Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed a law Friday ensuring that the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System won’t be investing in companies doing business in Sudan.

The measure is designed to pressure Sudan into ending violence in its Darfur region. The government has been blamed for atrocities in an ethnic conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.

“The horrific genocide taking place in Sudan is well-documented, and we want to have nothing to do with companies that are doing business in that nation so long as its government does nothing to stop the killing,” Sebelius said.

Pension officials have said the system has about $38 million invested in companies with ties to Sudan, the largest amount being $16 million in PetroChina, a Chinese oil firm. The law allows KPERS to retain investments in passively managed funds in which the estimated cost of divestment would exceed a certain threshold.

Kansas University students were among those who lobbied for the bill this year.