Letter to the Editor: Universities Must Divest from Sudan
Issue date: 11/3/05 Section: Opinion
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Dear Editor,
Washington, D.C.: For the past two and a half years, the world has watched in horror as the Sudanese government and its proxy Janjaweed militias have laid waste to Darfur. At least two hundred thousand people have died as a result of Khartoum's scorched-earth counterinsurgency tactics. Systematic assaults on civilians and their livelihoods have driven more than two million people off their lands and into squalid camps for the internally displaced. Today security is fleeting at best, and recent evidence suggests that violence against women, including rape, savage beatings and forced humiliation is actually getting worse in and around the camps.
Outrage in the United States has been widespread, and activist groups -- students, African-Americans, Christians, Jews -- have answered the call. However, suffering in Darfur is gradually becoming tolerable to the international community. The media is not following Darfur as closely as it was a year ago -- not that it received much play then -- and politicians aren't feeling the heat. As Darfur deteriorates off camera, it is up to the American public to maintain pressure on the administration to end the nightmare.
In April, the International Crisis Group sent a letter to the presidents, student body leaders and student newspapers of 100 universities to urge schools to review their investment portfolios for stock in companies that operate in Sudan. While the U.S. government maintains tight sanctions against Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, many multinational corporations do business with the regime. The money that Khartoum makes from these arrangements -- especially in the growing oil sector -- funds the government's appetite for weapons to arm the troops and militias that terrorize civilians in Darfur.
Following Harvard's April decision to divest from PetroChina Company Ltd., a firm with extensive oil holdings in Sudan, Stanford University's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to divest from PetroChina and three additional companies: Sinopec, Tatneft, and ABB. The divestment ball has started rolling, but it needs momentum.
Washington, D.C.: For the past two and a half years, the world has watched in horror as the Sudanese government and its proxy Janjaweed militias have laid waste to Darfur. At least two hundred thousand people have died as a result of Khartoum's scorched-earth counterinsurgency tactics. Systematic assaults on civilians and their livelihoods have driven more than two million people off their lands and into squalid camps for the internally displaced. Today security is fleeting at best, and recent evidence suggests that violence against women, including rape, savage beatings and forced humiliation is actually getting worse in and around the camps.
Outrage in the United States has been widespread, and activist groups -- students, African-Americans, Christians, Jews -- have answered the call. However, suffering in Darfur is gradually becoming tolerable to the international community. The media is not following Darfur as closely as it was a year ago -- not that it received much play then -- and politicians aren't feeling the heat. As Darfur deteriorates off camera, it is up to the American public to maintain pressure on the administration to end the nightmare.
In April, the International Crisis Group sent a letter to the presidents, student body leaders and student newspapers of 100 universities to urge schools to review their investment portfolios for stock in companies that operate in Sudan. While the U.S. government maintains tight sanctions against Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, many multinational corporations do business with the regime. The money that Khartoum makes from these arrangements -- especially in the growing oil sector -- funds the government's appetite for weapons to arm the troops and militias that terrorize civilians in Darfur.
Following Harvard's April decision to divest from PetroChina Company Ltd., a firm with extensive oil holdings in Sudan, Stanford University's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to divest from PetroChina and three additional companies: Sinopec, Tatneft, and ABB. The divestment ball has started rolling, but it needs momentum.