Josephine Bakhita, a one-time slave and now symbol of faith and unity for suffering Sudan, will be canonized by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 1. 

Josephine was born in the region of Darfur (North-West of Sudan) in 1869. She was kidnapped and enslaved at age 7 by Arab traders, and given the name Bakhita, which means "fortunate" by her captors. She was bought and sold five times, until 1882, when she was purchased by Calisto Legnani, an Italian consular agent who took her to Italy. 

There, she worked as a nanny, heard about Christianity, and was baptized in 1890. Three years later, she entered the Congregation of the Cannosiana Religious, and lived in a convent in Schio, Vicenza, in Northern Italy, where she carried out the most menial tasks, and very quickly gained a reputation for sanctity. When she died Feb. 8, 1947, for several days a long line of mourners filed past her coffin for a final goodbye. 

Sudan's persecuted Christian minority identifies with Bakhita's simple and profound faith. 

"Devotion to this saint is strong and widespread,".…."for all of us, Bakhita is a symbol of suffering and hope," "People who even today experience the drama of slavery, incursions, bombings and want, identify with Bakhita, the girl who was enslaved and deported from El Obeid; very many fugitives, close to 4 million, relive the drama of enforced exile from their land. However, they also recognize the great strength of spirit, tenacity to overcome difficulties, and humility in placing oneself at the service of others. They find protection and help in her," said Bishop Menegazzo, apostolic administrator of El Obeid diocese.

Charles Omondi
Nairobi 
Catholic Bishops serving in the SPLA territory are totally opposed to the Government of Sudan's demand for a role in clearing relief aid to the war-torn country staged at Lokichoggio in northern Kenya.
A statement issued by the Bishop members of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Conference SCBRC here on August 28 said that Khartoum, being a party to the conflict in Sudan, could not be entrusted with such a responsibility.
They suggested that the UN monitor the relief operations. GOS recently presented a proposal to the UN to be allowed to monitor the relief operations launched at Lokichoggio, a request that the UN said it had no objection to.
A statement signed by Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail and UN special envoy Tom Eric Vraalsen, quoted the latter as saying that the UN had no objections to Khartoum's proposal and encouraged the government to raise the matter directly with the government of Kenya.
The proposal was the culmination of Khartoum's persistent claims that the organisations offering relief to victims of the Sudanese war from outside the country were aiding the rebels.
The government has also demanded that the Lokichoggio operations be relocated to a base under its control within Sudan. Operation Lifeline Sudan, a joint relief effort launched by the UN and several NGOs in 1989, uses Lokichoggio as its base.
Outside the arrangement, however, are the churches and numerous other NGOs that also launch their relief operations from the Kenyan town.
The latter group operates without Khartoum's blessings and analysts believe that given a monitoring role, the military regime would definitely cripple their operations.
The Catholic clergy pointed out that they were totally opposed to the relocation of the Lokichoggio base.
Their statement, signed by Rt Rev Macram Max Gassis, the Bishop of El-Obeid, who is also the vice-chairman of the SCBRC, further demanded that the GOS recognise the legitimacy of humanitarian operations of non-OLS organisations and the churches.
"Above all," added the statement, "it should not disrupt the Churches' spiritual and humanitarian services by making them military targets in any way".
The Bishops wondered how Khartoum could be considered for a seat at the UN Security Council when it is a major cause of insecurity to "its own people". Since the beginning of this year, the GOS has intensified bombardment of civilian targets with an unprecedented vigour.
Schools, churches, market places, hospitals and NGO compounds have all borne the brunt of the bombs dropped by the Russia-made Antonov aircraft.
Last February, an aerial raid on a primary school at Kauda in the Nuba Mountains killed 14 pupils and their teacher. Last July, there were at least 250 air raids on 33 civilian targets in the rebel territory.
Other issues addressed by the bishops' statement were the persistent violation of cease-fire by the warring parties and the unfair distribution of Sudan's natural resources, especially the oil.
With regards to the latter, the statement appealed to all nations and companies involved in the oil exploitation in the African state to immediately cease their operations until just peace is attained.

The clergymen's stand came hot on the heels of a nod from the UN to Khartoum's request to monitor aid operations staged in Kenya and represented an official and open criticism of a UN decision that has elicited much condemnation from behind the scenes.  A recent statement signed by Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail and UN special envoy Tom Eric Vraalsen, quoted the latter as saying that the UN had no objections to Khartoum's proposal and encouraged the government to raise the matter directly with the government of Kenya. 

Under a tripartite agreement effected in 1989, the UN and several NGOs operating under the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) consortium, stage their operations from the northern Kenyan town of Lokichoggio with the blessings of Khartoum. However, outside the OLS, are several NGOs and the Churches with massive development and relief operations in the region devastated by a 17-year-old civil war.  OLS membership has reduced drastically since its inception as a result of some members being disenchanted with regulations governing the consortium's operations.  

