Sudan 101 / Slavery in Sudan
Sudan is a country that is often in the news but many people are confused by the pieces of information that don’t quite give the full picture. Today I hope to complete some of that picture for you regarding the 25+-year genocide. I will also shed light on the ongoing slavery in Sudan, explain the recent decision by the International Criminal Court prosecutor to request an arrest warrant for the dictator of Sudan and hopefully place a light at the end of this dark tunnel for democracy in Sudan.
Sudan is the largest country in Africa.
It is located in the horn of Africa and its borders lie with the Red Sea, Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
For over 2,000 years, slavery has been common throughout Africa, with the countries of the Middle East exporting the Africans and at the same time, moving their populations into the northern most regions of Africa to Arabize the territory.
In the mid 1800s the territory now known as Sudan was colonized by Great Britain and co-administered by Egypt.
The northern territory of Sudan, a part of the Sahara Desert, is occupied by nomadic and semi nomadic Arab Muslims while the fertile southern region is occupied by the black Africans who are predominantly Christian.
In 1956, Sudan was decolonized but in 1955 war between the north and south had already begun.
The aim of the first civil war was “independence of Southern Sudan” from what seemed was a mere replacement of one set of colonial masters for another and of a worse type, as the Arab community had been passed the powers reins.
This first civil war ended in 1972 with the signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement which was mediated by Emperor Haille Selassie of Ethiopia.
The Addis Ababa Agreement granted southern Sudan regional autonomy, with its own legislature, executive and judiciary branches. The peace lasted for only ten years.
The Addis Ababa Agreement failed as the agreement neither put the southern Sudanese in the center of power in parity with the north nor did it allow them the right of self determination. At the same time, the north continued with its project of Islamization and Arabization of the entire country.
The president of Sudan, President Nimeiri finally abrogated the agreement in June 1983, attempted to annex the newly discovered South Sudan oil fields into the northern region, and proceeded to establish Islamic Sharia as the supreme law of Sudan.
In the same year the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (the SPLA) and Movement were formed and the second civil war between the north and south commenced.
Popular opposition against political actions such as the dissolution of the Sudanese parliament and legally-inflicted punishments such as amputations and hangings, resulted in a coup against Nimeiry in 1985.
Sadiq al-Mahdi became the prime minister in 1986 and in 1989 was overthrown in a coup led by General Omar Hassan al Bashir – the current dictator of Sudan.
In the same year, Bashir declared a Jihad against the non-Muslim South Sudan. By his side was the suave and articulate Hassan al Turabi, who masterminded the coup. Steeped in the Muslim Brotherhood, Turabi later invited Osama bin Ladin to reside in Sudan and study under him as Turabi and Bashir created the perfect Islamic state. It was a regime that did not highlight democracy as an essential element of Islam and Islamic governance.
Bin Ladin’s Al Qaida fought alongside the Sudanese military against the southern guerillas, a war complicated by issues of religion, oil, ideology and ethnicity that finally ended in 2005, after 2 million Southern Sudanese died, 5 million were displaced and over 200,000 were taken into slavery.
However the Darfur Genocide which commenced in 2003 and is ongoing to this day, must be considered as part of this onslaught by Bashir’s regime.
SLAVERY
Just as we see the Sudanese government utilizing the Arab nomads in Darfur who make up the brutal Janjiweed and who declare they operate as renegades outside the control of the Sudanese government (which in fact they are directly in the government’s control), so this practice was also used in the north/south war with raiders known as the Murahaleen. The intent in both cases is to remove, kill or enslave the black Africans.
The Murahaleen’s payment was the booty of war: livestock, household items – and people. The rules of Jihad allow and call for the taking of slaves and concubines. Most often the Murahaleen killed the men and took the women and children. The women were used as concubines, the girls for domestic help and the boys were sent into the bush to tend livestock.
Under Muslim tradition, many of the female slaves were circumcised and raised to be sold as wives to fellow Arabs. The brutalities suffered by the slaves included heinous physical abuses of rape of both boys and girls, amputations for punishment and executions. The psychological abuse was also significant. Slaves were not allowed to speak their native language, be called by their given name or communicate with other slaves, thus their communication skills were stunted. I have met slaves who were forced to call their master “father” – the master who was also murderer of their own father.
The Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan was the most affected by the Murahaleen raids. Their land is the region of the oil fields and they were targeted for extermination and displacement. They possess the land that is needed by the Arab for watering and grazing livestock in the dry season and for centuries have conducted trade with the very Arabs who now slaughter them. The necessary economic relationship between the Dinkas and the Arabs drove them into relationship even in the midst of Jihad. The Dinkas had been unsuccessful in locating their loved ones who were enslaved – and there were those within the Arab community who were against the Jihad and at risk to their own lives, assisted the Dinkas by travelling deep into the North of Sudan – into Darfur and Kordofan – to purchase the freedom of the slaves and escort them back to Dinka land. The work was done without an organized system and there were inconsistencies. Therefore, the Dinkas sought outside help from the international community but only one organization answered their request for help.
