PRESS RELEASE
May 16, 2002
PR Newswire

BOSTON -- The American Anti-Slavery Group today reacted sharply to a report by Dow Jones newswire that Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Salomon Smith Barney will be coordinating a $2 billion bond offering for Petronas, Malaysia's national oil company.

Petronas is the second-largest partner in Sudan's Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, which relies on ethnic cleansing to secure its oil fields in southern Sudan.

"This bond offering is expected to raise $1 billion in US markets for Petronas," stated Anti-Slavery president Charles Jacobs. "That's $1 billion that can flow right into Sudan's oil region and help perpetuate the Sudanese army's campaign of ethnic cleansing, slavery, and genocide."

"Since terrorists attacked America's financial center, the financial community should be especially sensitive to where and how American capital gets directed. Morgan Stanley is making a serious mistake, with potentially deadly repercussions. This bond offering will help support a Sudanese regime that sponsors international terrorism as well as genocide against its own black African population."

Jacobs also noted that the Senate has a closing window of opportunity to prevent Americans from inadvertently financing slavery and terrorism The Sudan Peace Act, which passed in the House 422-2, would bar oil companies in Sudan - like Petronas - from American stock exchanges and bond markets. The bill is currently stalled in the Senate by both the Republican and Democratic leadership.

But on Monday, a remarkable coalition of House members - including Dick Armey, Donald Payne, Henry Hyde, Tom Lantos, and Elijah Cummings - sent a letter to Senators Daschle and Lott urging them to stop blocking the bill from going to committee.

"Without consideration of the capital markets provisions in the Sudan Peace Act, the Government of Sudan will continue to pay for oil with the blood of its people," write the 20 representatives, who cite a contradiction in US policy.

"American companies are barred by sanctions from doing business in Sudan, but foreign firms involved in Sudan are able to access America's capital markets. China's state-owned oil company, PetroChina, and the Canadian energy company, Talisman, are complicit with the Sudanese regime in driving villagers out of the oil fields."

In 1999, the Anti-Slavery Group launched a Sudan oil divestment campaign that has successfully persuaded major funds - including TIAA-CREF, CALPERS, and New York State - to divest from Talisman. For more, visit http://www.iAbolish.org/oil.

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