Appeal from Members of the Canadian Ecumenical Mission to Sudan

SUDAN APPEAL: HELP US BRING PEACE TO THE SUFFERING PEOPLE OF SUDAN

A letter and Action Ideas from Members of the Canadian Ecumenical Mission to Sudan

June 6, 2001

Dear friend,

In April 2001, we five Canadian church leaders spent 7 days in southern Sudan, a part of Africa devastated by many years of civil war. Two million people have died and four million have been displaced since 1983. Our objectives were to show our solidarity with the suffering people of Sudan and to consult with our church partner, the New Sudan Council of Churches, about how best to express our solidarity through action here in Canada.

Our visit, which was organized by the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa and Inter-Church Action, was also motivated by the knowledge that a Canadian company, Talisman Energy, is working with the Government of Sudan to develop the country's oil reserves. The Sudanese government is a military dictatorship and has been widely condemned for massive human rights violations, including in the oil fields. Talisman stands accused of complicity in those abuses.

According to Amnesty International, a Canadian government-sponsored assessment team and others, the Sudanese government maintains a scorched-earth policy to secure the oil fields for development by Talisman and other companies. It has displaced tens of thousands of southern Sudanese for this purpose. The government fears civilians may provide support for armed groups that oppose its policies. It also uses airstrips on Talisman's concessions, facilities maintained by the company, to launch helicopter gunship attacks on nearby villages and farms. These are serious violations of international law for which Talisman bears some responsibility.

During our visit we met with people who just days before had been attacked and forced from their homes in the oil concessions. Still traumatized by their ordeal, they told us that loved ones, including children and the elderly, had been brutally killed. Their crops and houses had been burned. What we heard both shocked and moved us deeply. These subsistence farming peoples were virtually defenceless.

We also learned there is a process in place to bring peace to Sudan but it is stalled at present. It is clear to us and our church partners that there will never be a just peace until oil development is stopped. Oil revenues are flowing to the Sudanese regime and it is using the money for the war. Sudanese President Omar al Bashir has stated publicly that his government is buying weapons and building munitions factories with the funds.

What makes President Bashir's declaration even more alarming is that much of southern Sudan, home to millions, has been marked out into oil concessions. We believe the government intends to depopulate these areas as well.

The longstanding ecumenical partnership between Canadian and Sudanese churches, and the fact that a Canadian company is exacerbating human suffering in Sudan, calls all Christians in Canada to action for justice and peace. Canadian churches are discussing ideas for a national public campaign on Sudan for Fall 2001. The campaign will include actions which Canadians can take to encourage stronger and more effective Canadian government policy to help achieve a just and lasting peace. In the interim, there are three actions we would encourage Canadians to take.

1. Write a letter to and meet with your member of parliament (MP). Tell him/her about your concerns about Talisman and about how oil development is exacerbating the war. Ask him/her to raise these concerns with fellow MPs and prime minister Chretien. Some common objections raised in response to the call for Talisman's withdrawal from Sudan are discussed in an addendum at the end of this letter. However, do not feel obliged to debate your MP on the pros and cons of Talisman's presence; simply registering your concern and stating your opinion will have an impact. Please send a copy of your letter or meeting report to gkenny@web.ca.

2. Write a letter to Prime Minister Jean Chretien, with a copy to Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley. Ask Mr. Chretien to do what is necessary to stop Talisman from exacerbating human suffering in Sudan, and to work internationally to facilitate a moratorium on all aspects of oil exploration and production in Sudan until a just and lasting peace is achieved. This must ensure that civilians displaced from the oil fields have been safely returned to their places of origin. Please send a copy of your letter to gkenny@web.ca.

The Rt. Hon. Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada, Langevin Block, 80 Wellington St., Ottawa ON K1A 0A2 *** pm@pm.gc.ca

The Hon. John Manley, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lester B. Pearson Bldg., A-10, 125 Sussex Dr., Ottawa ON K1A 0G2 *** John.Manley@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

[A sample letter and additional information about the conflict in Sudan and the Talisman and oil development issues will be available at ICCAF's web site in a few days (look for "Sudan Action Package" www.web.net/~iccaf). But please respond now if you feel comfortable doing so.]

3. Keep the people of Sudan in your prayers.

Thank you very much for your concern and support.

Yours in Christ,

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

ADDENDUM

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 Rapporteurs 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.

Inter-Church Coalition on Africa129 St. Clair Ave., Toronto ON M4V 1N5