Massachusetts reviews policy

Massachusetts reviews policy

BOSTON (Reuter): Massachusetts, which has barred companies
from doing business with the state if they do business in
Myanmar, will consider expanding the policy to include Indonesia
yesterday.

A legislative committee is to take up debate on a measure that
seeks not only to bar companies from doing business with
Massachusetts if they do business with Indonesia, but also calls
for the state to divest its pension funds of all Indonesian
assets.

State Representative Antonio Cabral, Democrat from New
Bedford, said in an interview with Reuters he introduced the
measure to protest at Indonesia's treatment of East Timor, which
"has been the site of human rights abuses for more than 20
years."

Jose Ramos-Horta, one of the two East Timorese to be awarded
the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, is also expected to testify at the
hearing.

If the measure becomes law, it will force Massachusetts
Treasurer Joe Malone to divest the public pension funds, now
totaling more than $18 billion, of all Indonesian holdings.

"We abhor human rights violations wherever they may occur in
the world and we encourage the Legislature to fully debate and
enact Representative Cabral's bill," Malone said through a
spokesman.

Massachusetts holds $5.4 million in Indonesian securities
directly and another $6.3 million indirectly through co-mingled
funds. It is unclear, however, how much of the state's total
portfolio is tied to firms that do business in the island nation.

But the United Nations has never recognized East Timor's
integration into the Republic of Indonesia in 1976 and still
regards Portugal as the administering power.

"If this passes, it's the best thing that could happen to East
Timor," Cabral said of his bill. "It will generate the kind of
attention needed to resolve the situation."

Massachusetts is in the process of revising its list of 545
companies with which it would no longer do business. Those firms
include Sony, the Bank of Tokyo and Mitsubishi.