The conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has killed more than 400,000 people and millions more civilians have been internally displaced or fled into neighboring countries. Since 2003, Sudanese government armed forces and the state-sponsored "Janjaweed" militia have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur. As part of their campaign to decrease regional support for these rebel groups, the Sudanese government has ordered attacks against specific ethnic groups of civilians who have nothing to do with the rebels. The U.S. government has condemned this violence against innocent civilians as genocide.
The purpose of this column is to raise awareness of the crisis in Darfur and urge you to join us in calling on the University administration to divest from Sudan if funding from Duke is supporting the genocide. As members of the Duke community, we must confront our own roles in this humanitarian disaster.
The status quo is not only unacceptable, but morally abhorrent. The situation in Darfur is serious and requires urgent and sustained action. Even if we are unable to stop the crisis through our actions here at Duke, we must end our institution's support of the Sudanese government's genocidal regime. Duke should engage the companies we sponsor that directly or indirectly support the Sudanese government and divest from those companies if they fail to change their behavior. This plan, known as targeted divestment, would remove funding that could go to support the Sudanese government's genocidal military campaign.
Targeted divestment will not only raise awareness of this crisis but also make a real difference in helping end the genocide. Sudan is particularly susceptible to economic pressure. Since up to 80 percent of Sudan's oil revenue goes to the military, divestment from oil companies alone could have a real effect on the government's ability to finance the genocide. U.S. sanctions in 1995 caused the Sudanese government to end its sponsorship of terrorist organizations and cooperate with U.S. counter-terrorism policies. Other divestment campaigns, such as one a few years ago against a large Canadian oil company, helped force the Sudanese government reach a peace agreement with rebel groups in the south.
Targeted divestment will not hurt the civilians we are aiming to help. Targeted divestment focuses on companies that benefit the government and military. Companies involved in agriculture, which employs more than 80 percent of the Sudanese labor force, would not be targeted. Businesses providing medicine, education and consumer goods would similarly be excluded.
Targeted divestment does not pose a major risk to Duke's finances. This plan would target a limited number of companies and investments, making divestment less risky and less costly to the University. However, as a special project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors recently reported, Duke does not publicize its endowment holdings. Since this information is available only to trustees and senior administrators, it is difficult to determine the impact divestment might have on university finances.
We would not be alone. There is extensive precedent for targeted divestment from Sudan. Duke would join a growing number of universities, U.S. states and members of the international community in recognizing the crisis in Darfur and initiating action to help end the genocide. Last year, the North Carolina state treasurer divested the North Carolina Retirement Systems, representing more than $70 billion in pension funds, from nine companies that were providing monetary or military support to the Sudanese government.
In the coming months, Duke's Human Rights Working Group and other campus organizations will work with members of the administration to identify University financial holdings that might be targeted for divestment. For example, as of 2003, Duke had $560,000 indirectly invested in PetroChina, an oil company that financially supports the Sudanese civil war through its drilling in the country. We have found no evidence that Duke has since divested these funds.
These campus groups will submit a request to the University Priorities Committee, which manages issues regarding ethical investment, to divest from Sudan. The UPC will not act, though, until the University community has had a substantive discussion of these issues and expressed broad concern that Duke's unsustainable investment strategy is causing significant social injury.
We encourage you to join this discussion and participate in the divestment campaign, to demonstrate to the administration that as a community we care about where our money is going. We must consider our own responsibilities in this crisis, and choose to act accordingly. We must divest from Sudan.
This is the first in a series of columns this semester written and supported by members of several campus groups. The goal of the series is to raise awareness and to educate on a select group of issues related to sustainability, human rights and health care with a global perspective. This column's author, Aaron Young, is pursuing a master's degree in public policy.
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