UC Board of Regents votes in favor of Sudan divestment

IT IS SHAMEFUL that the outside world has not done more to halt the genocide going on in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Today, the UC Board of Regents is expected to divest itself of its holdings in several companies that arguably have helped sustain the war-making capacities of the Sudanese government.

One strong argument in favor of UC taking action on Sudan is that when it divested its investments in companies that did business in apartheid-era South Africa in 1986, it gave a huge boost to the divestment movement worldwide. Most analysts now credit that movement, along with the threat of further economic sanctions, for helping to pressure the apartheid regime to release Nelson Mandela from prison and eventually to negotiate an end to apartheid.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/15/EDGU9GJFCI1.DTL

Mar, 19 2006 — In 1985, after an anti-aparteid movement had swept across college campuses and broadened into a nationwide push to divest corporate holdings in South Africa, this page urged investors such as the city of Los Angeles and the University of California to buck the trend and stay the course. While deploring the apartheid system and the South African government that enforced it, The Times believed that a wide-scale pullout of American investment would do more harm than good by putting apartheid’s victims out of work.

Today, a similar movement is sweeping the country calling for divestment from another African nation whose assaults against its own people have horrified the world. This time we think divestiture is the right move.

On Thursday, the UC Board of Regents rightly voted to divest from nine foreign companies that help prop up the government of Sudan. It is a principled stand that should be repeated by other big investors, including the $200-billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

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http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=14661

On April 30, 2006, there will be a Day of Conscience for Darfur in San Francisco, with a 10 am vigil on the Golden Gate Bridge and a Rally in Crissy Field.

People of conscience from throughout the Bay Area will join hands across the entire span of the Golden Gate Bridge to powerfully state that we will not stand idly by in the face of such atrocities.

The Darfur Report is a weekly newsletter designed to educate the organized Jewish community on issues related to the genocide in Darfur, including political and legislative developments.

This newsletter also features recommended readings and reports about initiatives within the Jewish community, as well as well as those undertaken together with non-Jewish coalition partners. JCPA is working on Darfur in partnership with the American Jewish World Service. For more information on AJWS's efforts, please visit http://www.ajws.org <http://www.ajws.org/> or contact Abby Fleishman at Darfur [at] ajws.org <mailto:Darfur [at] ajws.org

The “Million Voices for Darfur” postcard campaign is an effort to collect one million signatures on print and electronic postcards urging President Bush to take action. Darfur activists will come together and deliver these signatures at the Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide on April 30 in Washington, D.C.

The Save Darfur Coalition has received over 100,000 paper and electronic postcards already and large numbers continue to roll in every day.
To sign a postcard to President Bush and/or to sign up for the April 30 rally you can go to JCPA's website at <http://www.jewishpublicaffairs.org>


ADDITIONAL ACTION REQUEST
In addition, the JCPA call your attention to this link <http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=62681> announcing a Week of Prayer and Action for Darfur (April 2-9) declared by the various faith communities that are members of the Save Darfur Coalition. Materials appropriate for the various religious traditions are available at <http://www.savedarfur.org/go.php?q=communitiesOfFaith.php>. JCPA member agencies have been encouraged to use this week as an opportunity to further raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur and to advance the Million Voices campaign. Both Jewish-only and interfaith activity is encouraged.

DEVELOPMENTS ON DARFUR

The House of Representatives passed the Capuano amendment to increase peacekeeping funds for Darfur by $50 million. The amendment was attached to the supplemental bill which was passed by a vote of 348-71. Senators are being urged to pass a parallel bill.
NATO Secretary General, Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, told President George Bush that NATO is prepared to support a U.N. force in the Darfur region of Sudan. Bush has called for greater NATO involvement in Darfur, which the United Nations has described as the world's gravest humanitarian crisis.
The African Union met last on March 10 to discuss the peace mission in Darfur. It is important that the AU’s peacekeeping forces will be fully funded. President Bush has asked Congress for some $500 million to support those forces. A potential United Nations peacekeeping presence would not replace the AU before October. The world body is reporting that it’s World Food Program has only 15% of the food needed to address the humanitarian crisis.

CURRENT EVENTS IN DARFUR
The United Nations special envoy to Sudan said that violence was rising in Darfur and that lack of progress in the south was jeopardizing a peace agreement that ended a separate conflict there. The official, Jan Pronk, told the Security Council that killings, rapes and armed attacks on Darfur villagers were committed by armed gangs secure in the knowledge that no one would stop them or punish them. Mr. Pronk said that the African Union force needs help with items like helicopters and technology that only wealthier nations can supply.
RECOMMENDED READING
“When we talk about the genocide in Darfur, the one element that needs far more attention is the disgraceful role of Western Europe. It has often been said with regard to Middle East issues, and it applies to Darfur as well, that where Europe goes often determines where many other nations will go. Europe has been missing in action. It has not labeled what is taking place as genocide.” <http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/20/opinion/edshin.php>
“After the Holocaust, the world vowed it wouldn't stand back and allow genocide to happen again. Bosnia, Cambodia and Rwanda showed how empty that promise was. Darfur was yet another reminder that when it comes to standing up to stop the slaughter of entire peoples, the nations of the world remain pitifully inadequate.” <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/20/opinion/20mon2.html>
WASHINGTON -- NATO is prepared to support a U.N. force in the Darfur region of Sudan, the alliance's secretary-general told President Bush in a White House visit Monday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032000706.html
“Without rapidly boosting international forces in the region, the Darfur crisis and the escalating proxy war between Sudan and Chad will cost tens of thousands more lives and destabilise a wide swath of Africa. The small African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) has reached its military and political limits, and the African Union has accepted in principle a UN mission after September 2006.” http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3060&l=1#C2 <http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3060&l=1>