Canada protests to Sudan over military flights

The Canadian government has reportedly protested to Sudan after its discovery that military aircraft have been operating from a civilian airstrip in the southwest Heglig oil fields which are the site of a major oil concession in which Canadian oil firm Talisman Energy Inc. owns a 25 per cent stake. Reuters reported on Thursday that the Canadian foreign Minister LIoyd Axworthy had sent a protest letter to Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday because he worried that the planes could be used to attack rebel forces and cause civilian casualties.

It quoted a foreign ministry spokesman Sean Rowan as saying the minister had also summoned the Sudanese charge d’affaires in Ottawa to ask for an explanation. The minister acted after John Harker, who led a probe late last year into whether the Sudanese oil extraction industry was linked to human rights abuses, reported that there were military aircraft operating in these oil fields. Axworthy has threatened sanctions against Talisman “unless it does more” to help broker an end to a long-running civil war between the Sudan government and the southern rebels.