stephen Lewis, quoted in Globe and Mail, September 14, 2000

UN Special Rapporteur for Sudan, Gerhard Baum

"As I stated in my previous reports, and as reported by different sources, oil is indeed exacerbating the conflict, insofar as the war in the Sudan is the result of a fight for the control of power and resources".

Statement by Mr. Gerhart Baum, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, to Commission on Human Rights - 58th session, Item 9: Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, March, 2002

UN Special Rapporteur for Sudan, Leonard Franco, on oil development in western Upper Nile:

"The economic, political and strategic implications of the oil issue have seriously compounded and exacerbated the conflict and led to a deterioration of the overall situation of human rights and the respect for humanitarian law, as well as further diminishing the already slim chances for peace...The oil issue and the extremely volatile situation prevailing in western Upper Nile are clearly at the core of the armed conflict in Sudan and have particularly dire consequences for peace...Reports available to the Special Rapporteur indicate that long-term efforts by the various Governments of Sudan to protect oil production have included a policy of forcible population displacement in order to clear oil-producing areas and the transportation routes of southern civilians*.

Human rights observers on the spot were told by survivors of the Ruweng [county] offensive in May [1999] that government bombers, helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery were used against unarmed civilians to clear a 100-kilometer area around the oils fields. Witnesses reported that over 1,000 government soldiers swept through Ruweng county, wreaking human and material destruction, including destroying 17 churches. As recently as May 1999, many villages on the eastern edge of Heglig were attacked and burned to the ground by the [Government of Sudan] army." [The Special Rapporteur identifies Ruweng county as "a pocket of western Upper Nile bordering on Heglig -- Talisman Energy's Concession]

Leonard Franco, UN Special Rapporteur for Sudan, from "Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan" - October 1999)

UN Special Rapporteur for Sudan, Gerhard Baum,

"As I stated in my previous reports, and as reported by different sources, oil is indeed exacerbating the conflict" Gerhard Baum, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Speech to 58th Session of UN Commission on Human Rights, Geneva

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

"Since 1983 (the war) has continued, amidst growing and persistent reports of enslavement of Afcians by Arabs, the genocide in the Nuba Mountains area, ethnic-cleansing in the Blue Nile area and extended warlordism and genocide in the South Sudan"

Statement to the UN Conference on Racism and Public Policy, September 2001

United Nations Development Official

"The lack of development in Bentiu and the frustration expressed by the grass roots - no jobs or development have gone to any local residents, almost all of the 30,000 residents of Bentiu are dependent on food relief from the World Food Program...there is a small two room clinic built by Talisman, while the army occupies the five or six substantial buildings which used to be the Bentiu hospital. My team and I have visited almost all of the war affected areas of Sudan under government control, and with the exeption of a few places where the Murahaleen are terrorizing the populations, the people in oil rich Unity State live in the worst conditions".

UN Official, Letter dated February 12, 2001 (Name available upon request, and sufficient guarantees of confidentiality)

FROM US GOVERNMENT AND OFFICIALS

Andrew Natsios, Director US AID

In October 2001, Natsios stated: "Oil revenue, of course, could be a major source of funding for the country's growth and development... But as it stands today, oil has only helped to fuel tension, bitterness and war... The forced displacement of tens of thousands from around the pipeline has swelled the ranks of the country's internally displaced, already the highest in the world.

The abandoned and destroyed villages were readily apparent as we flew over the pipeline -- the destruction of people's lives could not be more apparent."

Andrew Natsios, USAID Administrator, spoking to an audience at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC., October 2001

US State Department Country Report on Sudan

"In May 2000, soliders who defected from the armed forces testified before members of a fact finding human rights NGO that they were ordered to participate in ground attacks and were instructed to kill civilians in non-governement and SPLA controlled villages in the Talisman oil concession area in the Western Upper Nile region in 2000; there were similiar reports during the year. In 2000 Talisman officials had acknowledged that the government launched helicopter gunship attacks on civilian settlements in the oil company's operational area."

U.S. State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights, released on Monday, March 4, 2002

US State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices (Sudan)---2000

"The Government and government-associated forces have implemented a scorched earth policy along parts of the oil pipeline and around some key oil facilities. These forces have injured persons seriously, destroyed villages, and driven out inhabitants in order to create an uninhabited security zone."

Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor---February 2001

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

"The connection between oil development conducted by foreign oil companies and the Sudanese government's human rights abuses has become increasingly apparent. The discovery and drilling of oil reserves has led to a "scorched earth" policy to remove civilian populations from areas near oil installations.

The government uses the oil facilities' airstrips and roads to stage military operations.