Analysts believe that Sudan government's monitoring of the operations at Lokichoggio would adversely affect if not ground the Churches' and non-OLS organisations' operations since the latter operate without Khartoum's blessings. Khartoum insists that relief flights originating in neighbouring countries are providing military assistance to rebels. Consequently, Khartoum has demanded to monitor the operations at Lokichoggio, or relocate the base to a government-controlled area altogether.

Whereas some of the affected NGOs may choose to pull out or seek affiliation with the OLS should Khartoum's demand be granted, the Church has no option but to fight for a more mutually accepted arrangement as their position has been that they are divine and indigenous institutions whose operations cannot be subjected to regulations governing non-indigenous institutions. 

The Bishops' statement, signed by Rt. Rev. Macram Max Gassis, the Bishop of El-Obeid, who is also the vice-chairman of the SCBRC, demanded that the GOS recognise the legitimacy of humanitarian operations of non-OLS organisations and the churches. "Above all," added the statement, "it should not disrupt the Churches' spiritual and humanitarian services by making them military targets in any way."

The Bishops also took issue with a recent move to give Sudan a seat at the UN Security Council. They said Sudan's nomination was unacceptable "since GOS itself is a major cause of insecurity to its own people".

Since the beginning of this year, the GOS has intensified bombardment of civilian targets with an unprecedented vigour. Schools, churches, market places, hospitals and NGO compounds have all borne he brunt of the bombs dropped by the Russia-made Antonov aircraft. Last February, an aerial raid on a primary school at Kauda in the Nuba Mountains killed 14 pupils and their teacher. Last July, there were at least 250 air raids on 33 civilian targets in the rebel territory. 

About the Sudanese ceasefire that has been violated for the umpteenth time, the Bishops demanded that the UN take the responsibility of monitoring and assessing future deals to averts incidents of violations, which have had serious consequences on the civilians. 

They further appealed to all nations and multi-national corporations involved in the exploitation of Sudan's oil to immediately cease their operations until a just peace is attained and a system of equitable distribution of the gains from the oil is put in place. Sudan last August began exporting oil following the completion of a 1, 650 km pipeline constructed by Canada's Talisman Corp in partnership with Chinese and Malaysian companies. The pipeline runs from Unity State in the South to Port Sudan. 

In a halfway house run by a Dinka tribal chief, 14-year-old Shama Amal waits for the day when he will see his mother again. 

If that day ever comes, it would put an end to an ordeal that began nine years ago, when the Dinka boy, then 5, was kidnapped by an Arab cattleman and made a slave. Shama escaped after his master put burning coal in his palm - punishment for letting livestock stray. 

In this impoverished African nation, some 14,000 southern Sudanese chil-dren and women have been abducted in recent years, according to government figures. 

Officials in the capital, Khartoum, say the kidnappings are simply part of intertribal conflicts. But critics insist that the abducted, whom they call "slaves," number far greater and that their enslavement is part of a government-sponsored program of forced Islamization - an accusation Sudanese officials dismiss as false propaganda. 

Human rights organizations, as well as Christian church officials, allege that the fundamentalist Islamist government is involved in abducting southerners of animist and Christian backgrounds. Since 1983, the predominantly African southerners, most of them of the Dinka tribe, have fought for autonomy from the Muslim north. 

A spokesman for the Sudan Council of Churches says that the "regime's goal is to establish an Islamic state and society in Sudan that means churches will have to be marginalized, squeezed." 

Other Christian leaders, who also asked not to be named, say "slave-like practices are going on not only in Sudan's countryside, but also in the capital Khartoum, and it has become a big business." They allege that children are brought from the south and given to government "bosses" as servants. Then they are taken to government "peace camps" where, they claim, the boys receive Muslim names and Islamic indoctrination through intense study of the Koran. 

Recently the US envoy to Sudan, Harry Johnston, told the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva that slavery "is still rampant" in Sudan, and Christian Solidarity International has reported buying freedom for 4,968 slaves for $35 each, the local value of two goats. 

"Our sisters and brothers in Sudan are hurting, oppressed, dying," says the Rev. James Goode, head of the National Black Catholic Clergy in the US. "Many are slaves ... and they are crying out for our help and assistance." Fr. Goode is set to address a Sept. 9 gathering at the UN organized by New York City churches and other groups to focus on Sudan. 

In May 1999, following widespread criticism, the Sudanese government formed the Committee for the Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC). The establishment of the CEAWC has earned tempered praise from human rights groups. 

Amnesty International has called the committee's establishment a "very important and positive step," but its Sudan representative, Annette Weber, cautions that mechanisms must be set up "not only to bring people back, but to work for preventing further abductions." 

