Sudan-linked investments to stay

BOISE – Millions of dollars from Idaho’s public employee pension fund will stay invested in companies that do business with Sudan, for now.

The Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee voted 4-3 Thursday to kill a proposal that would have had Idaho divest about $41 million from foreign companies with ties to the troubled African country.

Opponents said divestment would have little impact on atrocities in the Darfur region, while forcing the state to give up unusually lucrative investments.

The Sudanese government is held up by the business of these companies, said John Sullivan, a Boise lawyer working with the Washington, D.C.-based Sudan Divestment Task Force.

If enough groups join in divesting from companies that do business with Khartoum, the government will eventually feel pressure to stop the violence in the war-torn Darfur region, said Sullivan, who spearheaded the proposal.

An estimated 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur, and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes since 2003.

The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Mike Burkett, D-Boise, would have required Idaho to sell shares in Petrochina and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, two Chinese state-owned companies; French turbine maker Alstom; Swedish energy exploration company Lundin; Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas; and British-based Rolls Royce Group.

American companies have been banned from doing business with Sudan since 1997.

Idaho would have joined six other states that have passed similar divestiture laws, most recently California.

Alan Winkle, director of the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, spoke against the measure, saying the investments had good track records of making money for the state.

Lawmakers also said they didn’t like the implications of the Legislature telling investment managers where they could put their money.