A New York federal judge ruled on Monday (March 28, 2005) that a lawsuit launched by the Presbyterian Church of Sudan against Talisman Energy Inc. could not proceed. The class action suit was filed two years ago on behalf of 250,000 non-Muslim Sudanese who were forcibly displaced to make room for Talisman's oil development in southern Sudan during the four years that the company worked there. The Presbyterian Church of Sudan was seeking damages that would have exceeded $1-billion in compensation to the victims. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs would be unable to differentiate which of the hundreds of attacks during a six-year period were caused by the Sudanese government's alleged campaign of genocide and rival fighting between rebel groups. She said that the core question in the case is whether the plaintiff's suffering was caused by the government's actions or Talisman's. This, she concluded, is fundamentally an individual question. If the lawsuit continues, it is expected that it will now only involve the seventeen Sudanese individuals directly named as plaintiffs. This will, of course, significantly reduce potential damages to Talisman.
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The Nugent School in Loka, Sudan |
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The Voice of the Martyrs is continuing to work in southern Sudan in rebuilding the lives of Sudan's Christians after so many years of war and persecution. In the last year, through the mission's Relief and Development Fund, VOM Canada has invested over $120,000 CDN in the establishment of a school in Loka, Sudan in partnership with Global Response Network. For more information on how you can help rebuild the lives of Sudan's Christians, contact us. Those in the United States are urged to contact Global Response Network at http://www.grnconnect.org/.
For more information on the difficulties facing Christians in Sudan, click here. A new music video featuring suffering Christians in Sudan is available in the Video section of VOM's multimedia website, www.vomcanada.com.
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