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A Resolution adopted by the City of Edina, Minnesota certifying that no funds have been invested in a targeted list of companies whose operations are deemed to be complicit with the Government of Sudan's genocidal activities in Darfur, Sudan and prohibiting the purchase of such securities in the future Background to this Resolution: On July 23, 2004, the United States Congress declared that "the atrocities unfolding in Darfur, Sudan are genocide." On December 7, 2004, Congress found that "the Government of Sudan has restricted access by humanitarian and human rights workers to the Darfur area through intimidation by military and security forces, and through bureaucratic and administrative obstruction, in an attempt to inflict the most devastating harm on those individuals displaced from their villages and homes without any means of sustenance or shelter." On September 25, 2006, Congress reaffirmed that "the genocide unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan is characterized by acts of terrorism and atrocities directed against civilians, including mass murder, rape, and sexual violence committed by the Janjaweed and associated militias with the complicity and support of the National Congress party-led faction of the Government of Sudan." The Darfur crisis represents the first time in history that the United States Government has labeled ongoing atrocities as genocide. On Aprit 16, 2007 the University of Minnesota adopted a policy of targeted divestment from companies that support the genocidal government of Sudan. On May 23, 2007, the State of Minnesota passed a bill divestin Minnesota's St from companies complicit in the genocide. Upon signing, the Governor stated, "M nn a otans cann be ment proud that we are taking action to help cut off the flow of money to Sudan's military. We're doing our part to stop the crimes and inhumanities in Darfur." On July 3, 2007, the City of Edina, Minnesota became the third city in the United States to pass a resolution urging that the United States government safeguard the security of innocent non-combatant men, women and children in Darfur, Sudan, where the United States has declared genocide to be occurring. On December 31, 2007, the President of the United States signed into law the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007 (S. 2271), which authorizes state and local governments to divest from Sudan and prohibits federal contracts with companies that support the Khartoum government of Sudan. On February 6, 2008, the City of St. Paul, Minnesota passed a resolution asking the United States government to take a stronger stand against genocide. The City also certified that no funds are held in companies supporting the Darfur genocide and prohibited the future investment in such companies. The Federal Government has imposed sanctions against the Government of Sudan since 1997. These sanctions are monitored through the United States Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, also known as "OFAC." According to a former chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, "The fact that a foreign company is doing material business with a country, government, or entity on OFAC's sanctions list is, in the SEC staff's view, substantially likely to be significant to a reasonable investor's decision about • whether to invest in that company."