STAND up for divestment

What is the link between members of the IU community and victims of genocide in Darfur, Sudan? Beyond a common humanity or a sense of global citizenship, the answer is more concrete: our money. Our school is indirectly funding the military campaign in Darfur that has killed as many as 400,000 civilians and that the U.S. government has labeled “genocide.” We know that this link exists because the IU Foundation has investments totaling $6 million in five companies that operate in Sudan. The Sudanese government relies heavily on foreign investment, and revenues from this investment are used overwhelmingly for military expenditures – at least 70 percent of oil revenues go to fund to the military. Thus, it is this investment that has allowed the Sudanese government to fund and equip militias that attack civilians in Darfur and also this investment that allows the Sudanese government to remain relatively unconcerned with other forms of international pressure. Divestment, then, is a way both to remove the funding that allows the Sudanese regime to continue its heinous crimes and to exert meaningful economic pressure on the regime to change its behavior. Twenty-four states, including Indiana, and more than 50 universities have now divested from companies that the Sudan Divestment Task Force (SDTF) has identified as having a business relationship with the Sudanese government and imparting minimal benefit to civilians. Divesting $6 million from these companies would not mean losing this money, but rather reinvesting it in peer companies, which are, according to SDTF, now outperforming those companies that are operating in Sudan and taking share price hits from the divestment movement.\nThe Bloomington Faculty Council has unanimously passed two resolutions calling for divestment, but so far has had no response. Now it’s time for the students to pressure our administration, the Foundation and the board of trustees to follow its recommendations. The first thing you can do is sign a divestment petition at www.petitiononline.com/iudivest. Then e-mail stand@indiana.edu and/or come to our STAND meetings on Wednesdays at 6pm in Woodburn Hall 116 to see what more you can do. To learn more about targeted divestment, visit www.sudandivestment.org.