Assembly resolution would press CalPERS to sell Sudan investments

SACRAMENTO, Feb 9, 2005 (AP) — The $182 billion California Public Employees Retirement System would be urged to withdraw investments from companies doing business in Sudan under a resolution introduced Tuesday in the state Assembly.

Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, said he introduced the measure to bring new pressure on the Sudanese government to end what President Bush and Congress have called genocide in the nation’s Darfur region. Attacks there by government-backed Arab militias against non-Arab villages have reportedly killed thousands and driven more than 1 million people from their homes.

The resolution “expresses the concerns of the State of California that international efforts to end the crisis in the Sudan Darfur’s region be stepped up,” Dymally said in a statement.

Dymally’s move is part of a concerted effort nationally to pressure public pension funds to divest of Sudanese-related holdings. Backers say the New Jersey Assembly has approved similar legislation, while other moves are being considered in Massachusetts, Illinois and Arizona.

U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who recently visited Darfur, praised the resolution Tuesday. “CalPERS needs to act to remove the stain of this blood from our state pensions,” she said.

The pension fund, which oversees retirement savings of 1.4 million members, wrote Lee recently saying it held investments in 11 firms that did business in Sudan. Most, however, appeared to be very limited.

Dymally is a former lieutenant governor of California, and U.S. representative who once chaired the Africa subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.