BOSTON -- Actress Mia Farrow showed slides from four trips to the Darfur region of Sudan as she pleaded Thursday for Massachusetts lawmakers to divest state pension funds in the African nation where experts say genocide is being committed.
"I'm not an expert on anything, but I can convey what I know to be true," Farrow told members of the Joint Public Service Committee during a hearing at the Statehouse. "No one is safe in the Darfur region of Sudan."
The former wife of crooner Frank Sinatra, as well as the muse for director Woody Allen, Farrow illustrated her point with a slideshow depicting burned villages, hungry refugees and the paramilitary groups blamed for the deaths of 400,000 people and the displacement of 2 million.
Also addressing the committee was Eric Reeves, a Smith College English professor and leading analyst on Sudan. He noted that seven other states have already adopted such divestment bills.
Gov. Deval Patrick said he supports the idea.
"I don't know the specifics of the bills, but I lived in that part of the world so I'm very sensitive to what's going on over there and if we can do it responsibly, we probably ought to do it," Patrick said.
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