Ahmed Mufti, CEAWC director, says that since his office opened, "there has not been one single case of abduction reported," He adds, "We are not only interested in addressing the symptoms of abduction, but abduction itself, and the root causes. There is no point in returning these abductees if tomorrow you have another abduction." 

Slavery in Sudan has deep roots in the country's past of repeated wars, including the current civil war, which has dragged on for 17 years. 

The largest number of abductions reportedly take place in Bahr el Ghazal, Darfur, and Kordofan. There, Arab tribesmen, collectively known as baggara (cattle herders) carry out raids on mainly Dinka land, but also parts of the Nuba Mountains. Human rights groups allege that the baggara are armed and protected by the government. 

The attackers take livestock, belongings, and harvests - and need carriers to transport the goods. Consequently, captive women and children become part of the baggara's workforce. They fetch water and firewood, herd livestock, and do heavy manual labor. 

"The identity of people is changing dramatically," Ms. Weber says. "If a girl was abducted when she was five years old, and now she's 20, her name may be changed to a Muslim name or another name suggesting a family bond has been established." 

The CEAWC collaborates with the Dinka Committee, headed by chief James Aguir. Mr. Aguir works with other tribal leaders to track down missing people. He also runs the Khartoum halfway house where rescued slaves stay until relatives are found. The United Nations Children's Fund and Save the Children are overseeing some of CEAWC's activities in field research, and CEAWC has received a $1,400,000 donation from the European Union. 

Still, solutions are elusive. The head of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, has voiced concern that buying back slaves will only encourage more trafficking. Says Aguir: "What we need now is peace. If there is no peace in the future, then these abductions can happen again." 

Franciscan Father James Goode, who is also the President of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, called on all people of good will to join his prayer service for revival in Sudan which began on August 6 and will end on September 14. The dates correspond to the Feast of the Transfiguration and the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross on the Catholic calendar. 

Fr. Goode said in an e-mail message to the Sudan Catholic Information Office in Nairobi: "Our sisters and brothers in Sudan are hurting, oppressed, dying. Many are slaves ...and they are crying out for our help and assistance. We as African American Clergy and Religious and will not remain silent." 

Sudan, Africa's most expansive state, remains the scene of a brutal civil war that has claimed two million lives and has witnessed the rekindling of the black slave trade. A minority regime in Khartoum has been for years trying to Arabise and Islamise the Africans in Sudan who are Christians, moderate Muslims, and practitioners of traditional faiths. As part of its war effort, Khartoum's forces storm African villages, kill the men and take women and children as slaves. The boys tend cattle; the women and girls are raped. Slaves are typically forced to become Muslims. 

In July, Father Goode met with Bishop Macram Gassis whose diocese in the Nuba Mountains has been the scene of slave raids and bombings. He read the Bishop's prayer for Sudan to gatherings of the National Black Sisters' Conference and the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, who joined his effort. Fr. Goode adopted the idea of a 40-day prayer from a Christian movement for Sudan in South Africa. 

Fr. Goode is the founder and president of the National Black Catholic Apostolate for Life. He serves on the board of The Sudan Campaign, a national coalition of rights and religious groups - including the Salvation Army, the Family Research Council, and chapters of the Urban League and the American Jewish Committee. He is also a Board Member of the American Anti-Slavery Group, which has been credited with placing slavery in Sudan on the national agenda. 

On September 9, Fr. Goode will address a gathering at the UN organised by New York City churches and rights groups in memory of those who have perished in Sudan and to protest the West's silence on the genocide of Africans there. 

The war engaged by the Islamic regime of Khartoum against the liberation movement of Southern Sudan is punctuated with acts of inveterate hatred against Christians

According to a recent study carried out by the US Committee for Refugees, people killed in  Southern Sudan and on the Nuba Mountains from 1893 to 1998 are 1,900,00. “The loss of human lives in the Sudanese civil war is far higher than the death-rate  in any other civil war in the world” reads the report. Once again, among  the victims there were extraordinary figures of Catholic catechists and teachers, like :

Paul Adlan, of Karga (Nuba Mountains), animator of the local Christian community, arrested by the soldiers, together with two colleagues, tied to a tree and finished with a knife by the soldiers who accused him of being hand in glove with the southerner rebels (1985); 

John Adballah, of Um Bardu, 23, killed by the soldiers in 1986; who tortured him for three days and finished him off with a knife in his throat; 

Benjamin Konn, a Jur, decapitated by the Arab militias at El Daein, because he had tried to defend and save Dinka people burnt alive by the hundreds in train wagons on March 3, 1987;

Shami Fathi Gobrial, a Catholic teacher, killed in Khartoum on October 8, 1992….

Who will, however, be able to count the victim of Nuba Mountains where –states African Rights (London 1995)- burning Christian churches was so common that the questions: “Has the church in the village been bunt? Was always answered by: “Of course!”

