Calif. lawmakers urge Calpers to divest from Sudan

SAN FRANCISCO, March 17 (Reuters) – Calpers, the largest U.S. pension fund, should divest its holdings in companies doing business in Sudan, according to a resolution endorsed on Wednesday by California lawmakers.

The California Assembly committee overseeing public employee pensions backed a resolution initiated by U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee calling on Calpers, the $186 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System, to divest its holdings to send a message to leaders in Khartoum for failing to end violence in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Some Sudanese armed militia have conducted a scorched-earth campaign against the region’s African villages.

“It doesn’t make sense for the state of California and taxpayer dollars to be invested in a regime of that nature,” said Alberto Torrico, chairman of the assembly’s pension committee. “We hope it will be seen as an additional sanction.”

Calpers had no comment on the committee’s 5-1 vote for the resolution, but fund spokeswoman Pat Macht disputed Lee’s estimate of Calpers’ holdings in Sudan.

Lee’s office says Calpers has $7.5 billion invested in 44 companies doing business in Sudan.

According to Macht, Calpers has surveyed its 1,800 portfolio companies to find if any have done business in Sudan. Just over 200 responded and the great majority said they had no business interests in the country, Macht said.

“We did not find any material business being conducted in Sudan by our portfolio companies,” Macht said. “There was nothing major that was reported to us.”

The call for divestment in California’s Democrat-led legislature echoes a campaign launched by the conservative Center for Security Policy. It is urging U.S. public pension funds to divest holdings in companies doing business in Sudan, North Korea, Syria, Libya and Iran.

“This is a very heartening development,” Frank Gaffney, chief of the research center, said of the assembly committee’s vote. “It will help catalyze similar actions elsewhere.”