| Rolls Royce Withdraws Because of Darfur |
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The Aegis Trust's Darfur Divestment campaign has been informed by Rolls Royce that the company is withdrawing from Sudan. Rolls Royce has been supplying diesel engines and support for the oil sector in Sudan. The oil sector has boomed since oil was found in Sudan, allowing Khartoum's to spend its oil revenues on its military campaign in Darfur and on paying the Janjaweed. The Darfur Divestment campaign had been pushing for British companies which provide revenue for the Khartoum government to end their operations while the mass killings in Darfur continue.
British companies involved include Petrofac and the Weir group, while European companies include Total and Lundin. The Aegis Trust also is calling for British investors to withdraw from owning shares in Chinese, Malaysian and Indian oil companies operating in Sudan. For example Barclays Global Capital owns millions of pounds worth of shares in CNPC and its subsidiaries.
Background Sudanese oil revenues increased from $61million in 1999 to $2.2bn in 2005 - allowing Khartoum to more than double its military expenditure. The International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor has found evidence that the Sudanese government was using a shadowy web of front companies to funnel funds from oil industry and other revenues towards the Janjaweed militia. According to Human Rights Watch the Government paid a typical janjaweed militia member 300 Sudanese pounds per month (US$117pm).
Since 2003 between 200,000 and 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur - many targeted by the Janjaweed and Sudanese government because they came from non-Arab tribes. Over 2.5 million people - nearly half the population of Darfur - have been forced to flee their homes. Thousands of women have been raped. A Sudanese government minister is one of the first to indicted for crimes against humanity. The targeted divestment campaign seeks to avoid damaging humanitarian consequences and therefore only seeks to withdraw investments from those companies which: - Contribute to government revenue or government sponsored project; - Impart minimal benefit to the country's people; and - Have demonstrated no substantial corporate governance policy regarding the Darfur situation. There are around 50 companies which meet these criteria. Many pension funds also have investments in these companies. One example is Barclays which holds shares via its iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 fund in two Chinese companies: PetroChina and Sinopec and via Barclays’ iShares MSCI Malaysia Index fund in Petronas, a Malaysian company operating in Sudan. The Aegis Trust is an independent, international organisation, dedicated to eliminating genocide. It established the Holocaust Centre in the UK and, together with Kigali City Council, built and manages the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda. Aegis runs the Darfur Divestment campaign internationally (and helped to set up Sudan Divestment UK). You can find more details at www.darfurdivestment.org Comment Dr James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust, said, "The recognition of Rolls Royce of its moral duty to withdraw from Sudan while the killings in Darfur continue is to be saluted. During the apartheid years many UK companies heeded the call of the anti-apartheid movement to withdraw from South Africa - the time has come for other European companies to follow Rolls Royce's lead.
"We call on Barclays Bank - one of the companies that left apartheid South Africa to join the campaign by selling its stake in these Chinese oil companies while the mass killings continue. Nobody's pension should be invested in companies which line the pockets of the mass murderers running Sudan." |
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