John Whitehead's Commentary
Genocide in the Sudan: It's Time to Act
Too long we looked the other way, and the Nazis exterminated 6 million Jews. Tired of our battles in Southeast Asia, we ignored the death pogroms of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge from 1975-79, and, as a result, 2 million were starved, tortured and murdered in the Killing Fields of that tiny nation. Disinterested, we distanced ourselves from a bloody war in Rwanda, and 500,000 to 1 million Tutsi--30% of the Rwandan population--were hacked, maimed and murdered by Hutus in the four short spring and summer months of 1994. And it's happening again.
Nearly 2 million more are dead--more than Chechnya, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Somalia combined. Some 2.5 million more are starving and 5 million (out of a population of 8 million) have been displaced. Once more, the United States is looking the other way, silent as Sudan conducts genocide against its own population in the south.
Unfortunately, U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright says this suffering is not "marketable" to the American people and refuses to use the term "genocide" because that would obligate the United States to take steps it is not prepared to initiate. Granted, the U.S. is working to achieve peace talks, and it has imposed sanctions on the Sudanese government. But much more is required.
For nearly 60 years, the Anglo-Egyptians who conquered Sudan in 1898 governed North and South Sudan as separate nations--Arab Muslim culture in the north and the mixture of Christians and indigenous tribal religions that composed the African culture of the south. Independence in 1956 failed to erase the separatist legacy that is essentially the root of today's genocide.
Sudanese President Nimeiri imposed Islamic law, or shari'a, on the entire country in 1983, including black Christians and other non-Muslims in the south. His dictate was augmented in 1992 by a religious decree justifying extermination of non-Muslims. And although religion is at the core of this horrific situation, the war is fueled by oil--oil extracted by Chinese, Canadian and Malaysian companies which produces revenues for the government to purchase arms. Thus famine, religion, politics and natural resources have coalesced into genocide.
While the numbers of dead are hard to grasp, it may be even more difficult to understand the fate of those who are alive. All the men in some entire villages have been crucified on crosses. Christian children by the thousands have been kidnapped and imprisoned in re-indoctrination and military training camps, the Achilles tendons of many having been removed so they cannot run away. The throats of a number of enslaved African boys are slit when they reach late puberty so they cannot become dangerous adult males.
Women and girls face their own unique torture. Rape is just the beginning. Women and girls are enslaved in domestic and agricultural labor and concubinage. Many are genitally mutilated. Displacement has increased prostitution and sexually transmitted disease. And more than half the women are widows.
Many who are not murdered outright are captured and enslaved and taken to the north where they are bought, sold, branded and bred. The United Nations Human Rights Commission has confirmed the slavery and crucifixion of children as young as seven, and some have even been used as human blood banks for wounded Sudanese soldiers.
When the northern soldiers attack, the first people they seek are often those who wear a cross. Christian pastors have been thrown in dried up wells, where they are drenched in gasoline and set on fire. Church structures are burned to the ground, charred ashes the only testament to their existence. And the National Islamic Front regime has bombed civilian populations, including schools, hospitals and emergency feeding and refugee centers.
The Sudan Campaign and the American Anti-Slavery Group have brought together an extraordinary coalition of groups, including the African-American community, politicians from both camps, Jews, Christians, the Salvation Army and representatives from all occupational and economic strata.
Working through Christian Solidarity International, various groups have purchased the freedom of more than 30,000 slaves, although this action remains controversial. School programs, such as S.T.O.P. (Slavery That Oppresses People, a group begun by fifth graders at Highline Community School in Aurora, Colorado) and television programming, such as a Touched by an Angel segment, have provided good information to the general public.
A national boycott and divestment campaign is underway that has targeted companies including Talisman Energy of Canada, Petrochina (part of China National Petroleum Corp.), BP Amoco and Goldman Sachs for their participation in Sudan's oil industry.
But this is not enough. And it will not be enough until every American truly becomes an abolitionist--an abolitionist committed to the end of slavery and massacre everywhere, for every human being. Although moral outrage cannot be the sole basis for foreign policy, we cannot let Secretary Albright's remark that suffering is not "marketable" to the American people be the measure of America's soul.
Nearly 2 million more are dead--more than Chechnya, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Somalia combined. Some 2.5 million more are starving and 5 million (out of a population of 8 million) have been displaced. Once more, the United States is looking the other way, silent as Sudan conducts genocide against its own population in the south.
Unfortunately, U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright says this suffering is not "marketable" to the American people and refuses to use the term "genocide" because that would obligate the United States to take steps it is not prepared to initiate. Granted, the U.S. is working to achieve peace talks, and it has imposed sanctions on the Sudanese government. But much more is required.
For nearly 60 years, the Anglo-Egyptians who conquered Sudan in 1898 governed North and South Sudan as separate nations--Arab Muslim culture in the north and the mixture of Christians and indigenous tribal religions that composed the African culture of the south. Independence in 1956 failed to erase the separatist legacy that is essentially the root of today's genocide.
Sudanese President Nimeiri imposed Islamic law, or shari'a, on the entire country in 1983, including black Christians and other non-Muslims in the south. His dictate was augmented in 1992 by a religious decree justifying extermination of non-Muslims. And although religion is at the core of this horrific situation, the war is fueled by oil--oil extracted by Chinese, Canadian and Malaysian companies which produces revenues for the government to purchase arms. Thus famine, religion, politics and natural resources have coalesced into genocide.
While the numbers of dead are hard to grasp, it may be even more difficult to understand the fate of those who are alive. All the men in some entire villages have been crucified on crosses. Christian children by the thousands have been kidnapped and imprisoned in re-indoctrination and military training camps, the Achilles tendons of many having been removed so they cannot run away. The throats of a number of enslaved African boys are slit when they reach late puberty so they cannot become dangerous adult males.
Women and girls face their own unique torture. Rape is just the beginning. Women and girls are enslaved in domestic and agricultural labor and concubinage. Many are genitally mutilated. Displacement has increased prostitution and sexually transmitted disease. And more than half the women are widows.
Many who are not murdered outright are captured and enslaved and taken to the north where they are bought, sold, branded and bred. The United Nations Human Rights Commission has confirmed the slavery and crucifixion of children as young as seven, and some have even been used as human blood banks for wounded Sudanese soldiers.
When the northern soldiers attack, the first people they seek are often those who wear a cross. Christian pastors have been thrown in dried up wells, where they are drenched in gasoline and set on fire. Church structures are burned to the ground, charred ashes the only testament to their existence. And the National Islamic Front regime has bombed civilian populations, including schools, hospitals and emergency feeding and refugee centers.
The Sudan Campaign and the American Anti-Slavery Group have brought together an extraordinary coalition of groups, including the African-American community, politicians from both camps, Jews, Christians, the Salvation Army and representatives from all occupational and economic strata.
Working through Christian Solidarity International, various groups have purchased the freedom of more than 30,000 slaves, although this action remains controversial. School programs, such as S.T.O.P. (Slavery That Oppresses People, a group begun by fifth graders at Highline Community School in Aurora, Colorado) and television programming, such as a Touched by an Angel segment, have provided good information to the general public.
A national boycott and divestment campaign is underway that has targeted companies including Talisman Energy of Canada, Petrochina (part of China National Petroleum Corp.), BP Amoco and Goldman Sachs for their participation in Sudan's oil industry.
But this is not enough. And it will not be enough until every American truly becomes an abolitionist--an abolitionist committed to the end of slavery and massacre everywhere, for every human being. Although moral outrage cannot be the sole basis for foreign policy, we cannot let Secretary Albright's remark that suffering is not "marketable" to the American people be the measure of America's soul.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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