American RSA under pressure to pull investments from Sudan
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Dec 6, 2004 (AP) — The Retirement Systems of Alabama faces political pressure to halt its investments in Sudan, but an officer of the fund says, “We don’t want people telling us what we can and can’t invest in.”
The Center for Security Policy estimates that RSA at one point had $1.2 billion invested in 35 firms connected to Sudan in Africa.
The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a former Washington, D.C. delegate to Congress, said activists trying to end genocide in Sudan have called on pension funds to stop investing in that nation.
RSA Deputy Director Marc Reynolds told The Birmingham News for a story Sunday the state pension fund doesn’t want people telling RSA how to invest its money.
“Everyone has their own cause,” he said.
State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, said he received a letter from Fauntroy and plans to bring up the Sudan issue with black lawmakers before the Alabama Legislature convenes in February.
RSA should not consider the divestment campaign a political intrusion, Holmes said.
“I would consider that a humanitarian type thing. Certainly as human beings we have feelings for other people. It’s not a political issue,” Holmes said.
In a campaign modeled after the movement against apartheid in South Africa 20 years ago, black and religious activists are asking public employees to protest their retirement dollars going to anyone still dealing with the regime in Khartoum.
“We’re asking the people whose money is being invested to say that blood business is bad business,” said Fauntroy.
Congress and the White House have labeled the violence in Sudan as genocide, and the government in Khartoum is considered tolerant of the Arab militias attacking Sudanese citizens, especially in the western region of Darfur.
About 1.8 million refugees have been driven from their homes. Since March, more than 70,000 people have died from the fighting, disease and malnutrition, according to reports from the region.
While U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business in the Sudan, other countries have no such sanctions and their companies’ revenues are believed to help the government finance the terrorism.
“It remains now for the American people to impose their own sanctions as individuals,” Fauntroy said in an interview this week.
Fauntroy and fellow activist Joe Madison are using figures from the Center for Security Policy, a conservative Washington think-tank, that show pension funds in all 50 states have Sudan-related investments totaling about $91.2 billion.