In the Southern part of the country, persecution against Christian dates back to the 1960’s. On February 17, 1964, at night, the soldier arrested Baptist Mufighi, a catechist of Dem Zubeir (Bahr el Ghazal) for over thirty years. He asked for the permission to talk to his daughters: “They are going to kill me. Be strong and ready to lay down your life, rather than betray Christ”. They took him to the barracks where they tortured him. The following morning his corpse was thrown naked  in the court-yard. His skull had been smashed; blood had gushed out form a deep wound in the stomach; the body was covered with cuts in which citeta (red pepper) had been poured. Fearing demonstrations by the Christian, the authorities did not allow a regular funeral in the local church and the nearby cemetery, but obliged his family to bury him outside his hut.

Just over one year later, on March 19, 1965, Anya-Nya rebels killed Tombe Tongun Lodu, the chief of a village not far from Rejaf. Lodu was still a catechumen. Aware that his promotion had aroused the jealousy of his enemies, he had said of them: “I would like to meet them. I do not have any problem with them. And if they want to kill me, let them do so. But let them also know that this is the blood of Tongun. God will hold answerable him who takes it”. His son, Mgr Erkolano Lodu, is today the Catholic bishop of Yei.

Asto more recent times, we may remember Louis Paul Loku, who died in Juba hospital on Marc 17, 1992, as a result of the burns suffred when soldiers had sprinkled his body with petrol and set it on fire, and Francis Abhraham, 19, killed in March 1992, while carrying a big cross during a march of Christians demonstrating against the illegal arrest of two priests. Commented an eye-witness: “The scene was a striking symbol of the Sudanese people and of their identification with the crucified Lord”.

The Christians made the appeal in a statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the New Sudan Council of Churches NSCC, Dr Harrun Ruun and Fr Damian Adugu, who is the secretary-general of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Conference SCBRC. 

The statement said: "Christian communities of Southern Sudan are deeply concerned about the NGOs regarding their signing of a Memorandum of Understanding MOU". 

It said the suspension of funding by ECHO (European Union's humanitarian aid wing) to agencies who have signed the MOU and continue to serve in the SPLM/A- controlled areas only adds to the suffering of innocent civilians and does not contribute to solving the problem. 

"We therefore call upon the European Union member states to direct ECHO (European Union's humanitarian aid wing) to resume immediately funding to those agencies which continue their humanitarian programmes serving the needy people," the Christians said. 

"We therefore call upon the European Union member states to direct ECHO to resume immediately funding to those agencies which continue their humanitarian programmes serving the needy people," the Christians said. 

A controversy over the MOU saw 12 NGOs withdraw from Southern Sudan following the expiry of the March 1 ultimatum issued by the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association, the SPLA's humanitarian wing. 

The Christian community further appealed to the SPLM/A and the international NGOs to resolve the issue of the MOU urgently. 

The 12 international NGOs which declined to sign the SRAA MOU and left SPLM- controlled areas include World Vision International, Care International, Oxfam and MSF-Holland. 

It is estimated that their withdrawal has deprived Sudan of programmes worth US$ 32 million serving 1.6 million people. ECHO on the other hand provides the African state with 20-25 million Euros in funds each year, of which about 2/3 is for southern Sudan. 

ECHO estimates that about 50 percent of its programmes to southern Sudan have been lost as a result of the withdrawal of the international NGOs. Of the 18 ECHO contracts for southern Sudan, five remain unaffected, seven are partially affected and six have been cancelled. 

The 49 NGOs remaining in Sudan, along with UN agencies and ICRC, are now under pressure to cover the shortfall. Some programmes belonging to the NGOs which withdrew are already being implemented by the remaining NGOs, thus reducing the impact of the withdrawal. 

However, this may not be sustained in the long run, a situation further compounded by the suspension of ECHO funding. Equally under increased pressure are the Churches, which now have to put additional efforts and resources on humanitarian activities. 

As well as the direct effect of suspension of programmes, there is a significant indirect effect on the local economy as Sudanese staff are laid and cash ceases to circulate. 

In Western Equatoria alone, over 300 Sudanese have been rendered jobless, leading to a remarkable decline in the local people's purchasing power. Observers believe that the famine in the Horn of Africa will not affect Sudan as badly as some other countries. 

But there will be pockets of serious famine in Upper Nile, Bahr el-Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria, exacerbated by displacement of people from Upper Nile due to the conflict around the oilfields. 

A famine alert for the Horn has been issued by some UN agencies, humanitarian organisations and NGOs operating or having links with agencies operating in that region. Funding from major donors, including ECHO will be needed to cope with this famine. 