The U.S. State Department confirms that oil revenues have allowed the government to increase its investment in military hardware."

USCIRF, Press Release, Sept 6, 2001

Susan Rice, Secretary of State for African Affairs Under Clinton Administration

In Marial Bai, we were outraged to see and hear firsthand testimonials of women and children who had been captured, enslaved, beaten, tortured and raped by the PDF -- Popular Defense Forces --operating at the behest and with the support of the Sudanese government.

In Lui, we met with civilians victimized by the Sudanese government's aerial bombardments, people who had barely survived their wounds but were brave enough to tell their stories.

We saw the craters and the shrapnel from these bombings.

We visited the U.S. nongovernmental organization -- Samaritan's Purse hospital -- whose courageous staff is doing a remarkable job providing desperately needed medical care to thousands of people. We saw how the hospital workers and patients lived in fear of the next bombing. I was especially outraged to learn that even as we arrived in Lui, these bombings were continuing.

Just down the winding dirt road only 20 miles from us, four people had been killed the day before in a vicious bombing. Later we saw a child, 3 or 4 years old, whose hand and arm had been destroyed by one of the bombs. His mother had died on the way to the hospital. The same day, in Yei, which is only 50 miles away, an even more despicable bombing attack took place in a market, killing 19 civilians and wounding scores more.

Susan Rice, Interview in Washington Post, Feb 10, 2001

Congressman Frank Wolf (VIrginia)

"I have been to Sudan four times, the last time a month ago. I have seen the death, the famine, the disease, the destruction. I heard the stories about women and children taken from villages to be enslaved. I have seen the fear in the faces of the people when the Antonov bombers fly overhead.

Over 2.2 million have died as a result of this genocide. What is being done to the people of southern Sudan is so brutal that there is no question of moral equivalency between the two sides. The situation in Sudan is rapidly getting worse and must be forcefully dealt with this year lest Khartoum's escalating scorched earth policies reach final solution dimensions.

As we speak, major international oil companies are initiating and expanding operations in southern Sudan that, unless stopped in their tracks, will generate billions of dollars of annual revenue for the Khartoum regime. This oil revenue, once secured, will powerfully insulate Khartoum from world pressure to end its brutal policies. This revenue, Khartoum has openly pledged, will be spent on modern bombers, helicopter gun ships and other weapons that will enhance its war against the people of southern Sudan by orders of magnitude."

Congressman Frank Wolf, Speech at the Holocaust Museum, February 26, 2001

FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

"The European Parliament] calls on international oil companies working in Sudan, such as Talisman Energy Inc. of Canada, to halt their operations as long as abductions of children and slavery continues and a peaceful solution has not been found to the [Sudan] conflict; calls on EU companies to refrain from oil investments in Sudan and urges the EU Member States to exert their influence to this effect."

Statement by the European Parliament in Response to Sudan Government's Support to LRA Terrorists, July 11, 2000

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Financial Times

Talisman has denied any complicity with the actions by government forces fighting the rebels, and points to its long record in bringing wells, hospitals and electricity to the region. The company, which was given a copy of the document this week by plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said its lawyers were still trying to determine its source and authenticity. But Barry Nelson, a Talisman spokesman, said: "We can emphatically say that the suggestions in the alleged memo run contrary to everything that Talisman practices and believes in Sudan.The controversial document, labelled "secret" and "very urgent", tells a different story, however.

The message, sent from Khartoum to "Petroleum Security Heglig", ordered various military actions to be carried out in the region "in accordance with the directive of the minister of energy and mines and fulfilling the request of the Canadian company". The Petroleum Security forces are under the jurisdiction of Sudan's energy ministry.

It said that to "ensure the security and wellbeing of employees and company property", the army would undertake cleaning up operations in every village from Heglig to Pariang. It further said that "it has been decided to eliminate Heglig village and the Unity state in Toor", both in the vicinity of the oil fields. Two days after the order was issued, government forces launched a new offensive in the region using bombing raids, helicopter gunships and troops supported by armoured personnel carriers. The two-month campaign resulted in the destruction of many villages, including Toor, and led to a 50 per cent decline in population in the area, according to a Canadian government investigation in 2000.

Since the opening in 1999 of a 1,600-mile pipeline connecting Sudan's oilfields to the Red Sea, the country's oil income has risen to an estimated $500m annually. That has allowed the Khartoum government to finance independently a war estimated to cost it $1m a day. The lawsuit charges that Talisman entered into a "joint strategy" with the regime in Khartoum whereby "government troops and allied militia engaged in an ethnic cleansing operation to execute, enslave or displace the non-Muslim, African Sudanese civilian population from areas that are near the pipeline or where Talisman wanted to drill". Talisman has consistently refused to release any details of its security agreements with the Khartoum government. "We don't discuss security matters for obvious reasons," said Mr Nelson of Talisman.