In 1994, Christian Solidarity International made their first fact finding mission to Sudan and witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Murahaleen raids. They visited the village of Namyell that is situated very close to the Darfur border, a village that had been raided 2 weeks prior. The Sudanese government who controlled humanitarian access in Sudan, would not allow the Red Cross to evacuate the wounded and there were people wandering around with severed limbs, horrific wounds from gunshot and shrapnel from aerial bombardments -- and there were many people missing who were captured and forced into slavery.
CSI (Christian Solidarity International) worked with the Dinkas and Arabs who defied the Jihad to formalize their relationship by creating the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee. This was a local initiative that extended into trade relationships with the creation of “peace markets” – places where the separate communities could join together for commerce. All peace initiatives were located in the southern territory controlled by the SPLA. The Arabs who supported their Dinka neighbors committed the crime of treason by defying the government and some of the Arabs who assisted in the retrieval of slaves in fact lost their lives in the course of freeing their black African neighbors. Their crime was treason and under Islam, they were considered apostates.
The Qur’an requires the “redemption” of a slave, thus the purchase of slaves was part of the retrieval program. Money was raised in the West – Europe and America – to buy the freedom of slaves. The price for one slave averaged around $30 with the highest price at $90. This practice was questioned by the international community as to whether it was ethical and whether a slave market was being created. There were also questions as to whether CSI was being duped into purchasing people who were not actually slaves.
In 1996, The Washington Post published a story to this effect – a story that circulated the globe and for a while, hindered the slave redemption work. Evidence to this effect was never provided and it was discovered that Carl Vick, the correspondent who wrote the article, had never set foot in Sudan and based his story on rumours provided by disgruntled members of the Southern rebel group. Today, it is only those who are out of touch with current affairs or those who do business with the Sudanese government that perpetuate this fabrication.
To date, the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee, with the assistance of CSI has freed over 85,000 slaves.
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS and CEAWAC
In the late 1990’s the north and south of Sudan began to negotiate peace and based on this hope for peace, CSI was able to cease the redemption payment of slaves. Masters were encouraged to release slaves without payment to re-establish the relationship between the Dinka and Arab tribal communities.
The success of the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee in conjunction with CSI attracted international media attention which also challenged the international community to take action to combat the slavery. There was ample evidence the Sudanese government was complicit and even encouraged the slavery. UNICEF, a body of the UN, pressured the Sudanese government into creating CEAWAC - Committee to Eradicate the Abduction of Women and Children. CEAWAC was funded by the international community and was mandated to search for, free and return slaves to their homes. As part of the agreement to create this committee, UNICEF agreed NOT to call the slaves “slaves”, rather “abductees of war.” This would save Omer al Bashir from facing the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. CEAWAC was an ineffective organization that was nothing more than a vehicle for rendering the work of CSI irrelevant. In fact, CEAWAC was 5 years in existence before ever returning a slave to South Sudan and as of this year, the Sudanese Government has refused to further its operations. In all, less than 4,000 slaves have been returned through this system – most whom were not freed by CEAWAC but were escaped slaves found wandering in the Northern territory.
My first trip to Sudan was in March of 2004 to participate in this first CEAWAC liberation – I can say firsthand that it was rife with violence, extortion and corruption. Of the 503 slaves we were to receive, over 100 were returned to their masters by the Sudanese government before the convoy reached us.
The next year – in January of 2005 – north and south Sudan reached a peace agreement and signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. There were over 1100 implementation modalities of the protocols and agreements but the Comprehensive Peace Agreement made no provision for the return of slaves – they were the price for peace.
The Sudan Government has now terminated CEAWAC. It is only CSI who is left to search for and free slaves with the members of the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee.
James Aguir, leader of the Dinka Chiefs Committee and as the representative of the Dinka Chiefs Committee to the now defunct CEAWAC, publicly stated earlier this year:
“CSI and the Dinka Chiefs Committee want to work together to free the slaves. We should have freed all the slaves by now and when I was in Northern Sudan I was told by the government and some humanitarian and human rights organizations not to cooperate with CSI. But those who said this do not feel the suffering that lies deep in the hearts of the slaves. If CSI were to stop its work, many a child would be lost to slavery forever. We as the Dinka Chiefs Committee will work together with CSI until the last slave is freed. We will not stop.”
