Today is Tuesday, November 14th of 2005. November is know to be a month to remember the "Persecuted Church". I've been meaning to write about this nation, which I (Sal) feel it's time now!
I met a Sudanese for the first time last year when I was helping a friend move to Minnesota State University-Fergus Falls (1 hour north of Morris). I automatically thought about the stories I hear from this country. When I met this particular student, she appeared very happy as she smiled when I introduced myself. She was a very tall lady!
"The ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, was given a personal face on Thursday when two Darfurian refugees spoke at UMM.
Daoud Hari and Ibrahim Mousa Adam related their experiences living in Darfur, and urged students to use their voices to help those still trapped in Sudan.
Despite starting more than two hours late due to weather delays at the Denver airport, about 200 students attended the sobering event.
“Never have people waited until 10,” Adam said, thanking the audience for staying. “Your patience and concern are blessings for the people of Darfur.”
Both Hari and Adam explained the need for action, not just words, from international agencies.
"We need to pressure the international community into taking real action," Adam said.
"The people of Darfur most want security and protection,” he added.
Both also encouraged students to voice support for US legislation that, if passed, would give states the right to divest, or withdraw, funds from countries that operate in Sudan or support the Sudanese government.
Hari comes from Musbat, a small village in the northern part of Darfur. Hari worked as a translator for many major news agencies before being arrested on charges of espionage. His release from a Sudanese prison was negotiated by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and Hari was granted refugee status soon after.
Adam's village in Darfur was destroyed in July 2003, killing 20 members of his family and spreading the survivors across refugee camps in Africa. After coming to the U.S., Adam worked at a factory to support his family, and only recently turned to speaking about his experiences as a way to educate more people about the impacts of the conflict.
Laura Thoma, Vice President of the International Relations Club at UMM, said she received information about the speaking tour in the mail, and after checking to be sure it was legitimate, approached the UMM Student DFL and International Programs Committee to help co-sponsor the event.
Thoma hoped audience members would get more information and be able to be better educated about the decisions they make and ways we treat each other.
"We need a global perspective, which we sometimes forget about because we're so worried about our p-chem homework or the next test," she added.
Hari and Adam came to UMM as part of the Voices for Darfur campaign, a national speaking tour sponsored by the Save Darfur Coalition.
Voices for Darfur presents personal stories of the people who have managed to escape the genocide in Sudan.
Ethnic violence in Sudan has slowly escalated since 2003 when ethnic Africans rebelled against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing leaders of discrimination.
In response, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir provided arms and training to tribal and local militias, now known as the Janjaweed. Since 2003, Janjaweed fighters have become more and more brutal, wiping out entire villages and terrorizing thousands of Darfurians.
News reports put the death toll for the conflict between 200,000 and 400,000, with another 2.5 million people displaced from their homes.
In a September 2007 report, advocacy agency Human Rights Watch said, "The situation in Darfur has evolved in the last year from a relatively straightforward conflict between rebels and the government into a violent scramble for power and resources involving government forces, Janjaweed militia, rebels and former rebels, and bandits, with civilians, peacekeepers, and humanitarian aid workers caught in the crossfire."
When asked what he believed the Sudanese government’s ultimate goal was, Hari responded, “We ask ourselves the same question,” but added the issue is a question of power.
Since British colonialism, Hari explained, the Arab minority has held on to power in the country. In order to keep power, they have turned to violence.
“They are trying to build a new, Arab nation in Darfur,” Adam added.
Adam finally urged to students to continue to help, explaining that a generation of Darfurian children were growing up without education or support. “Don’t give up until they are safe,” he said.
More information about the Voices for Darfur campaign can be found at SaveDarfur.org."
[Picture]
Daoud Hari (left) and Ibrahim Mousa Adam (right) spoke to a sober UMM audience about the ongoing genocide in Darfur as part of the Voices for Darfur speaking tour. Both urged the audience to use their voices to advocate for international intervention in Sudan. UMM student Laura Thoma (center), Vice President of the International Relations Club, was primarily responsible for organizing the speakers’ visit.
"Military regimes favoring Islamic-oriented governments have dominated national politics since independence from the UK in 1956. Sudan was embroiled in two prolonged civil wars during most of the remainder of the 20th century. These conflicts were rooted in northern economic, political, and social domination of largely non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The first civil war ended in 1972 but broke out again in 1983. The second war and famine-related effects resulted in more than 4 million people displaced and, according to rebel estimates, more than 2 million deaths over a period of two decades. Peace talks gained momentum in 2002-04 with the signing of several accords. The final North/South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in January 2005, granted the southern rebels autonomy for six years."
"The 20th century saw the growth of Sudanese nationalism, and in 1953 Egypt and Britain granted Sudan self-government. Independence was proclaimed on Jan. 1, 1956. Since independence, Sudan has been ruled by a series of unstable parliamentary governments and military regimes. Under Maj. Gen. Gaafar Mohamed Nimeiri, Sudan instituted fundamentalist Islamic law in 1983. This exacerbated the rift between the Arab north, the seat of the government, and the black African animists and Christians in the south."
"Christian kingdoms
By the sixth century, three states had emerged as the political and cultural heirs of the Meroitic kingdom. Nobatia in the north, also known as Ballanah, had its capital at Faras, in what is now Egypt; the central kingdom, Muqurra (Makuria), was centered at Dunqulah, about 150 kilometers south of modern Dunqulah; and Alawa (Alodia), in the heartland of old Meroe, which had its capital at Sawba (now a suburb of modern-day Khartoum). In all three kingdoms, warrior aristocracies ruled Meroitic populations from royal courts where functionaries bore Greek titles in emulation of the Byzantine court.
A missionary sent by Byzantine empress Theodora arrived in Nobatia and started preaching the Gospel of Christ about 540. The Nubian kings became Monophysite Christians. However, Makuria was of the Melkite Christian faith, unlike Nobatia and Alodia."
'KHORFULLUS TOWN, SOUTHERN SUDAN (ANS) -- A soldier detonated a hand grenade Thursday at an evening worship service, killing himself and five children and wounding four others.
The reason for the incident is unknown at this time.
According to Pastors Francis Ayul and Saphano Riak Chol, leaders of FEBAC-Sudan, the newly-formed association of evangelical Baptist churches, “Rev. John Monykuer was leading an evening worship when an unidentified man in military attire walked into the service and detonated a grenade. Five children were killed instantly. Four others, including two children, Pastor Monykuer and the wife of Pastor Michael Makuin Kuol, were taken to the hospital in nearby Malakal, a former government garrison town on the White Nile. One of the children died Saturday morning. The other three are still in critical condition.” "
"Phillips says American companies, which are barred from doing business in Sudan because of U.S. sanctions, are eager to see a peace accord signed so they can get back in the country. Sudan's large petroleum reserves are especially enticing.
But Phillips doesn't want the U.S. government or American firms to cozy up to the regime in Khartoum.
"Why, under any circumstances, do we want to make them a partner?" he asked. "My fear is our No. 1 concern is a buck."
Southern Sudan: on the path to war
By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service Wednesday, October 3, 2007
"The process of formulating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement had been fraught with difficulties as the secular, inclusive, equitable, democratic "New Sudan" vision of Dr John Garang's SPLM and the ruling NCP's vision of an Arab Islamist Sudan with racial and religious apartheid were totally incompatible....
"Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Sheik Ahmad Bahr from Hamas, Declared during a Friday Sermon at a Sudan Mosque that America and Israel Will Be Annihilated and Called upon Allah to Kill the Jews and the Americans "to the Very Last One""