Financial Times, March 22, 2002

The Economist

"The ugly truth is that Talisman is helping the government extract oil, and oil is paying for the war".

Economist, September 2, 2000

National Post

"Mr. Buckee (Talisman CEO) dismissed a recent UN report about atrocities as "hearsay," but here such claims are horribly plausible. The UN and other organizations also say Christians have been forced into slavery by the Muslim-led government. The situation in Biem is appalling. Even veteran aid workers are shaken by the thinness and desperation of those who greeted them as they stepped off the plane in this village at the eastern end of the oil patch.

In interviews with the National Post on Thursday, migrant after migrant recalled arriving at this collection of shanties and huts after fleeing their villages to the north and west, which they said were being burned out by government troops to make way for the oil development. The attacks continued through the region's dry season, they said, starting with the forced evacuation of Athonj and Gumriak, two villages within 37 kilometres of Talisman's drilling rigs.

Charlie Gillis, The National Post,

November 27, 1999: [excerpt from an extensive three-part story, filed from the oil regions of southern Sudan

The Globe and Mail

Talisman has insisted that no one had been displaced from the oil fields.

And yet, in Mapeir and two towns nearby, three refugee camps house at least 10,000 people. They are Nuer, and say they have hiked for days through swamp from their land, the land where the oil wells are, because of bombs and raids. Our land is the oil fields," said Michael Ray Diu, a Nuer chief who fled to Mapeir 18 months ago. Hundreds of members of his tribe are now with him in the camp. He was a gracious host, sending several young men to channel us across the water around his camp in a hollowed-out log, but he was also immensely angry.

You must tell Canada that we cannot go to our homes, that our children cannot go to school, that Christmas is coming and how will we have Christmas? It is you people of Canada who do this.Talisman also denies that there is slavery in Sudan---a statement contradicted by the reports of a dozen human-rights organizations, and the simple stories of thousands of Sudanese children. Go door to door among the tukuls in Tourelei: one in four households has lost at least one child.

Stephanie Nolen, Globe and Mail, December 17, 1999, filed from the oil regions of southern Sudan

The UK Observer

Oil money has transformed a war that has already killed two million from a stalemated bush conflict into a ruthless mechanised counter-insurgency. Since Sudan began exporting oil 18 months ago, its military budget has doubled and its army has systematically turned the oilfields into a human wasteland. Hundreds of thousands of southerners have been forcibly displaced.

Julie Flint, the Observer, March 11, 2001

KEY DOCUMENTS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

John Ryle & Georgette Gagnon, Report of an Investigation Into Oil Development, Conflict, and Displacement in Western Upper Nile, Sudan, October 2001 (Available on website: http://www.freedom-quest.ca

Amnesty International, "Sudan---The Human Price of Oil"; London, May 3, 2000;

The Harker Report: Part 1 http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/foreignp/3110186-e.pdf

The Harker Report: Part 2 http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/foreignp/3109943-e.pdf

The Scorched Earth, Oil and war in Sudan; An eyewitness report by Christian Aid, 15 March 2001

COURT CASE CHARGES

Civil Suit | Civil War by Byron Christopher, Rabble March 19, 2002

There's soon to be a new skirmish in the bloody civil war in Sudan: it will happen in a courtroom, in New York City, in the United States of America. One of the chief combatants there will be Talisman Energy of Calgary, Alberta. The oil giant is named as codefendant in a class-action complaint originally filed on November 8, 2001. The other defendant is the Republic of Sudan itself.

The Presbyterian Church of Sudan and Nuer Community Development Services in U.S.A., a group of Sudanese refugees, filed the suit. Carey D'Avino - a Manhattan lawyer who played a role in recent Holocaust-related slave-labour cases - is spearheading the legal action. D'Avino says Talisman, a New York Stock Exchange company, "cannot be allowed to profit from its partnership with a morally corrupt government."

He charges that Talisman is in an "unholy alliance" with the National Islamic Front government of Sudan, and that it knowingly took part in the government's campaign of "ethnic cleansing." All this was done, he contends, to create a safe zone in the southern part of the African country, where Talisman operates.

