A state senator is calling for a boycott of Iowa investments in the African nation of Sudan. Senator Mike Connolly, a Democrat from Dubuque, is sponsoring legislation that requires state retirement funds to stop any investment in businesses related to Sudan within three years.
Connolly says the move would signal a protest to the fighting between the Sudanese government and rebel factions in Darfur that are believed to have killed more than 200-thousand people and displaced another two-and-a-half million.
Connolly says "money talks" and when businesses threaten to pull out their investments or are pulling out, that has a way of changing things. Connolly makes a correlation between the number of people involved in Sudan and Iowa.
Connolly says with 200,000 dead and over two million displaced, it’s almost like the population of the entire state of Iowa. Connolly says up to 20 other states are considering similar legislation.
Connolly says it’s generally thought that the sanctions taken by the 50 states against South Africa were a factor in getting rid of apartheid there, and this action is intended to do the same thing in the Sudan. Connolly’s bill passed a Senate committee and now awaits debate in the full Senate.