Many people ask me what happens to the slaves when they return to the south. This is a difficult question to answer because CSI is not equipped to set up a repatriation program. Slave reintegration is the work of the local Dinka communities. There are six branches of the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee and over time they have developed a system with village leaders and local pastors to assist with identification and repatriation of slaves. Many slaves do not know their real names or what village they are from – these slaves are oftentimes adopted by the chief, pastor or by a villager who may have lost a child. There are many challenges – oftentimes the slaves can speak only Arabic so they must re-learn their native language and the emotional trauma isolates them. If a freed slave is able to be reunited with family, the families immediately accept them back, regardless of the physical and emotional scars. This is a joyous occasion.
DARFUR and the ICC
The UN Convention Against Genocide bans acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group because of their membership in that group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and taking group members’ children away from them and giving them to members of another group. It declares genocide a crime under international law whether committed during war or peacetime. And it requires all signers of the convention to take measures to prevent and punish any acts of genocide committed within their jurisdiction.
It is obvious that the war between north and south Sudan was incorrectly labeled a civil war, rather it was clearly GENOCIDE.
To further that action, The Darfur genocide commenced in 2003. Many people mistakenly consider this a separate genocide but in fact, it is a continuation of the violence that commenced in 1983. The GoS (Government of Sudan) has marginalized the African tribes in Darfur similar to the southern Sudanese. The Darfuris rebelled in 2003 with an attack on a GoS military base, and the killing began. The Darfur rebels wanted the same concessions they saw their southern neighbors negotiating with the northern government. The Sudanese Government saw this new conflict as a bartering chip to whittle away at the terms of the CPA.
Although the African tribes of Darfur are predominantly Muslim, they are black and are still considered slaves and infidels. The genocide is being conducted under the terms of Jihad, including the use of slave abductions. At this time, no one knows how many people have been taken we only have sporadic reports of very specific abductions. And in this case, there is hard evidence that Sudanese government officials themselves possess at least 133 of the slaves from Darfur.
ICC DECISION
In mid 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for the Sudanese dictator Omer al Bashir and his conspirators. This year, that warrant was passed down. As a result, there has been extreme unrest in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan and it is thought that this could unravel the very fragile peace between North and South Sudan.
The charges against al-Bashir came a year after the court indicted Sudan’s humanitarian affairs minister, Ahmed Harun, who was formerly in charge of security in Darfur, and suspected militia leader Ali Kushayb on crimes against humanity.
The allegations that are now in public domain include but are not limited to the following:
Ahmad Harun as Minister of State for the interior, responsible for the “Darfur Security Desk”, recruited and mobilized the militia/Janjaweed, relying on experience he had gained in mobilizing tribal militias in South Sudan in the 1990s. On various occasions, Ahmad Harun publicly acknowledged his mission to destroy the target groups, stating that Al Bashir had given him the power to kill whomever he wanted, and that, “for the sake of Darfur, they were ready to kill three quarters of the people in Darfur, so that one quarter could live”.
In Arawala, in December 2003, the evidence shows, Ali Kushayb personally inspected a group of naked women before they were raped by men in military uniform. A witness said she and the other women were tied to trees and repeatedly raped.
The evidence shows that Ali Kushayb personally participated in a number of summary executions. For example, in or around March 2004 he was involved in the execution of at least 32 men from Mukjar. The evidence shows Ali Kushayb beating these men as they were being boarded into Land Cruisers. The cars then left with Kushayb in one of them. About fifteen minutes later, gunshots were heard and the next day 32 dead bodies were found in the bushes.
According to the prosecutor, Bashir’s intent to commit genocide became clear, with well coordinated attacks on the nearly 2.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps.
Instead of helping the people of Darfur, Bashir “mobilised the entire State apparatus, including the armed forces, the intelligence services, the diplomatic and public information bureaucracies, and the justice system,” in carrying out his campaign of violence.
HOPE
In spite of the current horrors, there is hope for future democracy in Sudan:
Having fallen from Bashir’s favor some years ago, the brilliant religious leader Hassan al Turabi who masterminded Bashir’s coup, stresses that Islam and democracy are not incompatible. He attempts to provide the Sudanese with a new way of understanding Islam. Turabi invokes the example and success of the early Muslim community during the day of the Prophet Mohamed in instituting social justice and freedom of expression when talking about his vision for the future of Sudan.
Not only does Turabi preach democratisation, albeit Islamist-style, he is allegedly supporting insurrectionist groups in the war-torn province of Darfur. One is stimulated by widespread nervousness about his powers and popularity. Turabi is used to winning popularity contests, and his influence both in Sudan and beyond is tremendous. Turabi recently stated: "Democracy is the only way forward. First of all, it is almost inevitable -- it is going to happen. The future of Africa and the Arab world is democratic.” He knows that his relentless criticism of his government is key to his success. The Sudanese may be incapable of ever reaching a consensus among themselves, but there are unmistakable signs that the country is fast changing. The collective imperative is for peace, popular participation and democracy.”