Court documents can sometimes be dry and dense. Not this one. It begins:

This is a class action brought by Plaintiffs on behalf on themselves and other similarly situated non-Muslims, African residents of southern Sudan who have been, and are being, damaged by extrajudicial killing (including murder and summary execution), forced displacement, military bombings and assaults on civilian targets, confiscation and destruction of property, kidnappings, rape and slavery, related to or arising from the oil exploration and extraction activities of Defendants Talisman Energy, Inc.

("Talisman") and the Republic of the Sudan ("Sudan" or the "Government").

It gets messier:

Defendants have collaborated in a joint strategy to deploy military forces in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against a civilian population based on their ethnicity and/or religion for the purpose of enhancing Defendants' ability to explore and extract oil from areas of southern Sudan by creating a cordon sanitaire surrounding the oil concessions located there. The armed campaign, which is ongoing and has resulted in massive civilian displacement, the burning of villages, churches and crops, and the extrajudicial killing and enslavement of innocent civilians, is possible only through Defendants' collaboration and the Government's utilization of infrastructure, such as roads and airfields, constructed and maintained by Talisman.

In other words, it accuses Talisman of working with the government of Sudan while the latter committed atrocities. And both the company and the government profited as a result. The civil suit was amended late last month to include new allegations. D'Avino claims to have a memo dated May 7, 1999, from the Petroleum Security's central office in Khartoum to its office in Heglig, Sudan. He says the directive - written in Arabic and marked "very urgent" - says, in part, "In accordance with directives of His Excellency the Minister of Energy and Mining and fulfilling the request of the Canadian Company ... the armed forces will conduct cleaning-up operations in all villages from Heglig to Pariang."

Talisman was contacted for a reaction to the alleged secret police communiqu? of an incipient attack on villages near Talisman's oil fields.

Barry Nelson, a communications officer, described the document as "absolute hearsay." He said the statements in the court papers are "entirely false and defamatory."

Nelson then asked for the spelling of this reporter's name and the address of the radio station where I work, so he could send a letter. "I just want to show you," he said, "what will happen if you report those statements."

The letter arrived, cc'd to the head of my radio station. Libel chill, anyone?

Perhaps the term "cleaning up" was in reference to an oil spill in one of the villages, one might say. Well, that could be. But the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) doesn't think so. Charles Jacobs, who heads up the Boston-based organization, says that just two days later, a major offensive was launched; villages from Heglig to Pariang were destroyed. D'Avino points out that people died in those villages.

"A Canadian Foreign Ministry Report [the Harker Report] described how civilians were killed, homes and whole villages destroyed, food stocks looted or burned, humanitarian aid forced into flight," Jacobs says. "It is estimated the attacks reduced the overall population in the country by 50 per cent - all so that oil could be more easily extracted."

Talisman denies this. At the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Calgary last year, CEO Jim Buckee said there was no evidence of any forced displacement in any of Talisman's concessions.

Mel Middleton, a retired foreign-aid worker who spent ten years in Sudan, says, "If such outrageous denials were made by the state-owned oil companies of China or Malaysia, or some other human-rights abusing country, few people would take them seriously. But because they are made by a Canadian company - Canada's largest independent oil and gas producer at that, shareholders, government officials and the international community regard them as authoritative and reliable."

Middleton says Talisman is being used as "moral cover" by a brutal dictatorship. He recalls his meeting with senior Talisman officials in the 1990s, when he pleaded with them not to work in Sudan. He says the response from Talisman was, "If you're asking us not to go in, we have nothing to talk about." The civil suit was set to go to trial last October. D'Avino says the company asked for an extension and it was pushed ahead to April 10.

"Now," he says, "the company wants an indefinite extension." D'Avino who is on the board of the AASG - says Talisman is running scared "because it knows what will happen to its stock value once the trial starts and the evidence comes out."

That's when a jury - not Talisman executives and investors, reporters or government officials - get to decide if Sudan's police moved into those villages to clean up an oil spill.

Byron Christopher is a senior radio journalist in Edmonton. His last article for rabble.ca was "The ABCs of Unbiased News Coverage" (November 12, 2001)

Quotes from Talisman Officials Misrepresenting the Truth

"I have recently visited Sudan, including the oilfield, parts of the pipeline, Port Sudan and Khartoum...I was impressed by the friendliness and peaceful atmosphere in these places."

Jim Buckee, CEO Talisman Energy, letter to Inter-Church Coalition on Africa, October 6, 1998

"We are convinced our presence in Sudan is serving to speed the peace process".

Jim Buckee, Talisman CEO, (Letter to Editor, Calgary Herald, July 20, 2000)

"Villages in the concession are experiencing a better quality of life. Health and water innitiatives in the field have created stability..."

