State officials may sell Sudan pension holdings

? State officials are starting to ask whether Kansas’ public pension system should sell its holdings in Sudan to put pressure to end the genocide there.

Sonny Scroggins, a Topeka activist who has called for divestment from Sudan for years, says it’s about time.

“Any benefits received from investments in that country is blood money because of the human lives lost,” Scroggins said.

The U.S. has accused the Sudanese government of genocide against ethnic African tribes in fighting that has left 200,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless since 2003.

In Kansas, a House-Senate committee on pensions will be briefed Wednesday on investments by the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System into Sudan.

KPERS administers retirement plans for state and local public employees. It has assets of $12.2 billion and 250,000 members, including all state employees and school teachers.

Glenn Deck, executive director of KPERS, said the retirement system’s investment in the African nation is relatively small.

“We don’t have direct investments in Sudan. There are companies that have business connections to Sudan,” Deck said.

Sonny Scroggins, an activist from Topeka, would like to see the U.S. withdraw investments it has in the Sudan after the Sudanese government has been accused of genocide of African tribes. Kansas officials are considering selling holdings of the public pension system the state has in Sudan.

He declined to say how much in holdings was involved, saying he wanted to share that information first with the committee.

Six states have divested from Sudan and 20 others are considering it, he said.

Earlier this month, North Carolina’s pension fund announced it was selling holdings in companies that officials say provide financial support to the Sudanese government. About $24 million of the $70 billion pension fund was invested in the companies, officials said.

And U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has been a vocal supporter of pressuring the Sudanese government with economic sanctions, as well as deploying a peacekeeping force.

But a divestment plan by Illinois’ state pension fund is being challenged in court by the National Foreign Trade Council, a business group that says the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from making foreign policy decisions.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many retirement systems, including KPERS, and private entities divested holdings in companies that did business in South Africa to protest the country’s apartheid. Many credit those efforts with helping topple the racist policy.

Scroggins said KPERS needed to act again to put pressure on Sudan.

“Swift and prompt divestiture of investments is the humane thing to do and a noble concern,” he said.