Drumbeat for Darfur

Anti-genocide activists including UUSC are stepping up their campaign to pressure some of the world’s largest investment firms to divest their holdings in corporations that abet the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.

At a special event and news conference on September 5, 2007, activists organized by the nonprofit Investors Against Genocide, delivered petitions representing 150,000 signatures to the Boston headquarters of Fidelity Investments. The petitions, collected by the Washington-based Save Darfur Coalition, call upon Fidelity to divest its remaining shares of PetroChina, a Chinese oil company whose business dealings with Sudan provide much of the funds to purchase military weapons used to carry out the genocide.

“We intend to draw lines in the sand of the investment world, so that all investors of conscience can know where they stand and where their dollars should not be invested,” said UUSC President Charlie Clements. “We are here today for those who do not want their savings and their pension funds to be associated with genocide in any form, in any place, in any investment no matter how profitable.” For Clements’ complete remarks, click here.

UUSC’s Drumbeat for Darfur campaign has since early 2007 been advocating for elected U.S. officials to take whatever steps are necessary to bring an end to the four-year-old genocide. We also are urging our members and supporters to express their views clearly and with urgency to Fidelity officials.

Divestment campaign expands
The event at Fidelity headquarters also served to launch an expanded campaign to pressure a broader range of investment firms with significant holdings in PetroChina. The new list of targets includes Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, the largest holder of PetroChina shares, and the three largest American mutual fund companies: American Funds, Vanguard, and Fidelity. For the complete list, and to easily send a message to those companies, visit www.InvestorsAgainstGenocide.org.

“Genocide is perhaps the most heinous collective act in human history and we each have a moral imperative to stand up to it, to say not on our watch, to say ‘not with my dollars,’” said Clements. “There is something we can all do. We may not be able to participate in humanitarian relief in the camps in Chad and Darfur. We may not be able to be U.N. peacekeepers. We may not be able to vote on the floor of Congress and send President Bush a message about wanting the world’s only superpower to play a leading role in ending genocide. However, we can all vote with where we place our investments.”

Eric Cohen, chairperson of Investors Against Genocide and a founder of Fidelity Out of Sudan, said the goal of the organization is to convince financial institutions to make a commitment that they will not invest in companies that help to fund genocide.

“Ethical investing may mean different things to different people, but surely there is a minimum standard upon which everyone agrees,” said Cohen. “Americans do not want their family savings and pension funds invested in companies that help to fund genocide whether that genocide is occurring today in Darfur or anywhere else in the future.”

Sifa Nsengimana, a survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and now co-chair of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, said it is the responsibility of the international community to help end the genocide in Darfur. “We are not going to stand by and let it happen. We don't always think about the aftermath of a genocide. What kind of generation are we raising in Darfur now?"

Investors Against Genocide and Fidelity Out of Sudan are UUSC colleague organizations that are part of the Save Darfur Coalition, a nationwide umbrella alliance more than 170 faith-based humanitarian and human rights organizations. Visit here to see their latest action alert on Sudan divestment.

Posted September 5, 2007