By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. <BRKa.N> <BRKb.N> are the targets of a new campaign pushing them to divest their stakes in PetroChina Co. <0857.HK> <PTR.N> because of the Chinese oil company's alleged ties to genocide in Sudan. Actress Mia Farrow and several groups focused on the Darfur region are pushing for divestment in advertising this week on CNN television and in publications that include USA Today, The Washington Post, Time and Newsweek. Ads will also appear on billboards in Omaha, Nebraska, and in that city's World-Herald newspaper, ahead of Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday. One Berkshire shareholder is offering a resolution to force divesting from PetroChina. Berkshire opposes the resolution, but has called conditions in Sudan "deplorable" and said it admired the shareholder's motives. Buffett is the world's second-richest person, recently worth about $52 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Last June he pledged 85 percent of his net worth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. "His withdrawal of his (millions) would not only be representatively powerful, but symbolically powerful," Farrow said on a conference call. "For him to do anything otherwise would be unconscionable." She said she closed a retirement account with Fidelity after learning of its PetroChina stake. Berkshire, Boston-based Fidelity and PetroChina did not immediately respond to requests for comment. As of Dec. 31, Berkshire owned a 1.3 percent stake in PetroChina valued at $3.31 billion, according to its annual report. Berkshire is PetroChina's largest foreign shareholder. Fidelity, one of the world's biggest mutual fund companies, at year end owned 4.5 million American depositary receipts valued at about $633 million, according to Thomson ShareWatch. DEATH, DISPLACEMENT Some pension funds and universities have divested from PetroChina because of the alleged link with Sudan, which the United States has accused of letting genocide occur in western Darfur. Sudan's government has denied that charge. The United Nations has estimated that since 2003, some 200,000 people have died and more than 2 million people have been displaced in Darfur. PetroChina parent China National Petroleum Corp. has a 41 percent stake in Petrodar Operating Co., whose main office is in Khartoum, according to Petrodar's Web site. The proposal by Berkshire shareholder Judith Porter of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, would bar Berkshire from investing in foreign companies whose activities would be prohibited for U.S. companies by Presidential order. Berkshire has said it had seen no records that PetroChina operates in Sudan, and that divesting would not improve Sudanese behavior. Buffett controls 33 percent of Berkshire's voting power. To encourage open debate, he offered tickets to some protesters to the annual meeting, which is normally a celebration open only to shareholders and known as "Woodstock for Capitalists." Last year, Buffett won wide praise for his charitable giving. "I have to assume, given his philanthropic endeavors, he doesn't fully know" what is happening in Darfur, Farrow said. "We remain hopeful." (Additional reporting by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