THE FUTURE OF SOUTH SUDAN
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South requires that a national census take place by the end of this year and national elections are to be held by this time next year. The near future will tell where Sudan is heading – if the election does not take place and the Darfur genocide is still raging, we may well see civil war erupt again between the north and south. The comprehensive peace agreement also calls for a referendum in 2011 for the south to secede from the north, taking a large part of the oil real estate with it.
My question in all of this is: What happens to those still enslaved?
US SLAVERY LEGISLATION and LACK OF IT IN SUDAN
Toward the end of the last century, an evidentiary package was presented to Congress by my friends and colleagues including freed slave Francis Bok. In addition to well documented evidence by the offices of several Congressmen who travelled to Sudan with human rights workers from Christian Solidarity International to witness the slavery and liberation process firsthand, Francis was a living testimony that slavery existed in Sudan. Further research by Johns Hopkins University indicated that there was also an undiscovered global slave trade of a magnitude that rivaled illegal drugs and weapons. As a result of CSI’s cracking the egg, Congress enacted the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and the State Department created the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons which now monitors over 100 countries on slavery matters.
However, due to US politics with Sudan regarding their collaboration in the war on terror, the State Dept is soft on Sudan when it comes to slavery. The slaves are the price to pay for our larger agenda.
In all the good the Comprehensive peace agreement is bringing about in Sudan, it does not make provision for the return of the slaves. The slaves seem to have been lost in the politics of South Sudan’s agenda. They have re-instated CEAWAC with over $1m but less than 500 slaves have been returned.
Because many humanitarian organizations working in Sudan collaborate with the government, they cannot address slavery. Once again the slaves are the cost of a higher agenda.
CSI burst open the international slave trade but they pay the price for sticking to their agenda of freeing slaves in Sudan. CSI does not work through the Sudanese government thus they are free to work at a grassroots level with local leaders to continue their slave retrievals with the Arab Dinka Peace Committee.
It is one thing to talk about slavery as an issue or crime against humanity. It is something else to meet them and share their first moments of freedom.
Meet my brothers in Sudan who were freed from slavery:
Daniel Garang Ngor Wol: 32 years old. Mother and sister killed during slave raid. Renamed Faris by his master, Sahli Abusahli. Spent 20 years in bondage. Forced to convert to Islam. Stabbed in the back by master because of missing cow.
Malong Atak Mawien: 30 years old. Forced to look after cattle without pay. Frequently beaten. Called “slave” and racial slurs by master. Tried to run away but was caught and his shoulder was slashed with a sword. He was threatened with death and abandoned all future thoughts of escaping to freedom.
John Marieu Nyak Agout: 15-year-old boy who was renamed “Mohammed” by master. John was forced to practice Islam. While enslaved he became lame and suffered hair loss because of severe beatings on his back and head. He was forced to call is master “Father”.
Mawien Wier Mawien: 16-year-old boy who was blinded in his left eye when beaten with a stick for losing four of his master’s goats.
Angok Achuil Athian is an 11-year-old boy who has no recollection of life as a free child. He was beaten, forced to work without pay.
Lual Akon Diing is about 10 years old. While enslaved he was forced to tend his master’s cows and goats. Lual was beaten and raped by his master. Every time his father Akon Diing heard that the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee had freed slaves, he walked for days to the location where they brought the children for debriefing, in search of his son. He did this for the years his son was enslaved. Today, he has found his son.
BRINGING SUDAN TO AMERICA
Some people consider Sudan a distant world and are detached from the suffering of the Sudanese .
But when it is brought close to home and we see the Sudanese on our terms we can more easily realize their value. Perhaps when I mention names such as Manut Bol, or Luol Deng formerly of Duke University and now with the Chicago Bulls, it places a value on the lives. Manut and Luol are both from the Dinka tribe. Luol lived in the same region where the Murahaleen raids took place. Luol’s father is in the Sudanese Parliament. His uncle is a doctor and works with me. But Luol’s cousins are in slavery.
The Sudanese slaves are not so far removed from ourselves. They are our brothers and sisters and they need your help.
Many local businesses, schools and churches have joined me in efforts to help the Sudanese through freeing slaves, providing survival kits to refugees and now, to build a sterile operating facility for a Sudanese doctor who practices in a remote region of Southern Sudan at the Darfur/Kordofan border.
On a national level, Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, who has been a long time advocate of freeing slaves in Sudan, has sponsored a bill to be presented to the House of Representatives called The Eradication of Slavery in Sudan Act.
I invite you to join us in this great work. If you want more information or wish to contact me, you may visit my website at http://www.groupamg.com/ – where you may also view the trailer to my documentary on slavery entitled My Slave, My Infidel.
