http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2006/09/26/politics/gnp-governor26.prt
Politics
Governor visits the area, signs two bills
Schwarzenegger lashes out at Sudan, signs legislation that will end government investment there.
BURBANK AIRPORT DISTRICT — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
visited the Hilton Burbank Airport and Convention Center on Monday to sign
two pieces of legislation intended to put pressure on leaders in Sudan to
halt government-sponsored genocide in the Darfur region.
The first law, Assembly Bill 2941, will prohibit the state's pension
programs — the California Public Employees Retirement System and the State
Teachers Retirement System — from making investments in corporations with
business ties to Sudan.
"This is an action that says we do not cooperate with
them in the horrors of Darfur," he said. "We will not pay for it; we will
not support it and we will not enable it."
The second piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 2179, provides legal
safeguards for the University of California against potential liability
issues that could stem from state divestiture of funds from companies with
interests in Sudan, he said.
Joining Schwarzenegger for the bill-signing ceremony on Monday were former
U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, celebrity activists Don Cheadle and
George Clooney and Assemblymen Tim Leslie and Paul Koretz, who wrote the
bills. Also in attendance was Father Vazken Movsesian, a parish priest at
St. Peter Armenian Church in Glendale and director of In His Shoes
Ministries, which lobbied heavily for the legislation, raising money and
collecting petition signatures.
"It's our way of saying that we're walking in the shoes of the people of
Darfur, just as we've gone through our own genocide," Movsesian said. "It's
sending a loud, clear signal that genocide will not be tolerated in the
modern world. The one weapon that we have is money. It costs money to run a
genocide and by California — the world's fifth-largest economy — divesting
from Sudan, it's sending a signal that if you continue it, you're out of
money. Without picking up any guns, without killing anybody, we're making a
difference."
The Sudanese genocide, which began in 2003, has resulted in the death of
hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and left millions homeless,
Schwarzenegger said.
"No one is being spared, and even if the violence would stop today, the
country would still have deep scars for many generations to come," he said.
The governor also signed a bill on Monday that permits California residents
affected by the Armenian Genocide to pursue legal challenges against
financial institutions that withhold deposited or looted assets, extending
the statute of limitations to Dec. 31, 2016.
Schwarzenegger has signed Armenian Genocide Commemoration bills every year
since he took office in 2003.