AKCIJE

May 7, 2001

 President George Bush
 The White House
 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
 Washington DC 20017

 Dear President Bush:

 We are members of Sudan Working Group, the Advocacy Network for Africa
and the Catholic Task Force on Africa. These groups are all coalitions
of nongovernmental and religious organizations working in and for the
good of the people of  Africa with a particular interest in the Sudan.
Many members have on-going relief and development operations in Sudan,
especially in the south.

We have long been aware of the resurgence in slavery in Sudan that is a
by-product of the war that has been debilitating Sudan, and particularly
its south and Nuba Mountains, since 1983. The resurgence of this human
rights abuse was first documented by two University of Khartoum
lecturers, both northern Muslims, in 1986. Slavery is a long-term
problem for Sudan not only because slave-raiding continues, but because
there are many victims who remain living and working in the harsh
conditions of servitude.

What has become evident is that no one has yet compiled a registry of
abducted persons who have not returned home or escaped. Specifically,
what is lacking is a database that can define the extent and scope of
the current and historical problem. Such a registry could address the
large discrepancy in the reports of the numbers of affected Sudanese
 people.

One knowledgeable source, the Dinka Committee which was formed by Dinka
elders in Khartoum in the mid-1980s to locate and free Dinka children
and women held in slavery, estimates there are as many as 10,000 still
captive. This estimate is based on more than a decade of fieldwork in
Darfur, a western state bordering Bahr El Ghazal. The U.S. State
department estimates that between 12,000 and 15,000 children remain in
captivity at the end of last year. Although the basis for their estimate
is unclear, persons involved in buying back slaves estimate that as many
as 100,000 persons are enslaved.

We feel strongly that the United States should respond to this tragic
situation in a positive way by contributing to the creation of a
registry of abducted persons, and by calling on other governments to
participate fully in the funding and support of this effort. Enclosed is
our draft proposal giving the substance, purpose and rationale for the
creation of such a registry.

We urge you to make the following proposal a high priority as a US
response to this appalling human rights situation. Creating such a
database would create a historical record of the victims, it would help
UNICEF and others, including the government, in its efforts to return
those who have suffered separation from their families, and it would
help U.S. citizens involved in projects to buy back slaves to understand
the breadth of the problem, and to direct their charity wisely.

We propose:

1) The establishment of a slave registry. This would be a systematic
survey, using anthropological techniques appropriate to the Dinka. It
would collect the necessary information from each locality and chief or
other knowledgeable person. Data such as name, birth date (approximate),
parents' name, place of birth, ethnicity (including section or clan),
identifying marks (scarification, broken bones, birthmarks), date and
circumstances of abduction, identity of abductors, date and place last
seen or heard from, and by whom, are some of the basics needed to
compile a registry of abducted/enslaved persons.

Rationale:
 Methodology, both anthropological and humanitarian, exists to compile
 a credible database. Credibility is a necessity, unfortunately, because
public opinion in northern Sudan and in some other parts of the world
remains to be convinced that there is such a phenomenon as a modern
resurgence of slavery in Sudan, and that it has affected thousands of
people.
  Such registries have been compiled in recent history in other African
countries. For instance, the estimated 40,000 orphans of the Rwanda
crisis were registered, and most identified by name and reunited with
their families, following the upheavals and mass migrations of the
genocide of 1994. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
registered persons "disappeared" or taken into unacknowledged detention
by government forces and never seen again in many countries of Latin
America, where the disappeared numbered in the thousands.
  A registry is necessary above all in Sudan to begin to tackle the
slavery problem in a systematic way, to facilitate identification and
freeing of the victims, and to assure closure for the majority of
victims and their families at some time in the future. In the case of
victims who managed to escape but remained in the north, it would serve
as a device to reconnect them to the families from which they have been
separated so long.
  A registry would also provide the dignity of recognition and identity
for the victims who still live in captivity, estranged from their
families, cultures, and places of origin, and have often been provided
with another name and identity, that of abid, or slave. Their identity
and the circumstances of their abduction will be preserved. The crime
will not fade with time but will be recorded, possibly for use in a
future prosecution.

