UNC right to divest funds from Darfur

Standing on the tarmac of the Kigali airport in Rwanda 15 years ago former President Bill Clinton famously said never again. His remarks were in reference to the brutal genocide that killed an estimated 800000 people.

The sad reality is that we have failed to learn our lessons. Genocide of unprecedented proportions is taking place half a world away in southern Sudan. It's caused then Senators John McCain and Barack Obama to issue an unprecedented joint statement in late May demanding that the genocide in Darfur be brought to an end.

As noted journalist and scholar Samantha Power chronicles in her book" ""A Problem from Hell"" we fail to rationalize the inhuman act of genocide and too often repeat the phrase never again."" It is a phrase that we can not allow another elected official to say again.

With an economy in the tank and two wars raging" it's unlikely that President-elect Obama will have much time to bring the genocide to an end. All hope however is not lost.

A movement based in large part on the success of the 1980s divestment campaigns against apartheid South Africa has been afloat across college campuses in the last few years. Financial pressures two decades ago helped cause a democratic transition in South Africa in the early 1990s. Nowadays the goal is to force college endowments to divest from companies complicit in the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

Specifically the movement is targeting companies such as the China National Petroleum Company and Petronas which are the biggest players in Sudan's oil industry. The goal is to convince people to sell stocks of these blacklisted firms and cause the stock's price to tank. As they feel financial pain these firms will pull out of Sudan and deprive the government of funds.

During the last few months Students United for Darfur Awareness Now and others have been asking if our endowment is invested in companies complicit in the Darfur genocide. Fortunately" the answer to that question is no.

A while back the board of directors of the investment fund passed a resolution stating that our endowment would not directly hold interest in any entity identified as ""highest offenders"" by the Sudan Divestment task force.

The president of the UNC Management Company" Jonathon King has publicly stated that UNC-Chapel Hill's endowment does not currently maintain positions through investments in funds that it directly oversees or can influence.

Our endowment's commitment to this issue does not end with a simple statement. It periodically sends letters on a quarterly and semiannual basis to managers whose stock purchases it can influence. Our endowment asks these individuals to consider not investing in companies complicit in the Darfur genocide. We even send letters to fund managers whom we have no chance of influencing.

Talk about taking the lead on an issue of critical importance to this University and the global community we live in.

Three cheers to the board of directors of the UNC-Chapel Hill Endowment Fund for deciding to take the moral high ground on this issue. For this they deserve our sincere thanks and appreciation.