Exactly!!!--however these institutions should "embargo" the peddlers of the armaments together with the wielders of the arms.

Ouch!!!!!--actually the US dominates the international arms trade and we've supplied arms or military technology to troops we've later had to face in Somalia, Panama, Haiti, Afganistan, and Iraq (and soon to include Iran?)...

Real funny?, how the rational for the UN to let America "police" itself in Iraq (with no war crime oversight) is that we've promoted peace in Somalia, ect.

Welcome to the 21st century!!!

First off, apropos here is the MoJo article titled Gas War (Michael Scherer, 2001): "A new divestment campaign targets Western oil companies to cut off the fuel supply for Sudan's civil war."

"For the gov. in Khartoum, oil has been a cash cow ... Since 1999, when international corps. began extracting Sudan's vast oil reserves, firms traded on the NASDAQ and the NY Stock Exchange have been a primary source of revenue for the Sudanese gov. ... The military has used that money to double its spending on the war ... Southern rebels, in turn, have attacked the oil pumps, prompting a brutal gov. military camapign ..."

In 2001, following an unprecedented effort by a range of labor, religious, human rights, and anti-slavery groups to derail PetroChina's initial public offering, Acting Chairman of the Sec. & Exch. Commission, Laura Unger, threw what the Financial Times called a "bombshell" into the global capital markets. She acknowledged that the human rights violations by issuers of securities can be considered "material" to investors, such foreign issuers of securities in the US will be required to provide disclosure of the risks associated with any investment by these issuers in countries where the US has imposed sanctions for human rights ...

Prior to Unger's "bold" move, the US capital markets have been considered relitively free of the risks and uncertainties associated with political regulatory action, thus in recent years a larger number of foreign issuers have listed their securities on a US exchange. According to A. Greenspan, "the openness and lack of political pressures ... has drawn foreigners generally to the American markets for financing ..."

Soon after the release of the Unger letter, Lukoil, a Russian giant, announced that it would withdraw a planned listing of its common stock on the NY Exchange to avoid the "political risk" of a US listing.

The AFL-CIO played a key role in the protests about PetroChina's IPO, and it followed up that effort with a campaign against oil giant Amerada Hess, which had a 25% stake in the major multinational British oil company Premeir, this because it maintained an active interest in Burma (it's run by an allegedly brutal military dictatorship). Additionally, the AFL-CIO had also been conducting an aggressive shareholder campaign to force Unocal (CA oil producer) to change its policy in Burma in light of accusations that the company "allowed" military forces there to use forced labor to build a natural gas pipeline.

Sudan has arguably the most indebted economy in the world; they survive economically only because the Asian and European companies continue to prop up an economy that is very badly run, and that cannot survive without continuing capitol investment. Still operating there are: PetroChina, Sinopec, Taftneft, ABB, Ltd., Alcatel, and Siemens (which is building a very large diesel-powered electrical generating plant outside Khartoum).

Talisman Energy, the largest independant oil company in Canada, saw its role in Sudan lead to quadrupled net profits per share between '99 and 2000, however Talisman was driven out of Sudan after a divestment campaign caused a 33% drop in share value.

PetroChina produces two-thirds of China's oil and gas; owns 17,400 gas stations, 8,500 miles of gas pipelines and 29 domestic refineries.

In the early '90s, the Chinese gov. projected a shortfall of approx. 50 million tons of crude oil (30% of its oil needs), such China invested in Sudan's oil industry (PetroChina). In fact, Chinese weapons deliveries to Sudan since '95 have included ammunition, howitzers, tanks, helicopters, and fighter aircraft...

PetroChina's stock is currently doing quite well actually, while at a Nov. 2004 UN Security Council regarding the genocide in Sudan, instead of sanctioning Sudan's gov. for its flouting of past resolutions the Bush admin. sponsored a resolution that took a big step backwards from resolutions already passed earlier that year in July and Sept.

Personally, I don't see the "embargo" workingng too well. China has recently pledged continue supplying armaments, ect. to Africa, and the US gov. seems only too willing to "cater" to modern China despite...

For more information about the paucity of information being made available about the crisis in Darfur, please check out www.beawitness.org
For students who are interested in helping organize divestment and other Sudan related activities at their colleges and high school, please visit www.savedarfur.org
Get involved and make a difference.