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The letter also called on Clinton to discuss with Canada's prime minister, Jean Chretien, the involvement in the Sudan oil project of Canadian oil company Talisman Energy Inc. Talisman has provided funding, technology and personnel for the pipeline. The letter asked the president to endorse the campaign by pension funds and investors to divest Talisman stock. A week before the report of the White House's reconsideration of its Sudan policy, nine religious leaders wrote more than 200 mutual funds, pension funds and state treasurers urging them to divest stock in Talisman and to refuse to purchase stock in CNPC if it becomes available.

The signers included Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Charles Colson, Prison Fellowship founder; Nina Shea, Center for Religious Freedom director; Diane Knippers, Institute on Religion and Democracy president; John Busby, Salvation Army national commander; Chuck Singleton, California pastor; Irving Greenberg, Jewish Life Network president; Paride Taban, a Catholic bishop in Sudan; and Keith Ackerman, an Episcopal bishop in Massachusetts.

If the investors refuse their request, it "would cause your pension fund to help underwrite the world's most egregious practitioner of terrorism, deliberate starvation, religious persecution, slavery and literal genocide," the religious leaders wrote. They are "as determined to end the genocide in Sudan as were those who ended apartheid in South Africa, and we are thus determined that Talisman and CNPC, or a related holding company, must be held financially, legally and morally accountable for their present relations with, and support of, the regime in Sudan," the leaders said.

The value of Talisman shares has fallen by more than 20 percent in recent months, according to the letter. This has occurred during the divestment campaign and after news reports of Talisman's involvement in the Sudan, the letter said.

Copyright © 2000 Baptist Press. Used with permission.

Five days after its February 1 news story, " Reassessing the Stance Toward Sudan," The Washington Post editorialized, "The administration should talk to Sudan's government. But it must let it know clearly that sanctions can be lifted only when war and the sponsorship of terrorism both come to an end."

See our recent cover story, " Slave Redemption," and other Christianity Today stories about Sudan:Sudan Releases Jailed Catholic Priests | President Resolves Impasse in Contrived Bombing Trial (Dec. 13, 1999) Christian Solidarity Loses U.N. Status | Slave-freeing organization's rebel spokesman violated U.N. rules (Dec. 14, 1999) Oil Exports Draw Protests | Christians urge divestment from Canadian company (Nov. 15, 1999)

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February (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44