For more than 16 years the peoples of Sudan have been subjected to the devastating effects of civil war, which, according to the Catholic bishops of eastern Africa, have " assumed savage, fratricidal and genocidal dimensions." Some two million have died and twice that number have been displaced, with Christians and practitioners of traditional African religions in southern and eastern Sudan the principal victims. The litany of horrors includes:

...slavery and related practices; torture of persons in security detention; extra judicial punishment and executions; disappearances of persons; lack of freedom of expression; laws, attitudes and practices that discriminate towards non-Arabs and non-Muslims; the manipulation of the media in favor of all that is Muslim and Arab to the exclusion of other religions and ethnic groups; the lack of genuine dialogue between Christians and Muslims because of political manipulation; the use of food for proselytism or as a weapon of war; and the systematic depletion and expropriation of property and resources of the population in the war zones. (Statement of Catholic Bishops of East Africa, August 6, 1999)

The bishops of Sudan are clear that all sides are implicated in egregious human rights abuses, including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), but the Sudanese government bears the greatest responsibility for abuses against civilian populations. The Sudanese government must end its aerial bombing of civilian targets, remove its restrictions on delivery of humanitarian aid to areas affected by famine, and cease government-sponsored militia raids on civilian villages, which include abduction of women and children into slavery. The Sudanese government must also end efforts to enforce Sharia law on its non-Muslim peoples. People are losing their lives and denied their rights in part because of their faith.

Every effort should be made by our government and others to press for greater respect for human rights, but there must also be renewed efforts to bring an end to this cruel war. The end of the war would not resolve all of Sudan's problems, but it would make it possible to address some of the most egregious suffering of the people of Sudan -- hunger, displacement, economic underdevelopment, and slavery. As Bishop Joseph Gasi Abangite of Tombura-Yambio pleaded, "We need peace; we must put an end to the war and the culture of hatred and violence that is spreading among our people." 

There is no military solution to this conflict; as difficult as it may be, a negotiated solution is the only way forward. The bishops of East Africa have given their full support to the peace process sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which, despite its particular challenges, seems the most promising vehicle for negotiations at this time. We strongly encourage the United States government to pursue vigorously efforts to encourage IGAD negotiations, to help strengthen its mandate and to bring additional pressure on the Khartoum regime and opposition groups to make a good faith effort to end the war.

Given the urgent need to find a just peace to this interminable conflict, actions that risk exacerbating the conflict deserve careful scrutiny. While the Sudanese government has promised to use the proceeds from the recently opened oil pipeline (in which Chinese, Malaysian, and Canadian interests are involved) to assist those most affected by the war, especially the peoples of the South, and to improve the South's infrastructure, there is a real risk that oil revenues could further fuel the war.

Food aid and other humanitarian and development assistance for Southern Sudan must be an urgent priority. Every effort must be made to ensure that this aid reaches the most vulnerable populations, wherever they might be. Moreover, "civil society" initiatives, critical building blocks in constructing the basis for a lasting peace, are in need of additional aid. 

In the spirit of solidarity, the U.S. Catholic bishops will continue to seek ways to respond to the needs of the Church and the people in Sudan. Through Catholic Relief Services, we continue to build effective relief and development programs in this war-ravaged country. We support efforts to respond to serious violations of human rights, from slavery and attacks on civilian populations, to egregious violations of religious liberty and the use of food as a weapon. We encourage peace initiatives undertaken by the churches in Sudan. We are working with others in support of renewed efforts to help find a just and lasting political settlement to this war. We encourage the sending of missionaries to those regions where the Church is experiencing severe difficulty and where bishops are prevented from visiting the people entrusted to their pastoral care. We urge religious and humanitarian agencies to help support educational initiatives undertaken by the Church in Sudan. Finally, we call upon all Catholics to lift up the Sudanese people in prayer. Our spiritual solidarity provides encouragement to those seeking an end to the war and the beginnings of a national dialogue based upon respect, the dignity of all persons and the right to self-determination.

The violence and repression in Sudan cannot, indeed, must not continue. The people of Sudan yearn for a just peace. They cry for an end to the enslavement of their women and children. They yearn to be free from indiscriminate violence and the constant threat of famine. They long for equal rights, for Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of traditional African religions. They search for an opportunity to build a just and prosperous society that is a valued member of the family of nations. It is long past time for the international community to overcome its indifference toward the humanitarian nightmare in Sudan. It is long past time to do what can be done to help the people of Sudan realize their yearning for a just peace. Peace is not easy, but it is possible, and it is the only way forward. 

Roman catholic bishop Macram Max Gassis is all too well acquainted with the slavery, starvation, and murder of his people in central and southern Sudan—caused by the National Islamic Front government in the north. The killing fields that fall within his jurisdiction include the Nuba Mountains. He is in exile, although he slips back from time to time to report on the atrocities inflicted on black Christians, animists, and Muslims. These horrors are largely ignored by the world, including the president of the United States and such members of the American black establishment as Jesse Jackson, Charlie Rangel, and Al Sharpton. 

