House panel backs Sudan divestment bill

David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 8, 2007 at midnight

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Lado Jurkin, a refugee from Sudan, wiped away the tears with his necktie, grateful that another step was being taken toward trying to halt the genocide in Darfur.

Jurkin sat next to House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, sponsor of a bill requiring the state's $38.2 billion pension fund to divest itself from any companies doing business with Sudan.

The House Finance Committee on Wednesday passed the measure unanimously and sent it to the full House.

The impact of House Bill 1148 would be to economically injure any company doing business with Sudan by pulling the state's investment money from the company. California has passed into law a similar request for its publicly held pension fund. And Monday, the Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association voted to back the legislation as well.

According to U.N. estimates, close to half a million people have been slaughtered by Sudanese fighters known as Janjaweed - the government-sponsored militia group executing the genocide. The widespread slaughter, which began in 2003 as a conflict between blacks and Arabs in Sudan, has also displaced more than 2.5 million people in refugee camps.

The goal of the genocide is to cleanse Sudan of black Africans and has been centered in the Darfur region.

Romanoff, a Denver Democrat, called the genocide "the central moral crisis of our time."

Jurkin, a caseworker for the African Community Center at 1201 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver, was joined by Ahmed Ali, secretary general of the Darfur Association. Ali's brother was killed in Sudan and a niece had starved to death in a refugee camp in neighboring Chad.

He said the bill was an important step for the legislature to take and he thanked the committee for considering it.

Roz Duman, founder and coordinator for the Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action, compared the situation in Sudan with the Holocaust and said Darfur is ground zero for the first genocide of the 21st century.

"We believe divestment is an extremely powerful tool of influence and must be used to change the behavior of the Sudanese government and ending this genocide in Darfur," she said.

Romanoff, who worked with Scott Wisor, national field director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, said Colorado's example may lead other states to look more closely at their investment strategies as well.

Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, wondered if PERA should expand its investment options by allowing employees to choose "a socially responsible portfolio."

But PERA Executive Director Meredith Williams said it was difficult to do that because of people's diverse views on what is considered immoral. However, Williams praised the Darfur divestment bill.

"We're anxious to get started," he said.

Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, said he appreciated Romanoff bringing the bill forward and said it's narrow, targeted approach was a way Colorado could make a difference in trying to stop the genocide.

"This is something we shouldn't do very often, but this is something we should do today," he said.

In her own words

(I recall) traveling by cargo plane, landing in the desert, living in tents, walking in triple-digit heat to reach the victims of genocide intentionally cut off from humanitarian aid workers by Sudan's government.

I've been with Darfurians suffering from malaria, dysentery, tuberculosis, leprosy and wounds oozing gangrene. I've cleansed their wounds and I've held their dying children. I've seen purposely . . . inflicted wounds, mutilations, burning and brandings, amputations that make you weep to be a part of the human race. I saw women beaten about the head until they became deaf and others that were beaten until their face was permanently disfigured.

I know of Theresa, who was taken as a concubine by the Janjaweed at age 10 years old. A black Muslim, a Darfurian, told me: "They butchered my wife and four of my children before my eyes. First they make us Muslim and then they kill us because we're black."

I know a boy named Dao who saw his mother's throat slit when she fought the Janjaweed. I have traced my hand across the skeletal wreckage of a 10-year-old black Sudanese boy's shoulder and back. I asked how did this happen? "I tried to escape," he replied.

- Heidi McGinness, humanitarian and retired Denver minister, who has been to Darfur three times.

monterod@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5236

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