Posted on 02/01/2005 1:02:27 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - Claims by the nation's biggest public pension fund that it has found no investments in Sudan prompted complaints Monday from U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, that the California Public Employees Retirement System is dismissing concerns about supporting Sudanese genocide.
Lee released a CalPERS letter which stated it has discovered no Sudanese investments among 1,869 companies in which it owns shares. But CalPERS also acknowledged in the letter that only 11 percent of those companies responded to its survey last year about such investments.
Lee spokesman Nathan Britton said the congresswoman considers the pension fund's response inadequate.
Lee was among numerous congressional representatives recently to visit Darfur, Sudan, where they saw thousands of refugees that both Congress and President Bush have called victims of "ethnic cleansing."
Britton said CalPERS' claim to have no known investments conflicts with a study last year that said CalPERS had invested $7.5 billion in companies that do business in oil-rich Sudan. The study by the for-profit Conflict Securities Advisory Group in Washington, D.C., said public pension funds have invested $91 billion in companies doing business in Sudan. The study, originally done for the conservative Center for Security Policy, cited $5.8 billion in such holdings by the California State Teachers Retirement System. But the study didn't identify companies specifically tied to Sudanese investments.
Lawmakers in New Jersey and Massachusetts are considering bills to divest of any Sudanese investments. A national effort called the Sudan Campaign is also pressing a divestment campaign similar to 1980s efforts to stop investments in South Africa.
CalPERS spokesman Brad Pacheco said the $180 billion fund hopes to head off divestment in California.
"We're trying to use our influence to get these multinational companies to quit doing business there rather than take the radical step of divesting, which wouldn't make sense from a fiduciary point of view," he said.
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On the Net:
The Sudan Campaign: http://www.sudancampaign.com
California Public Employees Retirement System: http://www.calpers.ca.gov
According to the UN, there is no genocide in Sudan.
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