Because of the civil war in Sudan between the government and the resistant forces in the south, the children of the Nuba Mountains have been without schools for a generation. And so the bishop established the Holy Cross School in Kauda. 

This is from a report I received from the bishop on February 19: 

"On Tuesday, February 8, forces loyal to the Khartoum regime [the government of Sudan] launched an air attack on [the Holy Cross School], part of the Roman Catholic diocese of El Obeid." 

A Russian-built Antonov bomber targeted the heavily populated area around Kauda, including the school with its 339 students. 

His report continues: "The Antonov aircraft dropped four shrapnel-laden bombs that landed near the school while outdoor lessons were going on, killing 15 children and wounding 17, some critically. A 22-year-old teacher was also killed. Most of the victims were first-grade students who were in the middle of an English lesson when the attack occurred. Nuba eyewitnesses also reported that eight bombs fell on nearby villages during the attack. 

"According to a February 11 Reuters report, Sudanese government officials defended the attack, saying that schools are a legitimate target in the country's long-running civil war. 'The bombs landed where they were supposed to land,' Dirdiery Ahmed, an official in the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told Reuters." 

I am willing to bet most of you are hearing about these killings for the first time because these students were black Africans. 

There are black Muslim families in the Nuba area who oppose the Arab fundamentalist leaders in the north. These people want to keep and nurture their African heritage and are not part of the northern jihad against Christians and animists. 

After getting the bishop's report, I talked to Gabriel Meyer, who had just returned from a fact-finding mission in the Nuba Mountains on behalf of Bishop Gassis. Meyer is executive director of the Windhover Forum, a Catholic nonprofit educational foundation based in Los Angeles. 

"Five other students in the bombing subsequently died of their wounds," he told me. "Also dead was a mother who, confronted with her child's death, died of a heart attack." 

Among the students in the school are escaped and redeemed black slaves. And the American Anti-Slavery Group provides educational materials for the besieged Holy Cross School. 

The Sudanese government has also been bombing the largest hospital in southern Sudan, operated by Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization headed by Franklin Graham. On the editorial page of the March 15 Wall Street Journal, Graham noted that "since 1998, our hospital has helped more than 100,000 Sudanese patients, and our doors will remain open to anyone who approaches us in need." 

The hospital has been under attack for the last three years, and Graham underlines the fact that "when several thousand Europeans are killed and tens of thousands displaced, the world calls it genocide. But when 1.9 million black Africans are killed and millions more are displaced, tortured, and even sold into slavery, the world remains strangely silent." 

Gabriel Meyer told me after his trip to the Nuba Mountains that the government in the north attacks the school and the hospital, along with the water wells, as part of its determined effort to destabilize these black communities so that all of Sudan will be under Islamic control. Black refugees are moved into what are euphemistically called "peace camps"—which, as Charlie Gillis reported in the December 1 National Post of Canada, are actually concentration camps. 

I have seen a BBC video showing some of the murdered students. These are the names of most of those killed: Ruza Dabiel, Munira Khamis, Randa Abualla, William Abualla, Maima Tutu, Kaka Ali, Tabitha Hamdam, Francis Peter, Hamid Yousif, Hydar Osman, Kubi Yousif, Bashir Ismail, Osman Rajab, Kuri Abdel Gadir. Maybe this makes the horror somewhat less abstract. 

Clinton spoke on February 14: "I am deeply concerned by reports that the government of Sudan bombed a school in the Nuba Mountains on February 8, killing and wounding many young children." He called on the government to stop all bombing and any attacks on civilian targets. 

Clinton said nothing about the far larger genocide against blacks in the Sudan. After he helped cause—by deliberate inaction—the genocide in Rwanda, he said this country would never abstain again. His word is worthless. So where are Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the white clergy, newspaper editorial writers, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Rudolph Giuliani—whose city invests in Talisman Energy, which helps provide the fuel for the bombing missions of the Sudanese government? 

1 - What is your impression of Sudan as a nation state?
My first impression of Sudan is a greatly divided nation. The second impression is that there is a system of legalised discrimination and injustice, certainly in the north and I suppose wherever the government holds positions in the south the same would be the case. The third impression is of a country and a people devastated by the conflict. Not that their spirit is broken except in the camps for the displaced in Khartoum where we picked up that there are people with really broken spirits who do not see very much hope for the future. In the south, even though their buildings and structures have been destroyed, the spirit of the people seems to be very optimistic and hopeful. 

