US Colorado lawmakers propose bill to bar Sudan investments

Oct 24, 2006 (DENVER) — US Colorado lawmakers are proposing a bill that could bar most state investments in Sudanese companies in what officials said is an effort to pressure the Khartoum government to halt human rights abuses in the Darfur region.

The bill calls for the Public Employees Retirement Association and other government investment managers to do away with any investments that aid the Sudanese government. It would, however, exempt companies working to provide humanitarian aid.

The measure is the latest on the state level to bring to task the Sudanese government for what the United States has described as a genocide in the war-ravaged Darfur province. Ethnic violence in that region since 2003 has left at least 200,000 people dead and another 2.5 million displaced.

Last month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, flanked by activist actors George Clooney and Don Cheadle, signed similar legislation ending the state’s investments in Sudan.

Sanctions on the country have been in place for years – imposed by former President Bill Clinton in 1997 – but are essentially focused on investments in Sudan’s oil sector.

Earlier this month, President George W. Bush signed an executive order stiffening those sanctions on the oil industry in an effort to persuade the government to accept United Nations peacekeepers.

The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act imposes sanctions against those responsible for genocide, backs measures to protect civilians and humanitarian operations and supports peace efforts in the devastated southern region.

The U.N. Security Council voted in August to replace the weak African Union peacekeeping mission with a much bigger U.N. force. But Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and his ruling National Congress Party have refused to let the U.N. peacekeepers deploy, claiming they would breach Sudan’s sovereignty.

(AP)