STAND against genocide in Darfur

Is our state helping to fund the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan? Indiana is one of almost 20 states considering legislation that would require removal of money from companies that operate in Sudan and are complicit in the genocide. This presents an exciting new angle from which to pursue advocacy on behalf of Darfur.\nFour years have passed since the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. More than 400,000 have been killed in a government-sponsored campaign that the United States has called “genocide,” and the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate. As the Sudanese government continues to resist international political pressure to allow an expanded U.N. peacekeeping mission into the region to protect civilians, many have begun to advocate “targeted divestment” as a way to exert meaningful economic pressure on the Sudanese regime. Foreign companies generate large amounts of revenue for the Sudanese government, and the majority of this revenue is used to fund the government’s military operations. American pension funds and university endowments that invest in these companies are thus indirectly funding the genocide. Divestment, which requires institutions to remove their investments from these companies unless they change their behavior, is one of the most direct ways to take action and has been very successful thus far in exerting pressure both on offending companies and the Sudanese government itself. To successfully pass legislation in Indiana, however, we need to demonstrate the support of constituents.\nIndiana is home to the largest concentration of Darfurians in the nation and to a broad coalition of activists who have been at the forefront of divestment. Suliman Giddo (co-founder and president of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization) and the Rev. Joe Johns (a Fort Wayne minister who has recently made several humanitarian trips to Darfur) will be speaking at IUB this Tuesday. They will discuss their advocacy work and ways Indiana constituents can ensure their money is not funding genocide.\nLearn more about how to invest in human rights by divesting from Sudan at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, in Business 219.\nEmily Roberts\nCo-president\nStudents Taking Action Now: Darfur