If you want to help free slaves or provide humanitarian aid, please visit http://www.frontlineaid.org/
Sudan is the largest country in Africa.
It is located in the horn of Africa and its borders lie with the Red Sea, Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
For over 2,000 years, slavery has been common throughout Africa, with the countries of the Middle East exporting the Africans and at the same time, moving their populations into the northern most regions of Africa to Arabize the territory.
In the mid 1800s the territory now known as Sudan was colonized by Great Britain and co-administered by Egypt.
The northern territory of Sudan, a part of the Sahara Desert, is occupied by nomadic and semi nomadic Arab Muslims while the fertile southern region is occupied by the black Africans who are predominantly Christian.
In 1956, Sudan was decolonized but in 1955 war between the north and south had already begun.
The aim of the first civil war was “independence of Southern Sudan” from what seemed was a mere replacement of one set of colonial masters for another and of a worse type, as the Arab community had been passed the powers reins.
This first civil war ended in 1972 with the signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement which was mediated by Emperor Haille Selassie of Ethiopia.
The Addis Ababa Agreement granted southern Sudan regional autonomy, with its own legislature, executive and judiciary branches. The peace lasted for only ten years.
The Addis Ababa Agreement failed as the agreement neither put the southern Sudanese in the center of power in parity with the north nor did it allow them the right of self determination. At the same time, the north continued with its project of Islamization and Arabization of the entire country.
The president of Sudan, President Nimeiri finally abrogated the agreement in June 1983, attempted to annex the newly discovered South Sudan oil fields into the northern region, and proceeded to establish Islamic Sharia as the supreme law of Sudan.
In the same year the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (the SPLA) and Movement were formed and the second civil war between the north and south commenced.
Popular opposition against political actions such as the dissolution of the Sudanese parliament and legally-inflicted punishments such as amputations and hangings, resulted in a coup against Nimeiry in 1985.
Sadiq al-Mahdi became the prime minister in 1986 and in 1989 was overthrown in a coup led by General Omar Hassan al Bashir – the current dictator of Sudan.
In the same year, Bashir declared a Jihad against the non-Muslim South Sudan. By his side was the suave and articulate Hassan al Turabi, who masterminded the coup. Steeped in the Muslim Brotherhood, Turabi later invited Osama bin Ladin to reside in Sudan and study under him as Turabi and Bashir created the perfect Islamic state. It was a regime that did not highlight democracy as an essential element of Islam and Islamic governance.
Bin Ladin’s Al Qaida fought alongside the Sudanese military against the southern guerillas, a war complicated by issues of religion, oil, ideology and ethnicity that finally ended in 2005, after 2 million Southern Sudanese died, 5 million were displaced and over 200,000 were taken into slavery.
However the Darfur Genocide which commenced in 2003 and is ongoing to this day, must be considered as part of this onslaught by Bashir’s regime.
SLAVERY
Just as we see the Sudanese government utilizing the Arab nomads in Darfur who make up the brutal Janjiweed and who declare they operate as renegades outside the control of the Sudanese government (which in fact they are directly in the government’s control), so this practice was also used in the north/south war with raiders known as the Murahaleen. The intent in both cases is to remove, kill or enslave the black Africans.
The Murahaleen’s payment was the booty of war: livestock, household items – and people. The rules of Jihad allow and call for the taking of slaves and concubines. Most often the Murahaleen killed the men and took the women and children. The women were used as concubines, the girls for domestic help and the boys were sent into the bush to tend livestock.
Under Muslim tradition, many of the female slaves were circumcised and raised to be sold as wives to fellow Arabs. The brutalities suffered by the slaves included heinous physical abuses of rape of both boys and girls, amputations for punishment and executions. The psychological abuse was also significant. Slaves were not allowed to speak their native language, be called by their given name or communicate with other slaves, thus their communication skills were stunted. I have met slaves who were forced to call their master “father” – the master who was also murderer of their own father.
The Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan was the most affected by the Murahaleen raids. Their land is the region of the oil fields and they were targeted for extermination and displacement. They possess the land that is needed by the Arab for watering and grazing livestock in the dry season and for centuries have conducted trade with the very Arabs who now slaughter them. The necessary economic relationship between the Dinkas and the Arabs drove them into relationship even in the midst of Jihad. The Dinkas had been unsuccessful in locating their loved ones who were enslaved – and there were those within the Arab community who were against the Jihad and at risk to their own lives, assisted the Dinkas by travelling deep into the North of Sudan – into Darfur and Kordofan – to purchase the freedom of the slaves and escort them back to Dinka land. The work was done without an organized system and there were inconsistencies. Therefore, the Dinkas sought outside help from the international community but only one organization answered their request for help.
