U.S. and Others Forget Christ-followers
Sudan's slaves imprisoned in obscurity
Sudan's slaves imprisoned in obscurity
The twenty-year long Sudanese civil war has been waged on the periphery of the
consciousness of the Western world. Two million people have perished in that
conflict, 4 million more displaced, mostly
Christian blacks living in the southern part of the
country, a civilian population deliberately targeted by the fundamentalist
Islamic government
in Khartoum for mass starvation and enslavement.
The description of the violence in Sudan as a civil war is itself a misnomer, suggesting that counter political claims — rather than unilateral religious extremism — lie at its core. The inhabitants of southern Sudan are, in fact, unknown victims of the world's longest-running jihad.
Only occasionally have the images of the starving, of the walking skeletons and the children with distended bellies, reached the evening news or the front pages of major newspapers. The persistence of widespread slavery into the twenty-first century is almost completely unreported. That Sudan served as a haven for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida from 1991 to 1996 is the extent to which many Americans are cognizant of the north African country, if at all.
Although the existence of slavery in Sudan has been well-documented by international groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Sudan, the Khartoum government has worked incessantly to obscure its policy of enslavement and to discredit those who report it. Its most recent target is Francis Bok, a black Christian who has recounted his own experience as human chattel in a newly published autobiography, "Escape from Slavery."
Behind the political scenes, a growing coalition of American groups has labored to focus the resources of the U.S. government on the tragedy in Sudan. That coalition, consisting of multi-religious and multi-ethnic groups and secular human rights organizations, in 1999 pushed through Congress with overwhelming bi-partisan support a resolution condemning the Sudanese government for systematic genocide. Days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, it succeeded in having President Bush dispatch former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., as his special envoy for Sudan.
After two years, the efforts of Danforth and others in the international community have borne fruit, with a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the rebel People's Liberation Army. Under its terms, southern Sudan is to be granted six-year, interim autonomy before its residents vote on a referendum for independence. But the issue of slavery, and the fate of thousands of black slaves currently held in the north, is conspicuously absent from the agreement.
Why would rebel leaders consent to an accord that failed to confront slavery? At stake in negotiations between the government and the rebels are valuable water and oil resources, as well as billions of dollars in international aid. In acquiescing to Khartoum's desire to ignore the issue of slavery, PLA leaders have subordinated human lives to power and money.
Khartoum's failure to recognize — let alone accept responsibility for — gross human rights abuses, the continued attacks against Bok and anti-slavery activists, the absence of the issue of slavery from the peace agenda; all are reasons why hopes for peace in Sudan may be misplaced.
"The government of Sudan doesn't have much credibility," Tommy Calvert, Jr., the American Anti-Slavery Group's Chief of External Operations, told me. "Khartoum is a known state-supporter of terrorism that has broken peace agreements before."
Calvert, who grew up in San Antonio, returned from a mission to Sudan two weeks ago. He reported another disturbing development. Since July, the international community has charged UNICEF with freeing and repatriating slaves. Yet despite a cessation in violence that means the retrieval of slaves can be conducted safely, UNICEF has yet to free a single human being from captivity.
Danforth has stated that a just and lasting peace in Sudan cannot be achieved without an honest accounting and resolution of slavery. Tens of thousands of slaves remain in bondage there. As the world has ignored their plight in the past, it is now prepared to ignore their fate in the future.
"History will judge us and how we deal with this issue of slavery no less harshly than past generations," Calvert said. The international community has a political and economic stake in stabilizing Sudan and bringing it back into the community of nations. But in the rush to reach a peace agreement in that war-torn nation and profitably develop its natural resources, the slaves of southern Sudan must not be forgotten.
Source: Christian Monitor
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