Divesting to Help Sudan

By Jeninne Lee-St. John

With Sudan still a killing ground, a growing number of states and universities are protesting the Sudanese government's apparent complicity by divesting from companies that do business there. Acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey said he will sign a bill passed last week doing just that, making his state the first to carry out such a tactic. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich last month approved a similar bill, which will take effect in January and also forbids the state to place public money in banks that deal with foreign companies operating in Sudan. (It is illegal for U.S. firms to do work in Sudan.) The two laws will affect an estimated $2 billion in investments. New Jersey assemblyman William Payne, who authored his state's bill, hopes "this will grow from a ripple to a wave," and points to six other states, including Ohio and Massachusetts, where governments and pension funds are considering divestment. Meanwhile, Harvard students pushed the university to sell its $4.4 million stake in Petro- China, which has oil contracts in Sudan, and Stanford said it would divest its holdings in four energy firms that operate there. Dartmouth and the University of California are among the schools that have said they might follow suit.

The hope is that dumping such stocks en masse will persuade companies to cease working in Sudan, and the resulting economic pressure, like that applied to South Africa during apartheid, will push the government to rein in the Arab Janjaweed militias--which international monitors blame for the deaths of more than 70,000 black Darfuris since 2003. "It stops us from being directly complicit in genocide," says recent Harvard graduate Brandon Terry, who led the effort there. A spokeswoman for Siemens, targeted by activists for building infrastructure in Sudan, says the German firm "takes the concerns seriously" but that shutting down its projects would hurt Sudan's civilians more than help them. Some independent experts doubt divestment will be any more effective than U.S. economic sanctions have been since they were imposed in 1997. Smith College professor Eric Reeves, a leader in the divestment drive, admits to facing an uphill battle, but says, "We need to realize there's nothing else in the pipeline." --With reporting by Leslie-Bernard Joseph and Golnoush Niknejad

With reporting by Leslie-Bernard Joseph, Golnoush Niknejad