In 1994, Christian Solidarity International made their first fact finding mission to Sudan and witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Murahaleen raids. They visited the village of Namyell that is situated very close to the Darfur border, a village that had been raided 2 weeks prior. The Sudanese government who controlled humanitarian access in Sudan, would not allow the Red Cross to evacuate the wounded and there were people wandering around with severed limbs, horrific wounds from gunshot and shrapnel from aerial bombardments -- and there were many people missing who were captured and forced into slavery.
CSI (Christian Solidarity International) worked with the Dinkas and Arabs who defied the Jihad to formalize their relationship by creating the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee. This was a local initiative that extended into trade relationships with the creation of “peace markets” – places where the separate communities could join together for commerce. All peace initiatives were located in the southern territory controlled by the SPLA. The Arabs who supported their Dinka neighbors committed the crime of treason by defying the government and some of the Arabs who assisted in the retrieval of slaves in fact lost their lives in the course of freeing their black African neighbors. Their crime was treason and under Islam, they were considered apostates.
The Qur’an requires the “redemption” of a slave, thus the purchase of slaves was part of the retrieval program. Money was raised in the West – Europe and America – to buy the freedom of slaves. The price for one slave averaged around $30 with the highest price at $90. This practice was questioned by the international community as to whether it was ethical and whether a slave market was being created. There were also questions as to whether CSI was being duped into purchasing people who were not actually slaves.
In 1996, The Washington Post published a story to this effect – a story that circulated the globe and for a while, hindered the slave redemption work. Evidence to this effect was never provided and it was discovered that Carl Vick, the correspondent who wrote the article, had never set foot in Sudan and based his story on rumours provided by disgruntled members of the Southern rebel group. Today, it is only those who are out of touch with current affairs or those who do business with the Sudanese government that perpetuate this fabrication.
To date, the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee, with the assistance of CSI has freed over 85,000 slaves.
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS and CEAWAC
In the late 1990’s the north and south of Sudan began to negotiate peace and based on this hope for peace, CSI was able to cease the redemption payment of slaves. Masters were encouraged to release slaves without payment to re-establish the relationship between the Dinka and Arab tribal communities.
The success of the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee in conjunction with CSI attracted international media attention which also challenged the international community to take action to combat the slavery. There was ample evidence the Sudanese government was complicit and even encouraged the slavery. UNICEF, a body of the UN, pressured the Sudanese government into creating CEAWAC - Committee to Eradicate the Abduction of Women and Children. CEAWAC was funded by the international community and was mandated to search for, free and return slaves to their homes. As part of the agreement to create this committee, UNICEF agreed NOT to call the slaves “slaves”, rather “abductees of war.” This would save Omer al Bashir from facing the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. CEAWAC was an ineffective organization that was nothing more than a vehicle for rendering the work of CSI irrelevant. In fact, CEAWAC was 5 years in existence before ever returning a slave to South Sudan and as of this year, the Sudanese Government has refused to further its operations. In all, less than 4,000 slaves have been returned through this system – most whom were not freed by CEAWAC but were escaped slaves found wandering in the Northern territory.
My first trip to Sudan was in March of 2004 to participate in this first CEAWAC liberation – I can say firsthand that it was rife with violence, extortion and corruption. Of the 503 slaves we were to receive, over 100 were returned to their masters by the Sudanese government before the convoy reached us.
The next year – in January of 2005 – north and south Sudan reached a peace agreement and signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. There were over 1100 implementation modalities of the protocols and agreements but the Comprehensive Peace Agreement made no provision for the return of slaves – they were the price for peace.
The Sudan Government has now terminated CEAWAC. It is only CSI who is left to search for and free slaves with the members of the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee.
James Aguir, leader of the Dinka Chiefs Committee and as the representative of the Dinka Chiefs Committee to the now defunct CEAWAC, publicly stated earlier this year:
“CSI and the Dinka Chiefs Committee want to work together to free the slaves. We should have freed all the slaves by now and when I was in Northern Sudan I was told by the government and some humanitarian and human rights organizations not to cooperate with CSI. But those who said this do not feel the suffering that lies deep in the hearts of the slaves. If CSI were to stop its work, many a child would be lost to slavery forever. We as the Dinka Chiefs Committee will work together with CSI until the last slave is freed. We will not stop.”
Many people ask me what happens to the slaves when they return to the south. This is a difficult question to answer because CSI is not equipped to set up a repatriation program. Slave reintegration is the work of the local Dinka communities. There are six branches of the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee and over time they have developed a system with village leaders and local pastors to assist with identification and repatriation of slaves. Many slaves do not know their real names or what village they are from – these slaves are oftentimes adopted by the chief, pastor or by a villager who may have lost a child. There are many challenges – oftentimes the slaves can speak only Arabic so they must re-learn their native language and the emotional trauma isolates them. If a freed slave is able to be reunited with family, the families immediately accept them back, regardless of the physical and emotional scars. This is a joyous occasion.
