Maine People's Alliance - Press Releases

Fur Cultural Revival recognizes Governor Baldacci, Legislators, MPA, NAACP Portland Branch and Peace Action Maine for work on Sudan Divestment

PORTLAND—Fur Cultural Revival of New England, the Portland-based organization of immigrants from the Darfur region of western Sudan, presented awards to Governor John Baldacci, Senator Ethan Strimling, Representative Deborah Pelletier-Simpson, Peace Action Maine, the Portland Branch of the NAACP and the Maine People's Alliance on April 18th in appreciation for their support in passing the Divestment from Sudan Act, which Governor Baldacci has signed into law.

At the ceremony, Mayor James Cohen welcomed Governor Baldacci, as well as the legislators and representatives of Fur Cultural Revival and the organizations which supported the divestment bill. Darfur is the location of what one United Nations official characterized as "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today." President Bush and Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan have called the ethnic cleansing of the Fur, Masaleit, Zagawa and other tribal peoples of Darfur genocide. In an effort to oppose the government of Sudan's mass killings in Darfur, many states, universities and colleges have started the process of divesting from companies which do business with the government of Sudan. Maine has now joined the list of Illinois, Oregon, New Jersey, Arizona, Louisiana, Delaware and California, as well as Harvard and Stanford Universities, Amherst College and others. Similar actions are pending in a dozen other states and hundreds of colleges and universities. The Maine Legislature passed the divestment legislation unanimously, following in Maine's great human rights tradition of having divested from South Africa and from Northern Ireland.