Reply #136: Here is a case in point concerning Darfur

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Los Angeles Times via CommonDreams
Dated Sunday January 30

Erase the Darfur Blood Stain From California`s Pensions
By the Hon. Barbara Lee, US House of Representatives from California

Over the last two years, the Sudanese government and government-supported militias have undertaken a systematic campaign of violence and displacement, targeting civilians of the non-Arab ethnic communities in the Darfur region. Despite three U.N. resolutions, an estimated 35,000 people are dying each month. The Sudanese government remains defiant, and the violence, the genocide goes on.

I have just returned from the refugee camps on the Chad- Sudan border, and I am convinced that we must go beyond diplomacy to end the bloodshed. We must strengthen all efforts to cut off Khartoum's impunity by divesting from those companies that do business in Sudan.

A good place to start is with California's hidden stake in those businesses.

It may come as a surprise, but millions of Californians are inadvertently supporting the Khartoum regime. The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) is the nation's largest public pension fund and one of the biggest investors in companies that conduct business in Sudan and thereby benefit the Khartoum regime.

Read more.