Talisman Energy continues to deny that there has been any civilian displacement from the areas in and around its oil concessions in southern Sudan. Declaring they’ve researched the issue “more thoroughly than anyone else” (Bloomberg Newswire, March 5, 2002), Talisman spokesman David Mann concludes that, “we’ve found these allegations [of population displacement] are untrue.” Surely, if there is any justice in the world, such rank mendacity will be harshly punished. But in the fearsome interim, new reports from southern Sudan—by various UN and humanitarian organizations—make clear that widespread human displacement continues, accompanied by terrible human suffering and destruction. Just today, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Sudan, Gerhart Baum, declared yet again that “oil exploitation [in southern Sudan has] continued to cause widespread displacement” (Reuters, March 5, 2002).
Eric Reeves [March 5, 2002]
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
413-585-3326
ereeves@smith.edu
Increasing human displacement and suffering in southern Sudan’s oil concessions, Khartoum’s intensifying attacks on civilians, and the regime’s additional denials of humanitarian access to Western Upper Nile Province (where Talisman’s oil development activities are concentrated)—all make a mockery of Talisman’s absurd claim to have “investigated” the conditions that have created the “security” for them to operate in Western Upper Nile and southern Kordofan.
Every single human rights investigation into conditions in the oil concessions of Western Upper Nile has reached the same conclusion: oil development is exacerbating conflict, has produced massive civilian displacement, and sends oil revenues to a brutal regime bent on a military “solution” to Sudan’s catastrophic conflict.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Special Rapporteurs for Sudan (Gaspar Biro, Leonardo Franco, and presently Gerhart Baum), Christian Aid (UK), the report commissioned by the Canadian Foreign Ministry (“The Harker Report”), the report by a Canadian/British human rights team [“Report of an Investigation into Oil Development, Conflict and Displacement in Western Upper Nile, Sudan,” October 2001]—every single one of these reports agrees on the issue of massive, oil-related human displacement.
And yet Talisman—a clearly interested party—declares its research to be the most “thorough,” and that allegations of human displacement for oil development are “untrue.” The ghastly arrogance of this mendacity serves not only as Talisman’s “defense” of its complicity in the oil-driven destruction of southern Sudan, but also serves the Khartoum regime’s public relations purposes.
But the truth is readily available to those who care to know it. This seems not to include the Canadian media, which are largely content with boilerplate comments about Talisman’s suffering continued criticism from human rights activists. The only news that Talisman makes is when the numbers roll in or another rumor floats about a possible purchaser of its Sudan stake. The latest rumor—and it is little more than that—involves an Indian oil company. This gives an even greater international flavor to the group of supposedly interested parties: a Japanese deal was almost consummated, China and Malaysia were going to buy out their partner, a Saudi prince was then buyer. And so on.
The simple truth is that no one knows, and Talisman thrives not only on mendacity but opacity. But there is nothing opaque about the reality of their complicity in the oil-driven destruction of southern Sudan. Those human rights investigators who have gathered the evidence of massive human displacement, directly tied to Talisman’s activities, have given the world a brutally clear picture:
[1] “[T]he investigators found that there was an increase in the number of recorded helicopter gunship attacks on settlements in or near [the oil development] area. Some of these gunships have operated from facilities built, maintained and used by the oil consortium [Talisman Energy, China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia’s Petronas, and Sudan’s Sudapet]. The attacks are part of what appears to be a renewed Government of Sudan strategy to displace indigenous non-Arab inhabitants from specific rural areas of the oil region in order to clear and secure territory for oil development.”
“The new [Government of Sudan military] strategy in Western Upper Nile, this report suggests, is both more violent and more territorially focused, involving coordinated attacks on civilian settlements in which aerial bombardment and raids by helicopter gunships are followed by ground attacks from government-backed militias and government troops. These ground forces burn villages and crops, loot livestock and kill and abduct people—mainly women and children.”
[“Report of an Investigation into Oil Development, Conflict and Displacement in Western Upper Nile, Sudan,” Georgette Gagnon (Canada), John Ryle (UK) October 2001]
[2] “The civilian population living in oil fields and surrounding areas has been deliberately targeted for massive human rights abuses—forced displacement, aerial bombardments, strafing from helicopter gunships.”
