Sudan/Darfur Crisis Fact Sheet #4

Sudan Divestment Campaign
July 1, 2005

Siemens AG of Germany, Alcatel SA of France, Sinopec, ABB Ltd, and PetroChina--what do these international companies have in common? They all do business with the government of Sudan, which is involved in committing the world’s latest genocide.

Officially, since the United States imposed sanctions against Sudan in November 1997, American firms have stayed out of Sudan. But that hasn’t stopped U.S. investors--with their increasing international financial portfolios, from investing in companies that do business in Sudan. In fact, if you own a diversified international mutual fund, you very likely own shares in one of the above businesses that trade with Sudan. Or if you are a public employee, very likely your pension fund may hold shares in Sudanese interests. Finally, college and university endowment investments will in most cases have substantial shareholdings, directly or through mutual funds, in a number of these companies.

Although the United Nations Security council has passed four resolutions on Sudan in less than a year, none has touched the country's business interests. The multinational oil companies alone help Khartoum reap over a billion dollars in annual oil revenues, some of which are used to fund the genocide in Darfur.

According to the Sudan Campaign, U.S. state and local pension funds alone have more than $91 billion in investments in companies doing business with Sudan. The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, a private think tank, has helped generate the estimate from public investment portfolios, but the figures have not been independently verified. The state of Illinois has taken the lead among state governments in passing a Sudanese divestment measure. On June 25, 2005 Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed Senate Bill 23, which divests the state's holdings in Sudan-active companies, into law--about $1 billion worth of investments!

Private US mutual funds have even greater equity exposure to these companies. See information on how to divest from Sudanese business partners in your mutual fund portfolio:
Sudanese Business Partners Hall of Shame: Companies to Divest From Immediately.

College and university students have a particular opportunity: to force institutional endowments to divest from all holdings. Harvard University recently announced plans to cut Sudanese investments. Its $23 billion endowment decided to cut all of its shares in PetroChina, a subsidiary of the Chinese Natural Petroleum Company with major operations in Sudan. Stanford followed suit June 7 by divesting of four companies doing business with Sudan: PetroChina, Sinopec, Tatneft, Swiss ABB Ltd. At many other schools, groups of students have been pressing their schools' endowments to cut ties with companies that do business in Sudan.



Sources: Boston Globe, Divest Sudan Campaign, Dr. Eric Reeves (www.sudanreeves.org)