newsminer.com

JUNEAU — More than 100 people rallied in front of the Capitol steps Wednesday, calling for Alaska’s oil riches investment program to be divested of holdings in Sudan because of the violence in Darfur.

Those attending the student-led rally, which featured 15 state lawmakers touting support legislation, say the Permanent Fund Corp. should follow 41 other states that have adopted or considered similar changes.

Since 2003, an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have fled their homes in this African nation’s conflict.

“The message is pretty simple,” said state Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage. “Alaska holdings should not support genocide.”

A small group of those in the rally lay in front of the steps to symbolize what the United States has called government-sponsored genocide in Darfur.

The rally also included supporters carrying signs encouraging people to back House Bill 287 and Senate Bill 227.

The emotional 30-minute gathering also had its dose of reality. Neither the lawmakers nor the supporters expected the Legislature to pass the bills this session.

Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, who co-sponsored the House bill with Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, broke the news to the crowd while assuring them it was not a partisan issue.

Rally leader Lauren Tibbitts-Travis, a sophomore at Juneau-Douglas High School, said she wasn’t surprised to hear Lynn’s words.

“Money makes the world go around,” the 16-year-old girl said “Everybody knows it.”

Tibbitts-Travis said she became interested in Darfur while studying other historic examples of genocide such as the Holocaust, which led to the death of an estimated six million Jews during World War II.

“I felt ashamed,” she said.

Last December, President Bush signed legislation that allows states and local governments to cut investment ties with Sudan.

Gara encouraged the crowd not to give up.

“There are things we can do to make a difference,” he said. “Do you want to make money off of blood? Do you want to make money off of genocide?”

Permanent Fund Corp. officials declined comment Wednesday, deferring to testimony provided last month to the House State Affairs Committee by Michael Burns, the chief executive officer.

Burns said the fund does not invest with a “social or political agenda.”

“If the Legislature directs the trustees and staff to divest assets from the fund in the manner prescribed in this bill, we will do so,” Burns told the committee.

“However, we urge you not to take this step,” he said. “Placing a social investment directive on the fund would be a significant change to our core mission.”

The $37 billion fund produces an annual dividend to nearly every man, woman and child just for living in Alaska. Last year’s check was for $1,654.

According to an Alaska legislative research report, the impact of divesting Sudanese holdings on the state’s investment earnings would be minimal, about $22 million or less than 1 percent of the fund’s total market value.