About 2.5 percent of the money in the Public Employees Retirement System of Idaho is now Sudan-free, thanks to a new option PERSI has created for holders of 401(k) retirement accounts.
But with 98 percent still in whatever holdings PERSI's managers think will make the most money, a coalition of Idaho groups wants a state law that will shift those funds from companies that invest in Sudan.
"Our government says this is genocide. We should act," said Jim Hansen, executive director of United Vision for Idaho, a nonprofit working for Sudan divestment. "Idaho has an added obligation because Boise is one of the sites where refugees are being resettled. We're hearing first-hand stories of peoples' experiences."
Sudan's government has been fighting two armed groups in the three states of Darfur, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians. The United Nations estimates almost half a million people have died from violence and disease related to the fighting.
Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo voted this month on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee for a bill that would let states, asset funds and pension fund managers divest from companies doing business in Sudan's energy and military sectors. It also would protect them from lawsuits over profits lost as a result.
In the last few years, 20 states have passed laws removing public retirement money from Sudan, said John Sullivan of Boise, a retired lawyer who runs a group called the Idaho Sudan Divestment Task Force. Sullivan is working with Hansen, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, the financial company Trillium Asset Management and other groups to persuade the Idaho Legislature to pass a similar law. It would direct PERSI to withdraw money from companies that invest in Sudan and reinvest in other holdings of similar value.
Sullivan last year asked PERSI to make its entire $12 billion in retirement funds Sudan-free. PERSI responded by adding a Sudan-free option Oct. 12 to its 401(k) plans, which are worth about $300 million overall.
But PERSI is prevented by law from removing the rest of the money from companies that invest in Sudan, said Al Winkle, PERSI's executive director.
"Our retirement board of trustees studied that for about six months and looked at the whole divestment issue, be it fiduciary or legal," Winkle said. "In federal law and in our law, they have to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries of the fund. That's what our whole organization is designed to do."
Sullivan, Hansen and others hope Idaho lawmakers will change that. Sullivan promoted legislation last winter that didn't go anywhere. This year, he said, Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, has agreed to sponsor a bill similar to one that has passed in 13 states. Sullivan said the bill will have more momentum this year because more states have passed similar measures.
"The government of Sudan can't be doing this without money," said Sullivan, who worked in Kenyan refugee camps with the Peace Corps in 1999 and 2000.
Divestment is perhaps the best way to change the situation in Darfur, said Lauren McLean, a portfolio manager at Trillium, a firm that focuses on socially responsible investment and has divested all its holdings from companies with interests in Sudan.
"Oil provides over half of Sudan's budget and 70 percent of Sudan's oil revenue goes to purchase weapons," McLean said. "They don't respond to political sanctions."
She praised PERSI for giving some public employees the option to have their retirement money Sudan-free.
"It's important to give everyone that same opportunity, because targeted divestment, while it's always a last resort, is a very effective tool," McLean said.
Anne Wallace Allen: 377-6433