DARFUR and the ICC
The UN Convention Against Genocide bans acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group because of their membership in that group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and taking group members’ children away from them and giving them to members of another group. It declares genocide a crime under international law whether committed during war or peacetime. And it requires all signers of the convention to take measures to prevent and punish any acts of genocide committed within their jurisdiction.
It is obvious that the war between north and south Sudan was incorrectly labeled a civil war, rather it was clearly GENOCIDE.
To further that action, The Darfur genocide commenced in 2003. Many people mistakenly consider this a separate genocide but in fact, it is a continuation of the violence that commenced in 1983. The GoS (Government of Sudan) has marginalized the African tribes in Darfur similar to the southern Sudanese. The Darfuris rebelled in 2003 with an attack on a GoS military base, and the killing began. The Darfur rebels wanted the same concessions they saw their southern neighbors negotiating with the northern government. The Sudanese Government saw this new conflict as a bartering chip to whittle away at the terms of the CPA.
Although the African tribes of Darfur are predominantly Muslim, they are black and are still considered slaves and infidels. The genocide is being conducted under the terms of Jihad, including the use of slave abductions. At this time, no one knows how many people have been taken we only have sporadic reports of very specific abductions. And in this case, there is hard evidence that Sudanese government officials themselves possess at least 133 of the slaves from Darfur.
ICC DECISION
In mid 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for the Sudanese dictator Omer al Bashir and his conspirators. This year, that warrant was passed down. As a result, there has been extreme unrest in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan and it is thought that this could unravel the very fragile peace between North and South Sudan.
The charges against al-Bashir came a year after the court indicted Sudan’s humanitarian affairs minister, Ahmed Harun, who was formerly in charge of security in Darfur, and suspected militia leader Ali Kushayb on crimes against humanity.
The allegations that are now in public domain include but are not limited to the following:
Ahmad Harun as Minister of State for the interior, responsible for the “Darfur Security Desk”, recruited and mobilized the militia/Janjaweed, relying on experience he had gained in mobilizing tribal militias in South Sudan in the 1990s. On various occasions, Ahmad Harun publicly acknowledged his mission to destroy the target groups, stating that Al Bashir had given him the power to kill whomever he wanted, and that, “for the sake of Darfur, they were ready to kill three quarters of the people in Darfur, so that one quarter could live”.
In Arawala, in December 2003, the evidence shows, Ali Kushayb personally inspected a group of naked women before they were raped by men in military uniform. A witness said she and the other women were tied to trees and repeatedly raped.
The evidence shows that Ali Kushayb personally participated in a number of summary executions. For example, in or around March 2004 he was involved in the execution of at least 32 men from Mukjar. The evidence shows Ali Kushayb beating these men as they were being boarded into Land Cruisers. The cars then left with Kushayb in one of them. About fifteen minutes later, gunshots were heard and the next day 32 dead bodies were found in the bushes.
According to the prosecutor, Bashir’s intent to commit genocide became clear, with well coordinated attacks on the nearly 2.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps.
Instead of helping the people of Darfur, Bashir “mobilised the entire State apparatus, including the armed forces, the intelligence services, the diplomatic and public information bureaucracies, and the justice system,” in carrying out his campaign of violence.
HOPE
In spite of the current horrors, there is hope for future democracy in Sudan:
Having fallen from Bashir’s favor some years ago, the brilliant religious leader Hassan al Turabi who masterminded Bashir’s coup, stresses that Islam and democracy are not incompatible. He attempts to provide the Sudanese with a new way of understanding Islam. Turabi invokes the example and success of the early Muslim community during the day of the Prophet Mohamed in instituting social justice and freedom of expression when talking about his vision for the future of Sudan.
Not only does Turabi preach democratisation, albeit Islamist-style, he is allegedly supporting insurrectionist groups in the war-torn province of Darfur. One is stimulated by widespread nervousness about his powers and popularity. Turabi is used to winning popularity contests, and his influence both in Sudan and beyond is tremendous. Turabi recently stated: "Democracy is the only way forward. First of all, it is almost inevitable -- it is going to happen. The future of Africa and the Arab world is democratic.” He knows that his relentless criticism of his government is key to his success. The Sudanese may be incapable of ever reaching a consensus among themselves, but there are unmistakable signs that the country is fast changing. The collective imperative is for peace, popular participation and democracy.”
THE FUTURE OF SOUTH SUDAN
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South requires that a national census take place by the end of this year and national elections are to be held by this time next year. The near future will tell where Sudan is heading – if the election does not take place and the Darfur genocide is still raging, we may well see civil war erupt again between the north and south. The comprehensive peace agreement also calls for a referendum in 2011 for the south to secede from the north, taking a large part of the oil real estate with it.
