Perdue signs bill aimed to help stop genocide in Darfur
April 29, 2009 at 7:01 pm by Thomas Wheatley in News
Effective immediately, companies wishing to do business with the state of Georgia — and be paid with your tax dollars — best not have ties with Sudan.
Gov. Sonny Perdue today signed a bill that prohibits the state from contracting with companies that conduct business or have ties to the African country’s oil, power, mineral and military sectors. Profits from the sectors are widely believed to help perpetrate genocide in the nation’s southern region of Darfur.
Since 2003, more than 400,000 people have been killed and 2.3 million displaced by genocide in the African nation’s southern region of Darfur. The atrocities, which have been condemned by the United States, are carried out by militias funded by the Sudanese government.
“What this says is very simple,” state Sen. David Adelman, D-Decatur, the bill’s sponsor, said after its signing. “If your business or any of its affiliates are engaged in any business activities with the government of Sudan, you cannot do business with the state of Georgia.”
Companies that plan to do business with Georgia state agencies are now required to disclose international business contracts during the Request for Proposal, or RFP, process. If a company falsifies or fails to accurately disclose its ties with Sudan, it could be fined $250,000 or double the bid it submitted to the state, whichever is greater. The company could also lose the contract and be ineligible to bid on state projects for three years.
“Companies are going to have a choice,” Adelman said. “You can either do business with the war criminals who are perpetrating the genocide in Darfur, or you can do business with Georgia. This bill ensures no Georgia taxpayer money will in any way support a regime that is supporting the genocide in Darfur.”
The U.S. government already prohibits federal agencies from conducting business with companies affiliated with or that do business in the power, oil, gas and mining industries in Sudan. That bill, signed in 2004, allows state and local governments to pass similar legislation.
Adelman said he first became aware of the genocide in Darfur 10 years ago. Since then, he’s pushed the bill each year. This year, his colleagues were finally able to support the measure. Several of his Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle signed onto the bill. It overwhelmingly passed both chambers.
“It’s taken a couple of years to get this passed,” said Melanie Nelkin, chair of the Darfur Urgent Action Coalition of Georgia. “But good things are worth fighting for.”
Nelkin said the coalition has worked with Adelman since last summer to craft the legislation. She said the number of Georgia companies that have done business with Sudan are few.
“Many of these companies are given an opportunity to change their behavior,” Nelkin said. “And many have. So we just basically say to them, if you change your behavior and not operate your business in Sudan while this is going on, we’d appreciate it.”
State lawmakers can revisit the bill if the situation in Sudan changes. Any repeal of the law requires explicit action by the federal government or the United Nations.
On March 4, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir expelled humanitarian groups from Darfur after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
(Courtesy Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office)
April 30th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Sonny can’t operate in the black and he won’t allow Georgians to buy booze on Sundays, but I’ll rest better knowing that he… well, let’s face it, this is a toothless, useless, act; which means nothing to Georgians and even less to the dying in Darfur. Of course, now that Sonny and the GA Assembly have squared away the folks in Africa, maybe they can turn their undivided attention to the State of Georgia.