US Cornell University bars investments with Sudan’s oil companies

Aug 22, 2006 (ITHACA, N.Y.) — Cornell University officials took a stance Tuesday against genocide in Sudan, prohibiting the school from investing endowment assets into oil companies that operate in the African country.

The school will also prohibit and halt all investments in companies that have obligations in the Sudanese government.

Altogether Cornell is divesting itself of $12 million of investments in Sudan, spokesman Simeon Moss said. The school’s total endowment is worth about $4 billion.

“Given that more than half of the Sudanese government’s revenues are derived from oil, the Cornell community is sending an unequivocal message to the oil companies about the impact of their own actions in this crisis,” Cornell President David Skorton said in a written statement.

Skorton and Provost Carolyn Martin plan to pursue other methods to help people in Darfur.

The Sudanese city is teeming with various rebel factions, pro-government paramilitary and tribal militia who regularly clash against each other or plunder the camps where some 2 million displaced residents have taken refuge from the fighting.

Aid groups, the U.N. and African Union peacekeepers say rebel factions are seeking to gain advantage before a permanent peace comes to a region where more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government.

(AP/ST)