Ottawa to help Calgary firm deflect U.S. criticism - Sudan deal irks Albright
Elena Cherney, National Post, October 25
with files from Paul Brent, Financial Post, and The Canadian Press
The federal government is working
with a Calgary-based oil company to deflect
increasing criticism from the United States
of Canadian investments in Sudan,
a country high on Washington's list of
regimes that abuse human rights and
sponsor terrorism.
Foreign Affairs officials are discussing a joint
humanitarian effort with Talisman Energy
Inc., the oil company that was attacked on
the weekend by Madeleine Albright,
the U.S. secretary of state, for its
$400-million investment in Sudan.
During a visit to neighbouring Kenya,
Ms. Albright said she would "definitely have
to talk to the Canadians" about Talisman.
Sudan's radical Islamic regime, which has been waging a 16-year
civil war against rebels in the Christian and pagan south, is regarded
as a pariah in Washington.
Bill Clinton, the U.S. president, launched missile strikes against a
factory near the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, last year in retaliation
for bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Last month, a Muslim rebel group claimed responsibility for a
pipeline explosion that appeared to have been staged to coincide
with a Sept. 20 meeting of Talisman's directors in Khartoum.
A Foreign Affairs spokesman said yesterday that Ottawa will
release a comprehensive policy statement on Sudan this week, and
will make "specific requests" of Talisman in the next few days.
"We want to make sure Canadian companies are not exacerbating
the conflict," Patrick Riel, a spokesman for the department of
Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Jim Buckee, Talisman's chief executive, is already in discussions
with Foreign Affairs officials "over what we can conceivably do," he
said yesterday. "We try to be a good corporate citizen wherever we
go."
Talisman, Canada's largest independent oil company, is a 25%
partner in the Greater Nile Oil Project, which includes a world-class
oilfield and a 1,600 kilometre pipeline transporting 127,000 barrels
a day to tankers in Port Sudan. Sudan's national oil company owns
5% of the project, the national petroleum company of China 40%,
and the national oil company of Malaysia holds the remaining 30%.
Canadian church groups and human rights organizations have
criticized Talisman since the pipeline began transporting oil this
summer. The groups say oil revenues from the project are helping
Sudan's extremist government fight the southern rebels in a conflict
that has claimed 1.9 million lives and brought widespread famine
and slavery.
While details of the humanitarian project to be undertaken by
Talisman and Ottawa have yet to be finalized, Mr. Buckee listed the
commitment by Lloyd Axworthy, Foreign Affairs Minister, to the
abolition of child soldiers as an area of interest for Talisman. He did
not explain how Talisman could help achieve this goal in Sudan.
"Our thoughts have run along the lines of food, water and roads,"
said Mr. Buckee, reached at home in Calgary yesterday. "It's better
done government-to-government," he added, but with Ottawa's
involvement, Talisman, which employs 150 Canadians in Sudan,
could carry out the physical work in Sudan.
Mr. Buckee criticized Ms. Albright for closing her eyes to American
companies operating in Sudan and singling out Talisman for her
attack.
The U.S. policy of "quarantine" on Sudan, against which it imposed
a near-total trade ban in 1992, is based on a partial and inaccurate
understanding of the civil war there, said Mr. Buckee. Ms.
Albright's current trip, on which she met John Garang, leader of the
rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, but not with government
officials, has merely served to reinforce the one-sided U.S. policy,
argued Mr. Buckee.
"While it's true there's been a civil war and lots of fighting, the
solutions are not clear," he said. "[Ms. Albright] would have been
more balanced to talk to the Sudanese government."
The Canadian government "will be happy to discuss our approach
to Sudan with Ms. Albright," said Mr. Riel. Ottawa has taken some
sanctions against Sudan; all support for private-sector dealings with
the country, including export financing and trade-development
programs, was suspended in 1992.
The government has spent more than $100-million on humanitarian
aid in Sudan since 1990.
On Friday, only hours before Ms. Albright criticized Canadian
interests in Sudan, Mr. Axworthy attacked U.S. nuclear policy. In a
speech in Boston, Mr. Axworthy called on Mr. Clinton to back
away from plans to build a missile defence system. He also criticized
the Senate for failing to pass a test-ban treaty.
nationalpost.com |