2) This survey must begin in the region of Northern Bahr el Ghazal:
Slavery has affected mostly the Dinka of northern Bahr El Ghazal and the
Nuba, both of whom live in areas bordering the Baggara tribes that have
been most active in the slave-taking, armed, supported, and given
impunity by the government. Often government officers and soldiers
participated in taking the booty of slaves.

Rationale:
  Bahr El Ghazal is the area most affected by slave raids.
  The area of Bahr El Ghazal has been served from Kenya by OLS (Southern
Sector) for some time; it is in rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A) hands. By focusing on one limited geographical
area, it should be feasible to compile an actual registry of the
majority of persons who have been abducted.

  Many were captured in groups from their home villages, and some of
this data has already been collected. Chiefs in that area are known to
have kept lists of persons abducted, although these lists were not
compiled in any systematic fashion nor kept in any one place. Human
Rights Watch has copies of some of these lists. Such lists provide the
 beginnings of a comprehensive data base on slaves. But since not all
chiefs or other authorities kept lists in a consistent manner,
interviews need to be conducted and existing lists need to be
cross-checked.
  The area to be covered is already known to U.N. and nongovernmental
relief agencies. There is a body of knowledge including maps,
information about landing strips and other transport, climate,
migration, and food sources that is accessible to assist in the planning
and execution of an efficient survey.
  When the process of creating a registry for northern Bahr El Ghazal is
well underway, then the process should be extended to other areas
victimized by slave-raiding, such as the Nuba Mountains and other parts
of the south, where captives were taken by soldiers who "gave" them to
their wives or mothers as household slaves.


Conclusion: The necessity for such a registry is clear: it will greatly
aid those in the government and in U.N. agencies and nongovernmental
organizations to locate, free, and care for the victims, and hopefully
reunite them with their relatives and communities. But this information
stands to be lost if it is not gathered as soon as possible. More than a
decade has passed since the first outbreak of slave raids. Relatives of
the victims may be dead, displaced inside or out of the south, or have
migrated to other countries. Chiefs and other sources of oral history
may die, change, and be displaced, or loose documents or their memory
may fade as time goes on.

We therefore urge that the U.S. Government make the creation of this
registry of abducted persons a high priority, and call on other
governments to participate fully in the funding and support of this
effort.

Signed:

Aleah Bacquie
Africa Action

>> Larry J. Goodwin, Executive Director
>> Africa Faith & Justice Network
>>
>> Rev. Greg Laszakovits
>> Church of the Brethren Washington Office
>>
>> Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director
>> Church World Service
>>
>> Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary
>> National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
>>
>> Edward (Ned) W. Stowe, Legislative Secretary
>> Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers)
>>
>> Jemera Rone
>> Human Rights Watch
>>
>> Wanda Guthrie, Coordinator
>> Pittsburgh Area Chapter Stand For Children
>>
>> Stan De Boe, OSST, Director
>> Office of Justice and Peace, Conference of Major Superiors of Men
>>
>> Kathleen McNeely
>> Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
>>
>> Stephen G. Price
>> Office of Justice and Peace
>> Society of African Missions
>>
>> Rev. Phil Reed
>> Justice and Peace Office, North American Province
>> Society of Missionaries of Africa
>>
>> Maureen Healy
>> Africa Liaison
>> Society of St. Ursula
>>
>> The Rev. Canon Patrick P.Augustine,
>> Canon and Commissary to the Archbishop of Sudan in the U.S.A. Rector,
>> ST.John's Episcopal Church, Waynesboro, VA
>> Chairman, Campanions for World Mission, Diocese of Southwester Virginia
>>
>> The Rev. Thomas B. Woodward
>> St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Salinas, CA
>>
>> Molly Rush
>> The Thomas Merton Center, Pittsburgh, PA
>>
>> Leon Spencer, Executive Director
>> Washington Office on Africa
>>
>> David Mozer, President
>> Washington State Africa Network
>>
>> Union of American Hebrew Congregations
>>
>> Central Conference of American Rabbis
>>
>> Mary S. Donovan, Dobbs Ferry, NY
>>
>> Dr. Curtis Francis Doebbler, Washington, D.C.
>>
>> --
>> Kathleen McNeely
>> Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
>> P.O. Box 29132
>> Washington DC 20017
>> 202-832-1780
>> fax 202-832-5195