“The oil companies involved in Sudan frequently assert that there are no settlements in the oil-rich areas and that allegation of mass displacement are therefore inaccurate. This is clearly not so.”
[Amnesty International, “Sudan: The Human Cost of Oil” (London, 2000)]
[3] “On 9 May 1999, a [government of Sudan] offensive was launched from the Nuba Mountains and Pariang. Antonovs and helicopter gunships supported troops using armoured personnel carriers. Roads built by the oil companies enabled these to reach their destinations more easily than before. The village of Biem 1 was destroyed, and the burning of tukuls and theft of cattle ranged as far as Padit Biem 2,which we visited, was badly damaged. The offensive was characterized by bombing runs and helicopter gunships flying low enough to kill people, and stop cultivation. From April to July 1999, the decline in population in Ruweng County seems to have been in the order of 50%.”
“It is difficult to avoid Leonardo Franco’s conclusion that a ‘swath of scorched earth/cleared territory’ is being created around the oilfields. Over the years, the series of attacks and displacements are leading to a gradual depopulation, as only a percentage of people who flee return after each displacement.
[Report of a Canadian Assessment Mission to Sudan, led by John Harker (Ottawa, January 2000); commissioned by the Foreign Ministry to investigate the consequences of oil development in Sudan]
[4] “Oil is the justification for the government’s scorched earth strategy–the driving force behind the killings and displacements of tens of thousands of civilians. Not a single oil company has spoken out against this strategy. Oil companies have asked for protection by government forces directly implicated in human rights violations. Company infrastructure, including airstrips and roads, is used in the government’s military operations. Oil revenue is funding the expansion of the war.”
“Government [of Sudan] troops and militias had burned and depopulated the entire length of this oil road [south of Bentiu in Western Upper Nile].”
Christian Aid quotes John Wicjial Bayak, a local official who had been driven from a village close to the oil road: “You cannot see a single hut. The government doesn’t want people anywhere near the oil.”
[Report by Christian Aid (UK), March 13, 2001:”The Scorched Earth: Oil and War in Sudan” (Christian Aid has been active in humanitarian relief efforts in Sudan for almost 30 years]
[5] “[T]he government stepped up its brutal expulsions of southern villagers from the oil production areas and trumpeted its resolve to use the oil income for more weapons. Under the leadership of President (Lt. Gen.) Omar El Bashir, the government intensified its bombing of civilian targets in the war, denied relief food to needy civilians, and abused children’s rights, particularly through its military and logistical support for the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which held an estimated 6,000 Ugandan children captive on government-controlled Sudanese territory.”
[Annual Report on Sudan by Human Rights Watch, December 2000]
[6] “Defecting soldiers from the Government of Sudan’s military base at Heglig [also Talisman’s oil-field headquarters] testified that they had been ordered to participate in ground attacks on non-government controlled settlements around Pariang (a government-controlled garrison town in the [oil] concession). This was part of an attempt to force the inhabitants out of the area. The soldiers said they had been instructed to kill civilians and any persons believed not to be loyal to the government. This, they stated, was for the purpose of securing the oil fields for development.”
[“Report of an Investigation into Oil Development, Conflict and Displacement in Western Upper Nile, Sudan,” Georgette Gagnon (Canada), John Ryle (UK) October 2001]
[7] Present United Nations Special Rapporteur for Sudan, Gerhart Baum: “oil exploitation [in southern Sudan has] continued to cause widespread displacement” (Reuters, March 5, 2002)
And yet Talisman insists that all these reports are in error, all this investigative energy misguided. They, without ever leaving Khartoum-controlled territory, have ascertained that there is no human displacement in the oil regions. It is long past time for judgments to be made about the relative claims of Talisman Energy—which continues to pump enormous revenues from southern Sudan—and those disinterested human rights investigators that have produced these reports on the basis of first-hand evidence acquired throughout the oil concessions.
The continuing agnosticism of the Canadian media on this issue is yet another measure of the disgrace and opprobrium attaching to Canada’s previously enviable record on human rights and human security.