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

To: Andy who wrote (657)	12/12/1999 7:54:00 PM
From: LARRY LARSON	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1713

Hi Kids- Things are "shaking" politically in Sudan. Hopefully, our way: Bashir orders Sudan assembly vote, emergency rule LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir dissolved parliament and declared a state of emergency on Sunday in preparation for a national legislative election. Voting day for a new National Assembly will be set by the general election authority, according to a presidential decree broadcast by state television after an announcement by the president. A second decree said the state of emergency will last three months. An emergency order suspended some articles of the 1998 constitution but told provincial councils and governors to carry on working. Bashir, whose government has been accused by the West of supporting terrorism, banned all political parties and declared an Islamic system of government when he seized power in a 1989 army coup. The constitution introduced last year is ostensibly designed to reinstate a multi-party system. But parliamentary leaders were reported last month to be at odds with Bashir over the pace of reforms that would reduce his presidential powers. Bashir and the man whose government he toppled in 1989, Sadeq al-Mahdi of the northern-based Umma Party, met in Djibouti on November 26 and agreed to hold talks on how to promote democracy and end 16 years of civil war in the mainly Christian and animist south. Two peace initiatives, one involving Libya and Egypt, and the other a U.S.-backed forum of East African states, are under way to try to end the conflict in the south, one of Africa's longest running civil wars. 19:43 12-12-99 Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

To: Andy who wrote (657)	12/14/1999 8:26:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1713

Ethics code traps Talisman - National Post, December 14 By Peter Foster Pressure is building now almost daily on Jim Buckee's Talisman, whose stock has been subject to a Care Bear Raid over its investment in Sudan. Yesterday, the shares were knocked down again in the wake of a spate of bad news. Last week, another U.S. pension fund bailed out. A group of 200 "prominent civic and religious leaders" called upon Bill Clinton to prevent investors in Sudan from raising money in the U.S. -- a move that could threaten Talisman's listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Last Sunday, Sudan's president, Omar Bashir, dissolved parliament and declared a three-month state of emergency. Yesterday, "slavery activists" were due to hold a press conference in Calgary suggesting that Mr. Buckee was misleading both the company's board and shareholders over the Sudanese situation. It has been suggested that President Bashir's state of emergency is based on an ongoing internal power struggle with ideological strong man and parliamentary speaker Hassan Turabi. A struggle for power means a struggle for state revenues, so the proceeds from the Greater Nile project, in which Talisman holds a 25% interest, could become as much of a political football inside the country as they are already on the international political scene. Yesterday's Calgary press conference, organized by Christian Solidarity International, was intended to embarrass Mr. Buckee further, particularly in the light of the company's formal signature last Friday of the International Code of Ethics for Canadian Business, which was cooked up by Lloyd Axworthy a couple of years ago to deflect criticism over investment in Nigeria. The situation in Sudan appears to test several of the code's "beliefs, values and principles." Although corporate signatories at first saw the code as a useful shield against being shaken down in foreign countries, to activists it has always been seen as primarily about holding corporations to strict standards over human rights and the dangerously vague notions of "social justice" and "fair sharing." In the case of Talisman, emphasis is inevitably on human rights. The Sudanese government is claimed to have forcibly removed populations close to the oilfields. The country reportedly still also harbours slavery. The code declares: "we will support and promote the protection of international human rights within our sphere of influence" and "[we will] not be complicit in human rights abuses." It seems improbable that slavery could be considered within Talisman's "sphere of influence." However, if local populations have been forcibly removed, would that make Talisman "complicit"? Talisman spokesman David Mann recently declared that signing the document merely amounted to confirming practices the company already followed. However, the first bitter fruit of signing on came when Errol Mendes, director of the University of Ottawa's Human Rights Centre and a key adviser in framing the code, declared that signing it was "not sufficient." He called for external monitors, a sentiment immediately echoed by Canada's corporate ethics cabal. Meanwhile, the federal government announced that Talisman's compliance would be monitored by its missions in Ethiopia and Kenya, and by local Sudanese non-governmental organizations. This might incline Talisman to rapidly sign up its own external auditors. Facts are at a premium, but one great uncertainty relates to what impact Sudan's turmoil will have on the three-week fact-finding mission currently being undertaken by John Harker, which is due to report early in the new year. Mr. Harker's report is assuming more and more importance in the fraught atmosphere surrounding Talisman's investment. There are two issues for Talisman's board and management to face: their responsibility to their shareholders, and their responsibilities under the code of conduct they have just signed, presumably not without much consideration. The two have become inextricably intertwined. Mr. Buckee has said that within his "sphere of influence," he is doing a humane job: building public facilities as well as generating wealth for the Sudanese economy. His opponents say the wealth is being used to fund repression of Southern rebels, which of course it is. The question is whether that should be any of Talisman's "ethical" business, given that the code also talks about national governments having "the prerogative to conduct their own government and legal affairs in accordance with their sovereign rights." This situation has gone beyond fine legalistic points. The Talisman affair has caused a stand-off between Internet-fuelled, pack-hunting activists on the one hand and those who deplore their tactics and their agendas on the other. Activists have, in one sense, already "won" in their impact on Talisman's share price, which has cost the company perhaps $1-billion of stock market value. Nevertheless, Mr. Buckee undoubtedly does face real moral dilemmas. If he sells out of the Sudan, activists will claim yet another victory, but it will be a typically activist victory. Another company will take Talisman's place, prepared to face the activists, and with perhaps less concern for local Sudanese conditions. Talisman -- and Mr. Buckee in particular -- will be seen to have lost face. But Mr. Buckee's priority now is clear: He must save his share price. nationalpost.com

To: Andy who wrote (657)	12/16/1999 12:20:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1713

"Why us, why Sudan?" Oil companies have operated for years in places such as Nigeria and Angola, where oil revenues have fueled civil wars. And Talisman has operated in human rights hotspots such as Algeria and Indonesia for years, So, why is Sudan being singled out? IMHO, the answer is: The American religious right is touting Sudan as the front line between Islam and Christianity. Charles Jacobs, president of the American Anti-Slavery Group recently said: "Investors in Talisman should be aware that they have been made inadvertent partners to slavery and slaughter in Sudan". The American Anti-Slavery Group and other so called anti-slavery groups support the SPLA guerilla. SPLA is responsible for slavery according to a Sudan report released by U.S. Department of State (see state.gov ) My conclusion: the anti-slavery groups and Christian solidarity groups are partners to slavery and slaughter in Sudan. Not inadvertently but willingly. Because the SPLA is predominantly Christian, and they are fighting a Muslem regime. That's what counts.