Oil Firm Abets Sudan Civil War, Canada Says

The Sudan operation of Canada’s largest oil company, Talisman Energy Inc., has been allowing human rights abuses and playing a role in the African country’s civil war, Canadian government investigators said Monday. But the Foreign Ministry stopped short of forcing Talisman to halt work there, arguing that it is better to increase foreign influence in the war-torn country.

The government’s response is being closely watched by business and humanitarian groups locked in debate over how far a private company’s social responsibilities should extend overseas. Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy’s answer is that firms should not only abhor abuse but actively protect human rights.

The Canadian government did not use its power to enforce that conclusion Monday.

“The report . . . does not recommend the imposition of unilateral economic sanctions in the present situation,” Axworthy said. “However, it makes clear that private-sector interests have a responsibility and an opportunity to make a positive contribution to the human rights situation within their sphere of influence.”

The Foreign Ministry ordered an investigation of Sudan’s human rights situation and Talisman’s role in it last October, after complaints from church and human rights groups that oil revenue was funding the military’s savage civil war against rebels in southern Sudan.

Slave raids and attacks on villages, they charged, helped enable the company to build an oil pipeline. The report cited testimony from UNICEF and other groups that men were killed, women taken as slaves and children swept into the army in a government-backed campaign to secure areas for oil development.

While the investigators found no clear complicity on Talisman’s part, they did conclude that civilians were forcibly displaced from areas near oil works and that the military was using the oil company’s facilities.

“It is difficult to avoid . . . [the] conclusion that a ‘swath of scorched earth/cleared territory’ is being created around the oil fields,” the assessment said.

Talisman controls 25% of an oil consortium that includes the Chinese and Malaysian state oil companies. Axworthy said that if Talisman withdrew, its partners would immediately take its place, and Canada would lose leverage for change.

On the “strong urging” of the Canadian government, Talisman signed the International Code of Ethics for Canadian Business in December and said it would allow audits by human rights groups. Canada will also open a diplomatic office in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to monitor human rights and promote peace efforts.

A Talisman representative said the company was “very happy” that it would be allowed to continue operations in Sudan but was wary of the quasi-diplomatic role the government expected it to play.

“A company obviously has to be responsible for its own actions,” said Jackie Sheppard, Talisman’s vice president of legal and corporate affairs. “But we can’t be expected to take responsibility for the actions of others.”

Canada’s response disappointed activists.

“The response of the government is woefully inadequate,” said Eric Reeves, a Smith College professor. “Talisman will not be punished, and oil development will proceed in the same manner. As long as oil revenues are sustaining the war, it is almost impossible to achieve a cease-fire.”