2 - Are there any similarities between Sudan today and South Africa during the apartheid era? 
Yes, I think there are similarities and differences. The major similarity is that Sudan, like the then South Africa, is a divided society and there are people who hold the view that the best way to deal with a divided society is to divide the country. In South Africa that was tried out by setting up independent homelands or areas where the blacks would be all concentrated together according to their tribes or origin. The whites would be in their own exclusive areas and so would be the coloured. In Sudan, there are certainly people who would seem to be saying that the only way out is to have the south decide for itself where it goes, whether it goes completely independent or it remains an autonomous unit within a confederate or federal system. There seems to be a very strong feeling among some people that you have to separate Christians and the others from the Muslims otherwise there would never ever be any lasting peace. On the other hand one picks up from the government and others who insist; keep it as a unit but change the constitution so that every one has equal rights. There were people who were saying split South Africa up into different Bantustans whereas others insisted; keep it as a unit but change the constitution so that everyone has equal rights. 
One of the major differences, I would say, is that in South Africa it was quite clear that a minority was holding power over the majority. In the Sudan, the forces at work are not as distinct. You may say that the Muslims are over 50 per cent or maybe more so it isn't a case of minority holding power over the majority. 

3 - Is the South African society doing enough to end the civil strife in Sudan considering the enormous influence South Africa wields on the world's political scene?
I think there is an assumption that South Africa is doing more on the world stage than I believe it actually is. South Africa is involved in trying to bring solutions to a few troubled countries in Africa. Former president Nelson Mandela had quite a high profile as a peacemaker and mediator but I think most of that was because of the way he had handled the whole question of reconciliation within South Africa. That is why he got a reputation on the world stage as a great reconciler. Certainly he has gone out of his way to use that influence in order to bring parties who have been at each other's throat together. The most recent one, I suppose, is what he has done in Burundi where he has come in as the official mediator. I am not so sure whether one can say the same about President Thabo Mbeki's government and Mbeki's standing on the world stage. Just before he took over, the media, both local and international, were full of stories asking the question who is Thabo Mbeki, what kind of a person is he, what kind of president is he going to be. The main concern was where is this man going to fit in. If he is following Mandela, is he going to be able to do the same things Mandela used to do? I am not conscious that South Africa is doing very much about the Sudan. If it is, it is certainly not making enough publicity about it so that the people of South Africa, for a start, are conscious of what is happening in the Sudan. Just before we came to Sudan, there was the story of the bombing of Holy Cross Primary School in the Nuba Mountains, and it got somewhere on page five, just a few lines, in our leading paper. That is indicative, I think, of how conscious South African media is of highlighting the Sudan problem and perhaps in urging the government to play a more active role in resolving the problem 

4 - The separation of powers between religion and the state is central in resolving the Sudanese crisis. What is your stand?
I think that the way in which the South African constitution has helped to resolve some of the problems may be one of the models that Sudan could look at. What the South African constitution did was to take human rights bill of rights as the foundation of the constitution and I think that that bill of rights was generally accepted during the negotiation stages. All the parties involved in the deliberations accepted a common basis for the new constitution so the interim constitution set out the processes for both running the country in the meantime but also for drafting the final constitution. I would say therefore, because of the difficult dilemma of reconciling religion; Islam and a state that allows everyone equal rights, the idea would be to develop a system that is based on commonly accepted democratic principles which will enable the co-existence to be equal for everyone. The holding of the referendum on self determination could be a good start for such an exercise but it cannot be allowed to stop there, it must go forward beyond that point and address issues such as the basic constitution, the basic bill of rights and from here onwards we are going to decide where to go. 

5. What is your vision for Christianity in Sudan in the face of the challenge from Islam and traditional faiths?
What I saw about Christianity in the Sudan was that people have suffered a great deal for their faith. People in the camps are all suffering greatly making it clear that the Sudanese war is being fought on the basis of religion although they say that it is political. Religion certainly plays a big part according to the information we were given. For instance, only those NGOs that have been registered and approved by the government can render relief services. And even though the government has approved them, they have to use certain conduits to get the relief to the people who need it in the camps. From what we gathered from the people, conditions for receiving the relief are largely dependent on whether one accepts certain faith or not. Christianity is very challenged when it comes to a situation like that. It is also challenged when the government says that the church must register as an NGO, and not a body with a divine mission, not a church that has to follow orders that come from a higher office than itself. The future of Christianity does really depend on how everyone from the top to the bottom is prepared to stand up for his faith to demand for dispensation that will allow everyone their basic rights including the right to worship. 

6. What about the traditional faiths? 
In all honesty, I was not aware at any stage that we were in the company of traditionalists especially in the camps and therefore the question of what has Christianity done for you or why have you not become a Christian was never raised. But from what we saw in different places, church-run institutions like schools and hospitals, offer service to all irrespective of their faith. The services are offered on the basis that the beneficiaries are fellow human beings in need. From information given to us by Bishop Joseph Gasi of Tambura-Yambio Catholic Diocese, there is a wholesale conversion to Christianity in the South. He said his Diocese had experienced a population increase from 17,000 to 250, 000 in a very short time since 1983. All these people have to be coming from somewhere. If they were not coming from other churches they would be coming from among the traditionalists. So it would seem that in some places there is a great drive or urge on the part of the people to come together as Christians. I can imagine that for people suffering, having a priest or a bishop to share with them their tribulations would be a great attraction. 

