Franklin Graham: Sudan's al-Bashir 'Responsible for Bloodshed'
Samaritan's Purse leader asks president to reinstate aid agency work in Darfur region.
Interview by Sheryl Blunt in Washington, D.C. | posted 3/19/2009 02:11PM
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How does the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, view the ICC arrest warrant, and have you been able to meet with Kiir as well?
I spoke with him last Wednesday [March 11] as well, in Juba. He feels the ICC's position could possibly derail the CPA. He is concerned. What people don't understand is, you have a very radical Islamic government in Khartoum. Al-Bashir is probably the most moderate in that government. If he were to be replaced, the fear with everybody is that you'll get a more radical person, and the country will erupt into civil war.
To what extent do both leaders want the U.S. to be involved in the peace process?
Both are 100 percent supportive of the United States being engaged. [Al-Bashir] asks me every time I meet with him. He asks me to ask my government to be engaged. But we are very slow, and sometimes we don't reward them for their small steps. … We still don't have an ambassador there. I think we ought to name an ambassador, and get the embassy up and rolling with the full court, so to speak — a diplomatic mission. We don't have that yet. We need to assign a full-time special envoy to Sudan, someone who answers directly to President Obama and not the State Department.
Are you already seeing the impact of the relief groups having been kicked out?
No question it will have an impact. This is the sad thing about the ICC. They may be right. I'm not disputing that. But it's made life a whole lot harder for people who are trying to help. It's antagonized the government, which is suspicious that the aid agencies are collaborating with the ICC. So it's made it worse. The ICC's action doesn't change anything. Al-Bashir's still in power. Nobody's going to arrest him, and you have just ticked him off. So even though the ICC has made a point, nobody is going to serve the arrest warrant, arrest him, or put handcuffs on him.
You have some powerful video footage on your website, particularly showing your church rebuilding program. How is this project coming along?
We estimated that about 1,000 churches were destroyed in the war by al-Bashir's government when they were trying to destroy Christians in the South. They killed one million people, and that's a conservative estimate. Some think it's closer to two million. Pastors were rounded up and their wives and daughters were raped in front of them. Then the pastors' throats were cut and their wives and daughters were taken back to be sex slaves. That's all been documented.
But through our rebuilding program we've rebuilt 256 churches, with 16 under construction. It costs about $80,000 per church to rebuild. We've had to build our own construction company. We fabricate the buildings offsite and then erect them. They are well-built. … These buildings will be there for several hundred years. By the end of this year, we plan to have over 350 churches rebuilt in the South and also in the Nuba Mountains [where over 100 churches have been rebuilt].
What is your organization's overarching strategy in Sudan?
Evangelism. That's our goal. We want to make Christ known. When I'm with al-Bashir, I never leave his presence without presenting the gospel to him. Samaritan's Purse is an evangelical organization. We help people and treat them and love them in such a way as to make Christ known. It's all about the gospel. That's what we do.
How does al-Bashir respond to this?
He listens. He shows respect for what I say. Of course he doesn't believe it, but he will never be able to stand before God and say, "I didn't know."
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