YES! Illinois to divest from Sudan. Great way to stop Darfur genocide!

[FrenchieCat]

350,000 to 500,000 innocents have died in Darfur via Genocide (the numbers used in the article below are too low, though)

But this is the type of action that needs to occur to stop what is happening in Darfur!

Harvard did it....and now Illinois!

Kudos to both! Putting their money where their mouth is!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/25/AR2005062501337.html

Ill. Law Bans State Investments in Sudan
The Associated Press
Saturday, June 25, 2005; 10:19 PM


SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- A new state law requires Illinois to divest about $1 billion worth of pension investments in companies that do business in Sudan to protest the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country's Darfur region.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the bill into law Saturday, saying it makes Illinois the nation's first state to sever all financial ties to Sudan. The law takes effect in January 2006.


"The people of Illinois will not condone human rights abuses and genocide. We will take our money elsewhere," Blagojevich said in a statement.

Similar legislation is pending in other states, and Harvard University also recently announced plans to stop Sudanese investments.

U.N. officials say at least 180,000 people have died since fighting flared in the western Sudanese region of Darfur in February 2003. An estimated 2 million others have been forced to flee the region.

The conflict erupted when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin. The government is accused of responding with a counterinsurgency campaign in which the ethnic Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, committed wide-scale abuses against ethnic Africans.

A message left at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., Saturday was not immediately returned.

[FrenchieCat]

1. Just a kick.....on a topic

not many care about.

That's awight!

Not that many cared about South Africa either....until it became "fashionable".

[madrchsod]

2. why didn`t the "Christian " churches

say anything about their flocks in Sudan being sold into slavery years ago?i never understood why the fundies never said anything about this,which leaves me to think they didn`t care because they were black and had no monetary value.
for all the problems here in illinois, we sometimes do good things..

[Chokey]

3. Nice gesture, but.............

What exactly is there to invest in in Sudan? Not exactly a tough call to make.

[JHBowden]

4. Sudan has a lot of material resources

Illinois has, ahem had about one billion dollars invested there.

[FrenchieCat]

5. Obviously at least enough that Illinois has

divested from companies that do business there. It adds up to 1 bil! That's not nothing....considering that we are talking about just one state.

It's not divesting directly from the Sudan....but will not do business with companies that do. That's actually even more of a powerful statements. If we can get other states to follow suit, this could get many large companies to stop investing in the Sudan altogether!