Speak out on slavery in Sudan

Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Susan Rice recently aroused the anger of the Islamic government in Khartoum when she visited the rebel-held southern part of civil war-torn Sudan and met former slaves there. During her November visit, Rice expressed outrage at hearing the testimonials of women and children who had been "captured, enslaved, held, beaten, tortured, and raped" by Arab militiamen.

"I'm here to show the world, despite what the government of Khartoum says, despite what some of our partners in the European Union pretend ... slavery exists," Rice said.

"Slavery is a crime against humanity. If pressed on the matter, the U.N. would have to consider expelling Sudan from the world body. There might be trials at the World Court, and sanctions." "Even a nation whose Arab League partners have warned the world that the charge of slavery against Sudan is an 'offense against the Arab world.'"

More than 2 million people are believed to have died during the 17-year civil war between the Islamic regime and the autonomy-seeking south, populated mainly by Christians and animists. Congress has defined the conflict as a "genocidal war." Human rights groups say hundreds of thousands of southerners have been enslaved by Muslim traders, and some have initiated campaigns to buy freedom for slaves. Southern rebel militias have also been accused on occasion of abuses.

Meanwhile the atrocities continue, said John Eibner of Christian Solidarity International, a Swiss-based organization that has helped campaigns to free more than 38,000 enslaved Sudanese, mostly children, since 1995.

In mid-November, Sudanese President Omar Bashir encouraged 12,000 troops in a western town that serves as a center for the slave trade to continue their jihad in the south.

Even as the president was addressing his men, a Popular Defense Forces unit "was enslaving approximately 150 women and children in raids on villages of the Jur tribe ... ," Eibner said in a letter to the United Nations Children's Fund. "A few days later, on 20 November, they again struck, enslaving 24 school children and executing three with gunshots to the head during a raid on the Guong Nowh Community Elementary School."

The slave raids coincide with renewed bombing missions by Sudanese warplanes, some of which have destroyed relief agency facilities in southern Sudan, Eibner said. Apart from loss of freedom, enslaved Sudanese face further abuses, according to CSI, including murder, rape, female genital mutilation, beatings and forcible change of religious and ethnic
identity.

Goodenough is the London bureau chief with CNSNews.com. Used by permission. BP Photo Library at www.bpnews.net. Photo title: TINY VICTIM.

By Patrick Goodenough
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Religion Today - December 5, 2000

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