End the Suffering in Sudan

If I bring anything to the debate on Sudan, I hope it is the ability to sound the alarm regarding the crimes against humanity and the genocide practiced by the government of Sudan. Please note my lack of polite phrasing—this is deliberate. Our failure to use the word genocide against Rwanda in 1994 helped facilitate the deaths of a reported eight hundred thousand people within a short, three-month period, even as we watched these events unfold on CNN. We should not make this mistake again.

Our present task is to expose these human rights atrocities for what they are. The National Islamic Front (NIF) government demonstrates a policy whose aim is the destruction of an entire generation of people. The Sudanese government may oversee the world’s most internally vicious nation, other than North Korea, as demonstrated by its record: the slavery of tens of thousands of women and children and the toleration of an international slave trade; routine bombing of civilians and villages, hospitals, religious gathering places, and schools; a government-manufactured famine wherein at least one hundred thousand people died last year; severe religious persecution involving forced conversions among Christians and traditional African believers; and a massive internal population displacement from ancient homelands into foul refugee camps that are sites of more starvation and bombings.

To give a brief history, the present NIF government installed itself by force in 1989 when it overthrew a democratically elected government. It bears mentioning that the party had received less than 7 percent of the popular vote at that time. Presently, this government, which controls the north of Sudan, is waging a vicious civil war against its own people of the south, who, simply put, desire democracy, peace, and the separation of religion from the state.

There are two disturbing facts about Sudan: first, the cruel excesses of that country, and second, that this cruelty could continue virtually unabated, with little international protest, during the course of one decade. To quote a recent report from the U.S. Committee for Refugees: “The people of southern Sudan rarely appear on U.S. television news or in the newspapers. Yet what is happening in that country certainly qualifies as news by any measure.”

Many great battles have been fought within the press, which has pricked the conscience of nations and changed societies. Great civil rights movements, both domestic and international, have been fought in this public court of shame. Using it among other tools, Gandhi ended British rule in India, William Wilberforce ended slavery in Britain, Martin Luther King Jr. created a civil rights movement, the Soviets were forced to release tens of thousands of Russian Jews, and the missionary Amy Carmichael ultimately influenced the end of child temple prostitution in Asia.

Nina Shea of Freedom House rightly calls the small but growing movement to help the Sudanese a “campaign of conscience.” I will add to this mix a phrase borrowed from former education secretary Bill Bennett and ask, “Where’s the outrage?” Let the facts speak for themselves. They quantify the suffering and inspire this campaign of conscience.

Statistics of Suffering in the Sudan

The U.S. Committee for Refugees reports that 1.9 million people have died in this war. Putting this figure in perspective, it is greater than the total number of deaths in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Kosovo combined. More people have died in the Sudan in the last decade than the total number of American soldiers in all our wars of the past two hundred years.

In 1998, 2.6 million people were in danger of starving because of the deliberate withholding of food by the NIF government. Also last year, the government used food as a weapon against its own people when it banned for extended periods United Nations relief flights into the south, with famine, starvation, and death resulting. Reportedly, 1998 was the worst year for famine in a decade due to this official practice, and somewhere between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand people starved to death. It is anticipated that 1999 could be yet another terrible year for famine, given the now weakened state of the people.

Governmental practices have produced the largest internally displaced population in the world, which some estimate at 4.3 million people. This is the hellish cycle deliberately orchestrated by the NIF. The government routinely bombs the civilian population, forcing people to flee from their ancient homelands and live in squalid refugee centers. These centers, cynically called “peace camps,” are also bombed. Moreover, the refugee centers are notoriously cruel—women are raped, people are starved until they renounce their religious beliefs, and little boys are forcibly inducted into the army to serve as front-line fodder. One humanitarian aid organization, Norwegian People’s Aid, actually maintains a web site that shows how many hospitals and schools have been bombed in any given week.

Slavery

Perhaps the most personally degrading practice is slavery, which, incredibly, still exists in Sudan. It is tolerated, if not perpetrated, by the national government against its own people. Tens of thousands of Sudanese presently exist as chattel property, owned by masters who force them into hard labor and sexual concubinage. They are branded, beaten, starved, and raped at their masters’ whim. They suffer severe religious persecution. Forced religious conversion is routine, with Christians and traditional tribal believers starved and whipped until they renounce their own faiths. Moderate Muslims, particularly in the Nuba Mountains, also suffer. There is a train running from the town of Wau that slavers use so frequently it has produced a now familiar and very sad joke:

Q: How many classes are there on the train from Wau?