My question in all of this is: What happens to those still enslaved?
US SLAVERY LEGISLATION and LACK OF IT IN SUDAN
Toward the end of the last century, an evidentiary package was presented to Congress by my friends and colleagues including freed slave Francis Bok. In addition to well documented evidence by the offices of several Congressmen who travelled to Sudan with human rights workers from Christian Solidarity International to witness the slavery and liberation process firsthand, Francis was a living testimony that slavery existed in Sudan. Further research by Johns Hopkins University indicated that there was also an undiscovered global slave trade of a magnitude that rivaled illegal drugs and weapons. As a result of CSI’s cracking the egg, Congress enacted the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and the State Department created the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons which now monitors over 100 countries on slavery matters.
However, due to US politics with Sudan regarding their collaboration in the war on terror, the State Dept is soft on Sudan when it comes to slavery. The slaves are the price to pay for our larger agenda.
In all the good the Comprehensive peace agreement is bringing about in Sudan, it does not make provision for the return of the slaves. The slaves seem to have been lost in the politics of South Sudan’s agenda. They have re-instated CEAWAC with over $1m but less than 500 slaves have been returned.
Because many humanitarian organizations working in Sudan collaborate with the government, they cannot address slavery. Once again the slaves are the cost of a higher agenda.
CSI burst open the international slave trade but they pay the price for sticking to their agenda of freeing slaves in Sudan. CSI does not work through the Sudanese government thus they are free to work at a grassroots level with local leaders to continue their slave retrievals with the Arab Dinka Peace Committee.
It is one thing to talk about slavery as an issue or crime against humanity. It is something else to meet them and share their first moments of freedom.
Meet my brothers in Sudan who were freed from slavery:
Daniel Garang Ngor Wol: 32 years old. Mother and sister killed during slave raid. Renamed Faris by his master, Sahli Abusahli. Spent 20 years in bondage. Forced to convert to Islam. Stabbed in the back by master because of missing cow.
Malong Atak Mawien: 30 years old. Forced to look after cattle without pay. Frequently beaten. Called “slave” and racial slurs by master. Tried to run away but was caught and his shoulder was slashed with a sword. He was threatened with death and abandoned all future thoughts of escaping to freedom.
John Marieu Nyak Agout: 15-year-old boy who was renamed “Mohammed” by master. John was forced to practice Islam. While enslaved he became lame and suffered hair loss because of severe beatings on his back and head. He was forced to call is master “Father”.
Mawien Wier Mawien: 16-year-old boy who was blinded in his left eye when beaten with a stick for losing four of his master’s goats.
Angok Achuil Athian is an 11-year-old boy who has no recollection of life as a free child. He was beaten, forced to work without pay.
Lual Akon Diing is about 10 years old. While enslaved he was forced to tend his master’s cows and goats. Lual was beaten and raped by his master. Every time his father Akon Diing heard that the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee had freed slaves, he walked for days to the location where they brought the children for debriefing, in search of his son. He did this for the years his son was enslaved. Today, he has found his son.
BRINGING SUDAN TO AMERICA
Some people consider Sudan a distant world and are detached from the suffering of the Sudanese .
But when it is brought close to home and we see the Sudanese on our terms we can more easily realize their value. Perhaps when I mention names such as Manut Bol, or Luol Deng formerly of Duke University and now with the Chicago Bulls, it places a value on the lives. Manut and Luol are both from the Dinka tribe. Luol lived in the same region where the Murahaleen raids took place. Luol’s father is in the Sudanese Parliament. His uncle is a doctor and works with me. But Luol’s cousins are in slavery.
The Sudanese slaves are not so far removed from ourselves. They are our brothers and sisters and they need your help.
Many local businesses, schools and churches have joined me in efforts to help the Sudanese through freeing slaves, providing survival kits to refugees and now, to build a sterile operating facility for a Sudanese doctor who practices in a remote region of Southern Sudan at the Darfur/Kordofan border.
On a national level, Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, who has been a long time advocate of freeing slaves in Sudan, has sponsored a bill to be presented to the House of Representatives called The Eradication of Slavery in Sudan Act.
I invite you to join us in this great work. If you want more information or wish to contact me, you may visit my website at http://www.groupamg.com/ – where you may also view the trailer to my documentary on slavery entitled My Slave, My Infidel.
If you want to help free slaves or provide humanitarian aid, please visit http://www.frontlineaid.org/
posted by Cindy Castano at
11:05 AM
1 Comments:
Keep up the wonderful work that you are doing Cindy for the people of Sudan. I have been following your progress for years and I am amazed how much you have done for those in need. We need more mission minded Christians that are not afraid to go beyond the walls of the church. Jesus commands us to do so, and you did! I will continue to pray for your outreach. This is from one who supports you from a distance.
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