Ceasefires and peace talks bow to greater powers in Sudan
Jeff M. Sellers | posted 10/01/2003 12:00AM
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The U.S.-backed Civilian Protection and Monitoring Team is downplaying and denying military atrocities to aid U.S.-Khartoum talks on the Western war on terrorism, among other reasons. Such distorted reports, Bennett says, stem from sheer naïveté in the CPMT's research.
For example, when 59 southern Sudanese in Longochok, including a Presbyterian pastor, were massacred in a dispute between two Khartoum-backed local militias on May 22, the CPMT blamed the attack on southern SPLA forces. But Bennett says that SPLA forces did not arrive in the area until after May 22. They did so at the tribe's bidding—to defend the Nuer against another attack. That attack came on May 27, resulting in the deaths of a few militiamen but no civilians.
Bennett was meeting with the local chiefs in Sudan when he found out by cell phone that the CPMT blamed the SPLA for killing the civilians. He says, "They were incredibly angry, saying, 'These [SPLA] are the people that we asked to defend us, and they're the ones being blamed for this? How stupid are those Americans, anyway?' "
Congress has done what it can for the suffering Sudanese Christians. Rights organizations say it is better to petition the Bush administration to acknowledge Sudanese military attacks on civilians.
The Sudan Peace Act encourages the President, through the U.N., to help end aerial bombardment of civilians.
Ask the Bush administration to fulfill the mandates of the Sudan Peace Act: Colin Powell, Department of State, 2201 C Street, N.W., Suite 7276, Washington, DC 20520; and President Bush, the White House, Washington, DC 20500.
Pray for multinational cooperation in the efforts to achieve peace in Sudan, as well as strength and faith for the repressed southern Sudanese.
Justice Delayed | Sudan Peace Act may be a casualty of the war on terrorism.
Finding Homes for the 'Lost Boys' | They've seen their parents shot, their villages burned, and their homeland recede in the distance as they escaped. Now these Sudanese youth build a new life in suburban Seattle.
Freedom Panel Alleges Genocide | U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom makes suggestion on Sudan's worsening abuses. (May 4, 2001)
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