Show regents that UCLA supports divestment

A little over a decade ago, the world watched as at least
500,000 were killed in the Rwandan genocide. Despite the promises
of “never again,” we are once again faced with a
massacre that fails to generate sustained attention. Now, the
conflict in the Darfur region rages into its third year.

The U.S. Congress has declared it a genocide. But utterance of
the word has failed to engender any further significant action.

Here at UCLA, the Darfur Action Committee has worked over the
past two years to raise awareness of the conflict and to offer
avenues of action.

The DAC embarked in April 2005 on a campaign to encourage the
University of California to stop investing in companies that do
business in Sudan.

This process, called targeted divestment, would eliminate the
UC’s support of companies that are directly or indirectly
helping the government carry out its atrocities. The UC has only
divested twice in its history.

As one of the largest university systems in the world, UC
divestment would raise an incredible amount of public awareness,
set an example for other colleges to follow, and pressure companies
complicit in the massacre to stop supporting the Sudanese
government.

Our group fully acknowledges that divestment is a contentious
issue. Some will argue that it is costly to the university, that it
harms Sudan’s disaffected population more than the entrenched
government regime, or that the Sudanese government bears no
responsibility for the destruction of Darfur.

During our campaign, we have thoroughly addressed each of these
questions and issued extensively researched reports, backed by
expert testimony, on the validity of targeted divestment for
effecting change in Sudan with minimal impact on the
university’s finances or on Sudan’s poor.

In light of the historic nature of the UC Regents’ vote on
the divestment issue, the DAC invites the student body to be a part
of this globally conscious cause and come out to the to show
solidarity at the regents’ meeting at Covel Commons at 8 a.m.
today.

This is our generation’s first opportunity to tell our
nation that the massacre of 400,000 people, displacement of over
2.5 million more, and the systematic rape of Darfur’s women
must not be tolerated.

Gilde is a third-year history student and a member of
UCLA’s Darfur Action Committee.