A: The train has three classes—first class, second class, and “kiddie” class (referring to the many children captured for slavery).

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The greatest sin of our time is not the few who have destroyed, but the vast majority who have sat idly by.” Slavery should not exist in the twentieth century, and it will not exist by the twenty-first century if enough pressure is brought on this government.

Something has changed recently. The idleness is being shaken, and there is a newly vibrant, growing, grassroots movement that reaches to Washington, D.C. Many groups have joined this campaign against slavery and other human rights abuses, including Freedom House, the U.S. Committee for Refugees, the Anti-Slavery Campaign, Christian Solidarity International, and even school children across America.

Regional Threat

Even as our humane sensibilities are attacked by the slavery and genocide, so should our geopolitical sensibilities be alarmed by the present influence of this rogue government. Sudan is one of only seven nations in the world that has been designated a terrorist nation by the State Department, and it has been duly embargoed and sanctioned for its excesses. It remains a significant threat to the region, however, and it would be in the United States’ interest to contain its influence further.

The NIF government has been involved in continuous destabilization campaigns regionally, by supporting radical groups in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, and Congo. Moreover, Sudanese were directly implicated in the attempted assassination in Addis Ababa of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and actually received refuge on return to Sudan after their attempt failed. In response, the UN passed a resolution against the government and calling for an air embargo, which, unfortunately, has not been implemented. This government harbors other terrorists, as well, some of whom, such as Osama bin-Laden, who lived in Sudan until 1996, have been directly involved in waging a terrorist campaign against Americans.

The Sudanese government is totally incapable of reforming itself, is a threat to regional stability, harbors terrorists, and fully deserves its status as a rogue nation. This raises the important issue of what degree of support, if any, the United States give should to the southern rebel forces.

These forces are represented mainly by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). I submit that they are the last line of defense against this rogue government. If the present government succeeds in defeating the SPLA, it will have defeated the last chance for democracy and religious plurality in Sudan.

Accordingly, I propose that we provide diplomatic and additional support for the SPLA and other prodemocracy opposition groups in the NDA. Such support should include food aid and other crucial nonweaponry assistance. We should also increase our democracy-development assistance to help implement the civil society for which these southern forces are fighting. This is no more than we are presently doing in Iraq in our support of prodemocracy forces. We can empower the south to win this fight and thereby contain this unconscionable government, or we can passively watch as this rogue nation continues to destabilize the region with its brand of radical fundamentalism and cruelty.

Legislation

The U.S. Congress could play a crucial role in pressuring the Clinton administration to expose the numerous atrocities of this government and contain its influence. I intend to introduce a resolution that will outline the terrible facts so that we can conduct this campaign of conscience against the slavery, genocide, and other human rights crimes. At the very minimum, we must also introduce legislation to challenge the famine-inducing practices of Khartoum, which randomly denies food delivery to its own starving people, under the Operation Lifeline Sudan arrangement.

This legislation should provide for direct aid distribution to the south, including the Nuba Mountains and other presently excluded regions. In this way, food will not be used as a weapon, and people will not starve to death while already appropriated U.S. aid sits waiting a few flight hours away in UN warehouses.

Other Solutions

There are other solutions that could be implemented, including a no-fly zone over the south to protect against the bombing of civilians by the government. Safe corridors for humanitarian aid distributions could be established. The UN should create a registry of persons captured into slavery as well as implement the several sound recommendations of its special rapporteur on slavery. I also hope that the newly instituted Religious Liberty Commission will take up Sudan as its first order of business in 1999. There are many possible solutions, some of which are mentioned in the resolution and others that will mature as the advocacy continues.

In summary, we will have served a noble purpose if we do two things. First, we must boldly expose the facts of this extraordinary suffering through the campaign of conscience to end slavery and other crimes against humanity. Second, we must support those in the south who are pursuing democracy and religious plurality and contain the rogue government’s radical regional influence.