Word: darfurs
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April 4, 2005: After considerable student pressure, Harvard announces it will divest from PetroChina, a firm linked to the genocide in Darfur. In doing so, the Corporation points to Bok’s writings and upholds the precedent of “a strong presumption against [divestment]” unless there are “exceptional circumstances...
Four years later, the University decided to divest its holdings in PetroChina due to the company’s financial ties to genocide in Darfur. The effect was, even just superficially, quite different—public attention focused on the magnitude and intractability of the problem, and Harvard divested for the fourth time in its history...
Like Summers’ comments about Israel, the basic message about Darfur took advantage of the gravitas of the Harvard name. While the United Nations waffled on what word to apply to the mass murder, displacement, and rape going on in the Sudan, Harvard stated that the genocide in Darfur was something the University took very seriously. And, indeed, one of the most powerful statements Harvard can make is nominating what things we, as a society, should take seriously...
...Harvard’s decisions have to fit within a broader movement. On apartheid, Gulf oil, and tobacco, other investors followed suit, and Harvard’s move carried large public weight. So far, Harvard’s divestment from Sudan has been largely neglected externally, and progress on Darfur has been slow. But at least as far as PetroChina is concerned, Harvard has done what it can, and we must now look to other institutions to follow suit...
...substantial revenue from Sudan’s oil production has gone toward the purchase of weapons.” Then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin S. Powell said in September 2004 that “genocide has been committed” in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, and that Sudan’s government along with so-called Janjaweed militiamen “bear responsibility.” As the Darfur crisis persisted, more than 80 faculty members and nearly 800 students signed an online petition urging the University to divest from PetroChina. The petition also urged University...