Senators give initial OK to Darfur-related measure
April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News
Published March 24, 2007 at midnight
Sen. Nancy Spence's eyes welled with tears when she recounted how the U.S. stood by while her adopted granddaughter's parents were among a half-million Rwandans slaughtered in that country's civil war in 1994.
"She was 3 years old at the time," Spence said. "I have firsthand accounts from her relatives who survived and talked about visiting mass graves. They identified the bodies of her mother, who was pregnant."
The Centennial Republican urged the Colorado Senate on Friday not to stand idly by and do nothing while similar genocide occurs in Sudan.
She stood with a majority of the Senate and backed a bill that requires the state's pension fund to divest in companies financially involved with Sudan. House Bill 1184 is sponsored by Denver Democrats Sen. Peter Groff and House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.
The Senate is expected to cast a final vote on the measure Monday.
Republican Sens. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, and Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, criticized the measure, saying that Colorado should not be expected to take a "social litmus test" when investing pension funds.
Congress estimates that from 300,000 to 400,000 people have been killed in the Darfur region and another 2 million people have been displaced from their homes by the Sudan government and its allies since the Darfur crisis began in 2003.
washingtonam@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5086
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