Talisman Energy is blasted in today’s Globe and Mail (Canada) for disingenuously associating itself with humanitarian work in Sudan. Most disturbingly, in making such “false statements” (the phrase comes from United Nations Children’s Fund representative in Sudan, Thomas Ekvall), Talisman has put humanitarian workers at risk.
This creates the perfect Talisman “Sudan profile”: disingenuousness and self-serving statements that put at heightened risk humanitarian organizations trying desperately to avert oil-driven disaster in Sudan
Eric Reeves [October 23, 2000]
Smith College ereeves@smith.edu
Northampton, MA 01063
413-585-3326
What organizations have blasted Talisman for trying to trade on the reputations of others, those who have earned their credentials as true humanitarian workers? Which others have refused to be associated in any way with Talisman? Which others have refused to accept blood money from Talisman in the company’s vicious effort to spiff up a tattered corporate image?
In additions to the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Globe and Mail (full article attached below) lists CARE, Oxfam, and four other organizations as signatories to a letter that contains the following:
“We strongly object to Talisman’s allegations that they are working together as a team with the international humanitarian community,”
United Nations Children’s Fund representative in Sudan, Thomas Ekvall, put the matter bluntly:
“We cannot risk the lives of our staff by associating ourselves with any of the oil companies working here,” he said. “The statement made by Talisman was false.”
Can it get any uglier than this?
Not only is Talisman the business partner of a regime whose terrorist links to Osama bin Laden have once again been highlighted in the news; not only is Talisman responsible for “exacerbating conflict in Sudan” (conclusion of the Harker Report, Amnesty International, UN Special Rapporteurs—and the list goes on); not only does Talisman send all oil revenues to the Khartoum regime, thus working directly against the peace process. But now they callously, disingenuously, and shamelessly put humanitarian organizations in Sudan at greater risk in the conflict.
This is greed beyond obscenity. This is Talisman Energy. This explains the moral imperative to divest from Talisman shares.
Let management at Royal Bank and Fidelity Investments, holders of huge Talisman share positions, know as much.
**************************************************
If you do not wish to receive future emails from this source, please return with “decline” in the subject box.
**************************************************
Globe and Mail, Monday, October 23, 2000
“Oil firm’s partnership claim annoys relief groups in Sudan”
PAUL KNOX
Monday, October 23, 2000
Calgary’s Talisman Energy Inc. has
run afoul of well-known relief
agencies by claiming it is working
with them to help refugees near its
controversial oil operations in
war-torn Sudan.
The United Nations Children’s Fund
and long-established private
agencies say Talisman’s claims are
putting their staff in jeopardy
because of the company’s
partnership with the Sudanese
government, which is fighting a
long-running war against a rebel
army.
Several Canadian relief agencies
have also rejected Talisman’s
offers of money for participation in
its community-development
strategy, adopted last year as the
company came under fire for
helping Sudan pump oil.
And CARE, one of the largest
international relief agencies, has
asked Talisman to stop using the
labels Project Care and Care-sacs
to describe a program in which
Sudanese children were given bags
of clothing, school supplies,
toiletries and candy last December.
“It seems that Talisman is keen to
burnish their image by portraying
their activities as contributing to
social well-being and so on,” said
CARE Canada executive director
John Watson.
“We’re just concerned that there
be no misunderstanding, that we’re
not dealing with them.”
The disagreements represent new
headaches for Talisman, one of
Canada’s largest oil and gas
producers, which has a 25-per-cent
stake in a huge oil project in
central Sudan. Its partners are the
Sudanese government and the
state petroleum firms of China and
Malaysia.
The project began pumping oil last
year, and human-rights advocates
say it is helping the Sudanese
government pursue a war in which
its forces have bombed civilian
targets and millions of people have
been uprooted. A report
commissioned for the Canadian
government said in February that
the oil project was exacerbating
the effects of the conflict.
Reg Manhas, Talisman’s senior
adviser for corporate
responsibility, said the controversy
with the aid agencies is “a question
of semantics.”
He defended the company’s
response to a refugee crisis that
erupted in the summer, after
fighting between government
forces and the Sudan People’s
Liberation Army drove more than
60,000 Sudanese civilians to the
edge of the oil concession.
Talisman has spent $1-million this
year on health clinics, water wells
and other development projects as
well as relief for the refugees, he
said.
“It’s unfortunate that the
non-governmental organizations
and the UN took issue with the
words that were used,” Mr. Manhas
said. “But the fact remains that
Talisman was there, doing what it
could to help. And there were
organizations there other than
Talisman doing their part as well.”
In an Aug. 22 statement that
remained on Talisman’s Web site
yesterday, the company quoted
one of its workers, Mark Reading,
as saying, “We’re working alongside
the non-governmental agencies as
part of a team.” It said an
“emergency committee is
co-ordinating relief efforts,” listing
Unicef, the Red Cross and several
other organizations.
On Aug. 31, Unicef and other UN
agencies asked Talisman to stop
saying it was co-operating with
them. “UN agencies . . . are not
working with Talisman, do not have
any agreements with them and
have not received any funding from
them,” they said in a written
statement.
Speaking last week from Sudan,
Unicef representative Thomas
Ekvall said the Sudan People’s
Liberation Army has threatened oil
companies and anyone associated
with them.
“We cannot risk the lives of our
staff by associating ourselves with
any of the oil companies working
here,” he said. “The statement
made by Talisman was false.”
Private agencies weighed in a few
days later. “We strongly object to
Talisman’s allegations that they are
working together as a team with
the international humanitarian
community,” said a statement
signed by CARE, Oxfam and four
other groups.
Mr. Manhas said Talisman wants to
“try and facilitate some of those
groups to get involved in the
situation in Sudan and support
them.”