RICHMOND — Darfur’s genocide is not forgotten, Del. Shannon Valentine, D-Lynchburg, told the House of Delegates on Friday.
Valentine has introduced bills in the General Assembly the past three years aimed at penalizing corporations that do business with Sudan, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed in its Darfur region. Each time, the bills died in committees.
But on Friday morning, Valentine said, she received a letter from an E.C. Glass student who was among the first of 556 at the school to ask her, three years ago, why Virginia’s state retirement fund was investing in companies that do business with the African nation.
“Her letter was long, but the real question to me was, ‘Have we forgotten?’” Valentine said.
Congress has noted the genocide, Valentine said, adding that “this is the first time in history a genocide has been named as it has been going on. And it is the first time we have had an opportunity to actually intervene.”
More than half of U.S. states have taken action in response to the genocide, Valentine said, either by pulling out their investments in corporations that do business there or refusing to sign contracts with them for goods or services.
Valentine said that this year, two General Assembly committees granted hearings on her change-of-strategy attempt to keep Virginia from signing contracts with companies that are regarded as being complicit in the genocide.
“It targeted only the most offensive companies,” Valentine said, adding that 12 corporations have changed their policies or ceased work in Sudan because 27 states and 18 countries have divested themselves of business related to Sudan.
“While it did not pass in Virginia, I would like to thank the chairmen of General Laws and Appropriations committees who allowed a full hearing on this,” Valentine said.
“But this is a worldwide effort” among countries that are “doing everything they can economically to stand against the atrocities that are going on in Sudan,” she said.
“The young woman ended her letter today talking about the urgency of this,” Valentine said. “Every day, men are being murdered, women are being raped, children are being slaughtered.
“These are real human beings who are enduring unspeakable suffering,” Valentine said.
After ending her floor speech, Valentine said, “I didn’t forget.”
She also said that if the genocide was still going on next year, she would submit another bill targeting corporations that do business with Sudan.
The International Criminal Court at The Hague has said it will announce next week its decision on whether to issue a warrant charging Sudan President Omar al-Bashir with masterminding a campaign of murder, torture and rape by government troops and Arab militias in Darfur.
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