Gaffney said he sees a diverse political alliance coalescing around efforts to prod investors to cut their ties with Sudan. The coalition includes human rights activists, security hawks who highlight the Khartoum regime’s sponsorship of terrorism, and African American clergymen who are concerned by the regime’s targeting of Christians and dark-skinned Sudanese.

Fighting side-by-side against the Sudanese regime, former Republican administration officials and Democratic congressmen have become “soul mates,” Gaffney said.

Firms with links to the Sudanese regime could see their stock prices crater as divestment pressure mounts, Gaffney said.

“If the reputation of these companies suffers as a result of, say, being implicated in this horror in Sudan, or...if Sudan is tagged in a future terrorist attack,” Gaffney said, “you could see the values of their shares decline. And if that happens, the endowment suffers.”

Clinton administration officials accused Sudan of developing chemical weapons, and the United States bombed a factory in Khartoum six years ago. But both President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry have stopped short of saying they would use force to stop the ongoing slaughter of civilians in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

Since February 2003, Sudanese bombers and government-backed Arab militiamen have coordinated attacks on black Muslim villages in the region, leaving more than 50,000 dead and forcing over 1.6 million Darfurians to flee from their homes.

A CALL TO ACTION

Since humanitarian conditions in Darfur deterioriated earlier this year, Manav Bhatnagar ’06 began following the situation closely, along with his Eliot House roommate Ben Collins ’06. After learning of Harvard’s involvement in PetroChina last week, Collins said he and Bhatnagar purchased a web domain for $10 and drafted a petition “demand[ing] that the University actively oppose and resist the ongoing genocide in Sudan.”

The petition—which was forwarded widely over e-mail list-servs Sunday night—calls on University President Lawrence H. Summers “to publicly state that the University will not invest in any corporation that conducts business with the Sudanese government for as long as Sudan is in violation of international norms of human rights.”

Summers declined to comment through a spokeswoman, who said he had not discussed the issue with advisers.

Collins and Bhatnagar said they had e-mailed only a handful of professors thus far. They plan to send personalized messages to faculty later this week.

While the petition garnered the support of over 100 students in less than 24 hours, only one professor and one Harvard staff member had signed as of last evening.

The staff member, Chip Robinson, a librarian at Widener and non-resident tutor in Leverett House, said he learned about the petition from the College Democrats list-serv.