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Gold/Mining/Energy : TLM.TSE Talisman Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (574)	11/18/1999 10:36:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1713

Talisman: U.S. blasts Canada's 'blind eye' - National Post, November 18 State Department says Ottawa stands by as Calgary firm fuels Sudan civil war Jan Cienski, Sheldon Alberts and Joel-Denis Bellavance, with files from Steven Edwards at the United Nations National Post WASHINGTON, OTTAWA AND ISTANBUL - The U.S. government redoubled its criticism of Canada yesterday for continuing commercial operations in Sudan, and accused Ottawa of abandoning its "high road" approach to foreign policy by "turning a blind eye" to the Khartoum regime's atrocities. Ottawa, for its part, said it would take no immediate action until its own fact-finding mission reported back from Sudan later this month. The State Department in Washington directly accused the Calgary-based oil firm, Talisman Energy Inc., of fuelling war in Sudan by undermining the U.S. effort to isolate the Muslim fundamentalist government in Khartoum. A day after the National Post revealed details of a United Nations report that concluded that Canada's exploitation of Sudan's oilfields has been facilitated by the Khartoum government using "bombers, helicopter gunships and artillery against unarmed civilians," a State Department official said: "We are very concerned that Talisman's investments in Sudan's oil sector will buttress the Sudanese regime's efforts to continue its vicious war in the south of Sudan." At the same time on Capitol Hill, Tom Callahan, a spokesman for the House International Relations Committee, criticized Ottawa for failing to order Talisman out of the country. "Canada usually takes the high road on a lot of issues. But in this particular case, they are turning a blind eye and steering away from the sanctions. Sanctions only work when you can squeeze, and the production of oil is what fuels the war." A spokeswoman in Istanbul with Lloyd Axworthy, the Foreign Affairs Minister, said the minister had spoken to senior Talisman executives at a meeting in Ottawa on Nov. 3. Mr. Axworthy told the executives that Canadian companies should ensure that their activities abroad do not help dictatorial regimes directly or indirectly to oppress human rights, according to the spokeswoman, Debra Brown. But Talisman replied that its work in Sudan consists of legal commercial activities and that it is not responsible for what the Sudanese government does. Talisman says its project will help Sudan's economy to grow and its people to become less poor. Mr. Axworthy's refusal to act aggressively over Canadian industrial involvement in Sudan was met with fierce criticism from Eric Reeves, an academic leading a campaign against Talisman's project in Sudan. Mr. Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts and lecturer on the Sudanese conflict, said: "I think Sudan is going to put a permanent blight on Axworthy's legacy with respect to human security. On the question of moral suasion, this is catastrophically destructive of whatever authority Mr. Axworthy might think he was going to be able to claim." Mr. Reeves is campaigning to have U.S. investment in Talisman withdrawn. He is joined by prominent U.S. politicians, among them Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and two members of the House of Representatives, Republican Frank Wolf of Virginia and Democrat Donald Payne of New Jersey. Mr. Brownback said he is concerned that oil revenues will be used to continue the civil war, which has killed almost two million people and displaced a further four million. Canadian and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have pressured Mr. Axworthy for more than a year to impose export sanctions against Sudan, and also invoke the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) to halt Talisman's involvement in the country. Talisman is working with the Sudanese government and affiliates of the Chinese and Malysian state oil companies on the project. The Inter-Church Coalition on Africa wrote to Mr. Axworthy in November, 1998, urging him to use SEMA's powers to stop the Talisman project. Mr. Axworthy has for more than two years championed his "human security agenda" -- which focuses on protecting the safety of individuals around the world -- as a key component of Canada's foreign policy. As part of that policy, he has frequently criticized other countries. For example, he assailed the United States for failing to sign the global treaty banning landmines. On Oct. 22, he condemned Russia's attack on the Chechen capital of Grozny, which "led to significant losses of life in the civilian population." Stewart Wheeler, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs, said Mr. Axworthy was engaged in discussions with Talisman months before announcing the recent fact-finding campaign and has a long history of concern about the Sudanese civil war. "The Sudan policy in some ways hasn't really changed. It has just sharpened," said Mr. Wheeler. "The concern in the NGO community has become heightened over the last year. In their conversations with the government, it has become higher on their radar screen, which has led to it becoming higher on ours." But Mr. Reeves said Canada's actions have come "too little, too late." The Talisman project began pumping oil last summer, and Mr. Reeves said there has been evidence that the oil has been refined for use in aviation fuel for the government's campaign against southern Sudanese rebels. "How does that square with Mr. Axworthy's human security agenda?" Mr. Reeves asked. "Why would you have a Special Economic Measures Act if not to constrain an irresponsible corporate presence in a country enduring such savage destruction?" Yesterday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Talisman's shares rose $1 to finish the day at $41. Two analysts who participated in Talisman's tour of its Sudanese operations this week have set 12-month targets for the stock in the high $60s. nationalpost.com