US Florida money shouldn’t support Sudan govt – lawmaker
March 2, 2007 (TALLAHASSEE, Florida) — Florida’s pension fund could have to sell holdings in some companies that do business in Sudan under a bill designed to add pressure on the African nation’s government to end an ongoing genocide.
Six states — California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey and Oregon — have since taken steps to divest public pension money from companies doing business in the African nation. Colorado, Idaho and Nebraska are also considering divestment, and some cities, including Providence, Rhode Island, and more than 30 colleges and universities have joined the movement.
Florida has about $140 million (€106.36 million) in holdings in about 12 foreign companies that are on a list of companies that activists say have “the most problematic operations in Sudan.”
A measure being pushed by state Sen. Ted Deutch would require the State Board of Administration to sell holdings in companies that continue supporting or directly providing supplies or services to the Sudanese government.
Illinois was the first state to vote to stop investing in companies that do business there, almost two years ago. Illinois’ pension fund divested about $1 billion (€760 million) in January 2006.
The Darfur region of Sudan has been torn by violence since 2003, with African tribal rebels being targeted by militias that observers say are supported by the government. At least 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have become refugees.
The U.S. government accuses the Sudanese government of complicity in the genocide and International Criminal Court prosecutors have also said there is a clear link between Sudanese authorities and the janjaweed militias blamed for much of Darfur’s bloodshed. Sudan has rejected the allegations.
Daniel Millenson, national advocacy director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force in Washington, D.C., said most states that have divested have sold off tiny amounts of stock in the overall scheme of their pension funds — less than one-third of a percent for most.
“But even if there’s only a very small percentage of companies that would fall into this … it makes a very important statement that we have no business doing business with a government that perpetrates genocide,” Deutch said.
The Sudan Divestment Task Force has been pushing governments to do “targeted divestment,” which tries to identify the companies that are most involved in Sudan.
The task force has ranked companies to try to identify those most involved in working with the government. Twelve of the task force’s current list of “highest offenders” are in Florida’s portfolio. None of the companies are American, because of existing U.S. sanctions on business with Sudan.
Florida’s biggest investments in companies on the list include a $42 million (€31.91 million) stake in French power generating and rail company Alstom SA; a $23 million (€17.47 million) stake in French oil services company Schlumberger Ltd.; and $20 million (€15.19 million) worth of holdings in PetroChina Co. Ltd. The state also has holdings in Rolls-Royce Group PLC, a British company whose oil field equipment unit is identified by activists as being involved in Sudan.
Employees at U.S. offices for Schlumberger and Rolls-Royce did not immediately return phone calls for comment. Officials with Alstom and PetroChina didn’t immediately return phone and e-mail messages left after hours in France and China.
Florida’s state pension fund has been used for political purposes before — divesting from companies invested in South Africa in the 1980s to protest apartheid and pulling out of tobacco stocks for a period in the 1990s.
(AP)