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

To: LARRY LARSON who wrote (596)	11/23/1999 8:42:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1713

Ottawa not ready to put sanctions on Talisman: Axworthy Not enough 'hard evidence,' foreign affairs minister says Sheldon Alberts National Post, November 23 OTTAWA - Lloyd Axworthy, the Foreign Affairs Minister, said yesterday that Canada is not prepared to impose sanctions against Calgary's Talisman Energy because there is still no "hard evidence" linking the company's oil developments in war-torn Sudan to human rights abuses in the country. Mr. Axworthy dismissed as incomplete a report earlier this month from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which concluded that the exploitation of Sudan's vast oil reserves has "seriously compounded and exacerbated" the atrocities committed in the country's 16-year-old civil war. "It was insufficient in the sense that it didn't deal with some of the specifics we want examined," Mr. Axworthy said about the Nov. 4 report from Leonardo Franco, the UN special rapporteur on human rights. The Canadian government has come under heavy criticism in recent weeks from the U.S. Congress and State Department for allowing Talisman to continue its 25% partnership with Sudan in the Greater Nile Oil Project, a major development in the country's south. Mr. Franco's interim report found that the Sudanese government has forcibly removed thousands of civilians from the region in order to protect the oil-producing areas, burning several villages to the ground and using bombers and artillery to clear a 100-kilometre area around the oil fields. Talisman has rejected the charges and criticized Mr. Franco for not personally visiting the areas where the alleged attacks occurred and for failing to produce first-hand evidence. Mr. Axworthy shares that view. "We have to provide sufficient [corroboration]. I really want to see the hard evidence," said Mr. Axworthy. "We will weigh that evidence according to our own judgment." Last month, Mr. Axworthy announced Canada would send its own fact-finding mission to Sudan to examine allegations of human rights abuses. He threatened economic sanctions against the Sudanese government and Talisman if the mission found evidence Talisman's operations are "worsening the conflict or the human rights situation" in Sudan. Mr. Axworthy also responded to American critics who say that Canada's inaction on Sudan will put a blight on its reputation as a defender of human rights. He suggested the United States, which forbids American companies from doing business in Sudan and has severed diplomatic ties, should become active in promoting an international peace process for Sudan. Canada has committed $300,000 to the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace process. "It is important to do what we can to promote the peace process, which is not within the U.S. approach," he said. "There is a need to get the balance, because you will never stop the abuses until you get the conflict ended." nationalpost.com