Is your retirement money
helping support the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region?
Sudan has been in a state of civil war since it gained independence from
British colonial rule in 1956. But in the latest conflict in Darfur, Arab militias known as the Janjaweed — backed by
the Sudanese government — have conducted a campaign of terror. Hundreds of
thousands of people in Darfur have been raped, tortured, and killed, and many more
have fled as refugees.
Since early 2000, more than
a dozen activist groups have formed on college campuses and in cities across
the country, with the goal of cutting off Sudan’s war chest. A growing number of institutions and
organizations are prohibiting investment of their funds in foreign companies
with ties to Sudan. The University of Rochester joined that list recently, and other local colleges are discussing the
issue. But the retirement programs of New York’s teachers, police, social workers, and other
government employees are apparently continuing the practice.
The New York State Teachers’
Retirement System, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, and the Teachers’
Retirement System of the City of New York are among more than 70 large public-pension programs
cited on the website www.sudanactivism.com. They made the list because they are
investing in foreign companies doing business in Sudan.
The Sudan Divestment Task
Force, a non-profit research and information clearing house based in Washington, DC, has created a “watch list” of such companies. The
Task Force isn’t discouraging all investment in Sudan; crippling the economy will worsen the situation and
impede democratization, says its executive director, Adam Sterling. The Task
Force places companies on the watch list if:
• Their investment benefits
only leaders in the Sudanese government;
• The company provides
little relief to the disadvantaged regions of Sudan;
• The company has no policy
about providing revenue to a country that is committing genocide.
Among the Task Force’s
activities, says Sterling, is distinguishing between companies that are making
improvements in the country’s infrastructure and those such as oil companies,
where revenue has been linked to the weapons trade.
Despite public outcry, neither the US nor the United Nations has found a way to pressure
the Sudanese government for its backing of the Janjaweed. Even before the Darfur conflict, the Clinton administration had imposed sanctions on Sudan for state-sponsored terrorist activities. The
sanctions prohibited US firms from doing business in Sudan.
The policy has had mixed
results, however. The US wasn’t able to use its leverage to discourage other
countries from doing business in Sudan. And following September 11, 2001, the State Department needed intelligence
cooperation from the Sudanese.
But there’s been another
problem with sanctions: they don’t apply to US investors in foreign companies.
That money, mostly in the form of mutual funds, pensions, and other retirement
investment programs, has continued to fund Sudan’s brutal civil war. For example, in 2005, the New
York State Teachers’ Retirement System, according to its website, lists six
companies that are on the Task Force watch list: ABB Ltd., Alcatel,
Finmeccanica, Royal Dutch Shell, Schlumberger Ltd., and Siemens AG.
Thus, the Sudan divestment movement, which is following an approach
similar to that of the South African divestment campaign of the 1980’s and
1990’s. That effort that is widely credited with helping bring about change in South Africa. But avoiding companies on a divestment watch list
isn’t easy. Most Americans have someone else managing their retirement accounts
and may not know which companies are included.
There’s also a huge
knowledge gap. Some companies do business in Sudan but are involved in beneficial work like digging
wells for clean water or building schools. And the US government has offered little in the way of
guidance. In a written statement provided to City last week, the New York State
Teachers’ Retirement System said it considers the government “the only credible
and centralized authority to identify, monitor, and report domestic and
international companies that are operating in such countries and thereby may be
acting contrary to US foreign policy and humanitarian objectives.”
“At this time,” said the
statement, “no comprehensive list or report of such companies has been made.”
The state Common Retirement
Fund is managed by the state comptroller, and a spokesperson says the office
has sent letters to a dozen companies asking them to “explain the nature of
their relationship with the Sudan government.”
For a fee, many investment
companies will direct investments toward companies considered socially
responsible. And Sterling’s organization offers a free investment analysis to
help identify suspect companies. It also generates a daily watch list.
Colleges and universities have been leaders in the divestment movement.
Cornell, for example, was the first major university in the region to take
action, and it serves as an information site for the Sudan Divestment Task
Force.
In October, the University of Rochester’s board of trustees agreed to “prohibit direct investments in companies
identified as supporting the Sudanese government’s activities in Darfur.” (The decision was more of a positioning statement,
since the UR has no investments in companies on the watch list.)
At NazarethCollege, Margaret Ferber, vice president of finance,
says its senior staff is discussing how the college will respond to the
atrocities in Sudan.
“We will take a variety of
actions, including a review of our direct holdings within our endowment and
perhaps just as important, develop appropriate educational programming to heighten
community awareness of the human suffering,” she says.
St.
JohnFisherCollege is not currently using the watch list, according to a spokesperson, and
has not decided if it will. RIT was contacted but did not respond in time for
this article.
You can review your investment funds and look for
companies on the Sudan Investment
Task Force’s watch list at www.sudandivestment.org.
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2006.
