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When refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan leave the
camps to collect firewood, the men are killed by Janjaweed militias —
so they send the women, who are often raped. It’s conditions such as these that have ignited
an international movement for change in Darfur, including an international
divestment campaign. On Sunday, Olu-Jimi Adeniyi, a Nigerian-born
Springfield artist and gallery owner, hosted a fundraiser at First
Christian Church for the Darfur Women’s Relief Fund to purchase solar
cookers — devices equipped with reflective panels to heat food with
the use of sunlight alone. “We might feel powerless to stop such an
overwhelming tragedy,” says state Sen. Jacqueline Collins, who spoke
at the event, “but it’s a growing human concern to more and
more people worldwide.”
The government of Sudan is believed to be providing
support for the militias, whose members have slaughtered hundreds of
thousands of people since 2003. A combined United Nations and African Union
force of 26,000 peacekeepers is expected to be deployed before the end of
2007. In February, Collins introduced legislation to
prohibit Illinois from doing business with “forbidden entities”
operating in Sudan. The bill passed both chambers of the Legislature, and
Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed it into law in late August. The bill was revised from previous legislation, also
initiated by Collins, that cut the state’s ties with corporations
that had even the slightest involvement in Sudan. Several state pension
funds and businesses represented by the National Foreign Trade Council
blocked the state from implementing the law this spring [See R.L. Nave,
“State’s wrong,” March 1]. Collins’ revised bill made technical changes to
the original law — although many state agencies with holdings in
Sudan had already divested — and became effective immediately.
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2007.
