Talisman Court Upholds Sudan Genocide Suit Dismissal
A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing a Canadian explorer, of human rights violations in Sudan.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York today affirmed a lower court’s 2006 dismissal of the case against Calgary, Alberta-based Talisman. “Plaintiffs have not established Talisman’s purposeful complicity in human rights abuses,” the appeals court said in a 68-page opinion.
The lower court judge had tossed out the case because the villagers who sued -- non-Muslim Africans who live in and near oil-rich lands in the southern Sudan -- hadn’t alleged enough facts for the suit to go forward.
Talisman, which indirectly operated in Sudan from 1998 through 2003, was accused of working with the government to devise a security plan for the oil fields. Talisman allegedly aided the government’s effort to “dispose of civilians” in areas where the company intended to look for oil. The company denied the allegations that it was complicit in the government’s abuses.
The suit, which was filed in 2001 on behalf of as many as 250,000 non-Muslim Sudanese, claims churches were bombed, church leaders slain, and villages attacked to clear the way for oil exploration.
‘Purpose to Assist’
The villagers’ chief argument was that Talisman supported the creation of a buffer zone around its oil fields, understanding that the government was displacing huge numbers of civilians from oil-rich regions and decimating the population of southern Sudan, the appeals court said today.
The court said it wasn’t sufficient for the villagers to establish Talisman’s complicity in the alleged abuses. Instead, they must show that Talisman “acted with the purpose to assist the government’s violations of customary international law,” the court said.
“Plaintiffs have provided evidence that the government violated customary international law,” the court wrote. “But they provide no evidence that Talisman acted with the purpose to support the government’s offenses.”
Canada, in a January 2005 note to the U.S. State Department, said the U.S. has no jurisdiction in the case because it involves a Canadian company on foreign soil. Canada said it decided to promote access to trade as an incentive for Sudan to end a civil war that displaced 4 million people.
U.S. Law
The case was brought under the U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows American courts to hear suits by non-citizens claiming violations of international law. The plaintiffs sought undetermined damages.
A Talisman spokeswoman, didn’t immediately return a call.
Sudan was also sued and ignored the case. One of the plaintiffs in the case is the Presbyterian Church of Sudan. The case is Presbyterian Church v. Talisman, 07-0016, U.S. Court of Appeals (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: dglovin@bloomberg.net.
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- Unpaid Debt A comprehensive overview of the role of the Lundin Consortium in the oil war. ECOS calls upon the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate whether, as a matter of international law, Lundin, OMV and Petronas 'were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others during the period 1997-2003.’ In response, the Swedish Public Prosecutor for International crimes opened a criminal investigation into ‘links between Sweden and the reported crimes’.
- In Depth For more specific information about the Lundin court case please visit the Unpaid Debt dossier.
