A strategy for divestment from Sudan

In an action condemned by Human Rights Watch, on Friday morning, Dec. 30, credible observers report that approximately 20,000 club swinging police invaded a makeshift camp that Sudanese refugees had set up in a Cairo park last September to press UNHCR officials to enable them to resettle in Western nations. An estimated 27 people were killed, including seven children. Of the estimated 1,000 Sudanese forcibly evicted from the camp, 654 will be deported back to Sudan, according to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

While the UNHCR condemned Egypt's actions, many in the international community view the violent eviction as a "good cop/ bad cop" strategy involving both Egyptian and U.N. authorities to rid them of the escalating embarrassment and inconvenience the Sudanese posed. UNHCR denies it ordered the camp's evacuation and vehemently condemned the violence and bloodshed. The Cairo city government maintains it was under pressure from residents in the upscale neighborhood to evacuate the camp and that the Egyptian Interior Ministry and UNHCR had received numerous threats. The Egyptian government claims the refugees had failed to comply with a Sudanese Embassy deadline for them to leave the park.

Up to 2 million Sudanese may be living in Egypt. In January of 2005, a Peace Accord was signed between leaders of the warring factions in Sudan's north and south. That peace accord did not address the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region where African Union forces from 12 countries are struggling to control the widespread killings of civilians by militias controlled by the central government of Sudan's northern region located in the capital city of Khartoum.

As a result of the peace treaty, the UNHCR stopped registering Sudanese for political asylum despite the escalating conflict in Darfur and the uprisings within the country following last year's accidental death of southern Sudan's charismatic leader John Garang, who had been recently installed as the first vice president of the country.

The impact of that decision has been felt throughout northern and eastern Africa as efforts to curb migrant traffic have become more aggressive by nations serving as hosts for displaced refugees from countries like Sudan.

The United Nations has come under mounting global criticism by human rights and humanitarian agencies and has promised to act immediately to craft an alternative to its "lame duck" Human Rights Commission in an effort to restore credibility to the body in 2006. The commission has been a source of embarrassment to the U.N. due to the inclusion of countries like the Sudan that are accused of human rights abuses.

"In the case of Sudan, the Sudanese government's presence on the commission (U.N. Human Rights Commission) meant that African states and others watered down language that human rights groups around the world thought appropriate to address crimes against humanity," observes Human Rights Watch Global Advocacy Director Peggy Hicks.

Sudan was the subject of a U.N. Commission on Inquiry into atrocities in Darfur, which many credible and unbiased human rights organizations have labeled genocide. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has proposed a new Peacebuilding Commission to help countries emerging from war, has called the conditions in Darfur "little short of hell on earth."

This month University of California Regents at a meeting in San Diego will receive a report from U.C.'s Office of the President on a strategy for divestment of funds from the government of the Sudan. A full and detailed proposal for divestment was submitted to student Regent Adam Rosenthal by the U.C. Sudan Divestment Taskforce.

That report documents in startling detail the evidence for the position taken by many American universities, several U.S. state legislatures and the United States government that genocide has been and continues to be waged by the Sudanese government against the Black African population of Darfur, Sudan. The carnage includes over 400,000 slaughtered, 2.5 million displaced, and 50 percent of Darfur's population now reliant on humanitarian aid.

Harvard and Stanford universities, as well as the states of Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon have divested their funds from companies doing business in Sudan.

U.C. student leaders like Jason Miller, a M.D./Ph.D. candidate who helped formulate the U.C. Proposal for Divestment from Sudan, explain, "Khartoum relies heavily on revenue generated by businesses operating in Sudan to finance its heinous campaign of genocide. This revenue spurs economic growth that benefits the GOS (Government of Sudan) and contributes to Khartoum's ability to purchase weapons which increase the lethality and scope of its genocide.

"While there is a moral imperative not to allow the U.C.'s funds to contribute to genocide in Sudan, divestment will also put economic pressure on the government to change the situation on the ground. The U.C. should maintain its standard of socially responsible investing just as it has done in divestment from apartheid South Africa and from tobacco related companies."

This month, U.C. and Stanford student leaders Jason Miller and Ben Elberger will join with Bayview Hunters Point community leaders, including Maurice Campbell of the Community First Coalition, to urge the San Francisco Employees Retirement Fund to divest its $360,877,734 from businesses with holdings in the Sudan.

"When I went to check the numbers on how much San Francisco invests in the Sudan," reports Ben Elberger of the Stanford group STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), "I found out that San Francisco, as reported by the Conflict Securities Advisory Group, is the 42nd largest out of 84 pension fund investor in the Sudan. It currently has $360,877,734 in 31 companies doing business with the Sudan."

Dr. Sumchai and a team of relief workers established two health care clinics and two feeding centers for children in Sudan in 1985 and, in 1989, served as medical director of Medical Volunteers International and organizer for the Bay Area relief effort Airlift for Africa, flying under the auspices of a Scandinavian relief organization that was trusted by the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Front in the South. Contact her at (415) 835-4763 or asumchai [at] sfbayview.com.

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