Take Action: Sudan Divestment

Posted by Rachel on: 04.30.2007 /

This is the text of a Letter to the Editor that was published last week in our local newspaper. It was written by my friend Marti Berger, who is active in the Save Darfur Coalition in our area.

Sudan divestment is critical

With Senate Bill 1089, the Oregon Human Rights and Anti-Genocide Act of 2005, our state divested its public funds from Sudan in acknowledgment of the genocide and humanitarian crisis taking place there, created and sustained by the government of Omar al Bashir, voted Parade Magazine’s “world’s worst dictator”.

In a January annual report to the legislative assembly, it was reported that $38 million had been reduced to identified companies in the region since the Act was instituted. Although I am proud that Oregon was one of the first of fewer than 10 states to divest, and the impact meaningful, it is not enough!

There is a current movement called Fidelity Out of Sudan. Fidelity Investments currently holds $1.2 billion in Petrochina, a Chinese oil company in the region. Given the fact that 70-80% of Sudan’s oil revenues are used to purchase weapons of war, Americans with investments in Fidelity are inadvertently funding the war. Please check with your financial planners to see if your money is invested in Fidelity and consider moving it unless the investment company changes its policy.

Divestment from Sudan is critical for applying sufficient economic pressure on the government to change its policies. The acceptance of United Nations Peacekeepers to protect civilians, access that al Bashir continues to deny, is crucial. Economic consequences may be our only hope in a country where 400,000 have already died and 2.5 million have been displaced. The situation only worsens.

Will you do what you can?

Marti Berger
Member, Lane County Darfur Coalition