Talisman Energy, one of Canada's largest oil companies, is facing a class action lawsuit under the Alien Tort Claims Act in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit claims that Talisman was complicit in genocide in southern Sudan by the Islamic Sudanese government; allegations strongly denied by Talisman. The Canadian government has also become involved in the lawsuit, as evidenced by a fax from the Canadian Embassy in Washington to the U.S. State Department, opposing the lawsuit. Despite this intervention and some setbacks (click here), the lawsuit is continuing.
Glenn Penner, Communications Director for The Voice of the Martyrs, believes that such Canadian government involvement is inappropriate. "How does it appear to the world when Canadian officials seek to interfere in a lawsuit concerning the possibility that one of our companies what complicit in genocide," asks Penner. "Hasn't Canadian oil development in Sudan cost us enough shame in the past? Let's allow the courts to do their job."
Pray that justice will be done in this situation. Pray that full and lasting peace will be achieved in Sudan. Pray for the many who are suffering as a result of the devastation by the Sudanese government against the people of southern Sudan.
For more information on Sudan and the challenges facing Sudanese Christians, click here.
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