To the editor:

Although I was heartened by the light shed by both Trudy Rubin’s column on the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and Richard R. Stumbo’s letter outlining possible NATO intervention to stop the slaughter, I am still perplexed about the financial support provided to this genocidal regime by a wide array of public pension and retirement funds. Nationally, over $92 billion is invested with companies that www.divestsudan.org describes as “Sudan-active companies.”

The organization goes on to note that, “According to public reports, some 83 publicly traded companies are currently active in Sudan. These companies provide the lifeblood for the genocidal Khartoum regime.”

Locally, the groups that have such investments include the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System (KPERS) with a whopping $365,305,079, and the Missouri State Employees’ Retirement System (MSERS) is invested to the tune of $151,778,894.

If we are serious about deterring the ethnic cleansing occurring in this region, we should remember that firms that financially supported the apartheid regime in South Africa did not divest themselves of this financial support until pressure was brought to bear domestically.

For those who wonder what they can do to address this tragedy half-way around the globe, I suggest they begin by questioning the retirement investment policies of public groups whose stated purpose is the security and well-being of its members, but whose concerns seem to stop at the local borders.

Robert Sokol,

Lawrence