Doug Maddams, Talisman Sudan "Community Development" Manager (HOPE 2000 TLM Publication)

"We are clearly improving the lives of the people of Sudan".

Dave Mann, Manager, Investor Relations, Talisman Energy (Letter to the Editor of The Report, November, 2000)

" The increased prosperity that business brings to underdeveloped countries can become a significant incentive to peace".

Jacqueline Sheppard, Talisman VP Legal and Corporate Affairs, Oil and Gas Journal, Vol. 98, Issue 46, Nov 13, 2000)

"I have not seen anything that would lead me to believe that we are propping up a malign regime"

Jim Buckee, CEO Talisman Energy (Letter to Morris Yoll -- and many others -- November 1998)

"There is no evidence of any forced displacement from our oil fields",

Jim Buckee, CEO Talisman Energy (Talisman Annual Shareholders' Meeting, May 1, 2001)

"(We have) researched the issue (of forced displacement) more thoroughly than anyone else...We've found these allegations (of population displacement) are untrue",

Dave Mann, Talisman Energy, Director of Investor Relations, quoted in Bloomberg Newswire, March 5, 2002

ADDENDUM (From Canadian Ecumenical Mission Church Leaders)

Arguments commonly made to justify Talisman's continued presence in Sudan and responses to them

1.. "As a Canadian company, Talisman transmits Canadian values of democracy, human rights and corporate social responsibility to Sudan and its consortium partners in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company. "

Various reports, including Canada's own Harker Report and reports from Amnesty International, Christian Aid and UN Special Rapporteur have demonstrated Talisman's complicity in human rights abuses in Sudan. They have shown how the company is linked in significant ways to brutal forced removals and direct or indirect support of the Sudanese military. We are saying that complicity in human rights abuses and support of a military dictatorship does not represent the best of "Canadian values".

2.. "Taking action against Talisman would set a dangerous precedent and put pressure on the Government of Canada to take similar action against no end of Canadian companies working in other foreign countries."

Talisman's presence in Sudan at a time of civil war and in partnership with the Sudanese government creates its own deadly precedent, one that may very well guide future Canadian international extraction ventures if there is no present resolve to prevent complicity in massive human rights abuses.

And if other Canadian companies working abroad are acting irresponsibly, then they too should be called to account through forms of regulation or punitive action.

3.. "If Talisman were told to get out of Sudan, the company would leave Canada and relocate elsewhere."

It is unlikely that Talisman would leave Canada over its Sudan holdings. This would be a disruptive, very expensive, and legally complex effort for what is only 11% of its overall business. Even if it did, what's more important the continuing loss of lives and livelihoods of southern Sudanese, or the move off-shore of corporate headquarters for one Canadian company?

4.. "If Talisman left Sudan other Western oil companies, or the Chinese or Malaysians - who are far less concerned about corporate social responsibility and human rights - would fill the void. "

Since investing in Sudan, Talisman has been continually dogged by human rights groups resulting in an undervalued share price (the "Sudan discount"), heaps of negative publicity, and a reputation as a pariah company. What other Western company would subject itself to the same scrutiny, financial punishment and shame? As for the Chinese and Malaysians,

GNPOC's success has depended on the participation of Talisman which provides specialized technology, expertise not available elsewhere, access to capital, and the moral cover and legitimacy associated with being a Canadian company.

Neither the Chinese nor the Malaysians could fill Talisman's shoes easily, and the Chinese must worry about their fate in the American capital markets, where their Sudan-related listings have come under increasing pressure. Even if one did, it would not justify permitting a Canadian company to remain complicit in human rights abuses.

5.. "Talisman is doing good in Sudan by building clinics and schools, drilling water wells, and aiding displaced people."

Social development and compensation is expected of companies that extract resources in foreign lands. But it does not justify the wider impact of Talisman's destructive presence in Sudan and does not even come close to making up for the human suffering Canada's Harker Report said the company's ongoing presence is causing. The main issue here is that the people who have lived on these lands for generations have been driven from them and do not benefit from the new schools, clinics, water wells, etc. Instead these areas are repopulated by the government with people of its own choosing, creating the impression that displacement has never occurred.

6. "Talisman can use its influence on the Government of Sudan to ensure that oil revenues are shared equitably and used for social and infrastructural development."

There is little if any evidence to show that Talisman has any appreciable influence over Sudan's military dictatorship. On the contrary, and despite Talisman's protestations, the Sudanese regime continues to use airstrips on Talisman's concessions for offensive military purposes. Last year the IMF released a report showing that, since oil revenues became available, the Sudanese government's military budget doubled and the regime invested little if anything in the social or agricultural sectors.

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