7. Are there significant indications on the ground that the numerous NGOs and churches working in Southern Sudan are engaged in empowering the people as opposed to mere provision of relief?
I think here you are talking specifically about the south but I imagine that there are some situations in the south where the same would hold as in Khartoum. The Catholic Arch-bishop of Khartoum (Gabriel Zubeir Wako) pointed out to us that while the core now is on development rather than relief, you cannot develop someone who is half dead. For him relief is a priority. Before you can start talking about development and development schemes like rehabilitation. One must address the question of getting the people to do certain things for themselves. Empowerment can only be done when people have started having confidence in themselves. Empowerment includes restoring the people's self esteem and sense of dignity. I don't believe people who are hungry can easily have that kind of dignity or self-esteem. So the aspect of relief is a necessity, but it must be a part of a wider vision. The biggest problem is the general poverty of the population. Even when people are empowered to produce goods and services, they would have difficulties making gains from them as people lack the purchasing power. From what we have seen in the South, many organisations are working towards empowering the people 

8. How do you hope to utilise the experience from your recent visit to make Sudan a better society? 
I think the very first thing is to carry the message to our bishops' conference in South Africa and to the wider community in our country. We intend to take up the role of advocacy with our government. There are a number of issues that have been brought to our notice about the needs of the people in Sudan. We also hope to take up the role of advocacy at international for a; the OAU, the UNO and so on and so forth. 

Southern Sudan - The Christian communities in Southern Sudan have appealed for immediate resumption of all humanitarian services to the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army SPLA territory. 
The Christians made the appeal in a statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the New Sudan Council of Churches NSCC, Dr Harrun Ruun and Fr Damian Adugu, who is the secretary-general of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Conference SCBRC.
The statement said: "Christian communities of Southern Sudan are deeply concerned about the NGOs regarding their signing of a Memorandum of Understanding MOU".
It said the suspension of funding by ECHO (European Union's humanitarian aid wing) to agencies who have signed the MOU and continue to serve in the SPLM/A- controlled areas only adds to the suffering of innocent civilians and does not contribute to solving the problem. 
"We therefore call upon the European Union member states to direct ECHO (European Union's humanitarian aid wing) to resume immediately funding to those agencies which continue their humanitarian programmes serving the needy people," the Christians said. 
"We therefore call upon the European Union member states to direct ECHO to resume immediately funding to those agencies which continue their humanitarian programmes serving the needy people," the Christians said. 
A controversy over the MOU saw 12 NGOs withdraw from Southern Sudan following the expiry of the March 1 ultimatum issued by the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association, the SPLA's humanitarian wing. 
The Christian community further appealed to the SPLM/A and the international NGOs to resolve the issue of the MOU urgently. 
The 12 international NGOs which declined to sign the SRAA MOU and left SPLM- controlled areas include World Vision International, Care International, Oxfam and MSF-Holland. 
It is estimated that their withdrawal has deprived Sudan of programmes worth US$ 32 million serving 1.6 million people. ECHO on the other hand provides the African state with 20-25 million Euros in funds each year, of which about 2/3 is for southern Sudan. 
ECHO estimates that about 50 percent of its programmes to southern Sudan have been lost as a result of the withdrawal of the international NGOs. Of the 18 ECHO contracts for southern Sudan, five remain unaffected, seven are partially affected and six have been cancelled. 
The 49 NGOs remaining in Sudan, along with UN agencies and ICRC, are now under pressure to cover the shortfall. Some programmes belonging to the NGOs which withdrew are already being implemented by the remaining NGOs, thus reducing the impact of the withdrawal. 
However, this may not be sustained in the long run, a situation further compounded by the suspension of ECHO funding. Equally under increased pressure are the Churches, which now have to put additional efforts and resources on humanitarian activities. 
As well as the direct effect of suspension of programmes, there is a significant indirect effect on the local economy as Sudanese staff are laid and cash ceases to circulate. 
In Western Equatoria alone, over 300 Sudanese have been rendered jobless, leading to a remarkable decline in the local people's purchasing power. Observers believe that the famine in the Horn of Africa will not affect Sudan as badly as some other countries.
But there will be pockets of serious famine in Upper Nile, Bahr el-Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria, exacerbated by displacement of people from Upper Nile due to the conflict around the oilfields. 
A famine alert for the Horn has been issued by some UN agencies, humanitarian organisations and NGOs operating or having links with agencies operating in that region. Funding from major donors, including ECHO will be needed to cope with this famine.