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.