Delegation ‘Rings the Bell’ for South Sudan

October 22, 2010

This article was originally published on The Living Church Foundation website, and has been reposted with permission.

An ecumenical delegation of Sudanese church leaders has called for help for the people of South Sudan who are preparing for a Jan. 9, 2011, referendum on whether to remain a part of Sudan or to secede and become an independent country.

The three-part message of the delegation is that the referendum must go forward on Jan. 9, that the National Congress Party government in Khartoum has failed to make continued unity an attractive option to the people of South Sudan, and that the international community must do everything in its power both to prevent a return to war and to help all of the peoples of Sudan who have been marginalized and oppressed by the regime.

After meetings in New York with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Council on Foreign Relations, the delegation traveled to Washington, D.C. They presented a forum on the crisis in their nation at St. Paul’s Church, Alexandria, Va., on Oct. 17. Later in the week they met with U.S. government officials to urge increased pressure on the Khartoum government and increased presence by the United States in referendum preparation in order to forestall any of the National Congress Party regime’s plans to sabotage the vote.

“We have come to ring the alarm bell,” said the Most Rev. Daniel Deng Bul Yak, Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS), at a forum sponsored by the American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (AFRECS), the Episcopal Church, Caritas, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Catholic Relief Services. Joining the archbishop were Roman Catholic retired bishop Paride Taban of Torit and auxiliary bishop Daniel Adwok Kur of Khartoum, as well as the Rev. Ramadan Chan, Secretary General of the Sudan Council of Churches, and Dr. Sam Kobia, ecumenical special envoy to Sudan. “Everything is behind schedule” in preparation for the referendum, Deng Bul said.

The right to self-determination for South Sudan was affirmed in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended Khartoum’s open warfare against South Sudan. The referendum was scheduled to take place exactly five years after the signing of the CPA. But the National Congress Party regime in Khartoum has delayed and violated the provisions of the CPA that were considered stepping stones to the South’s referendum on secession all along the way. This has caused some observers to say that the South should postpone the referendum. The delegation warned, though, that if the vote is not carried out on January 9 “there will be trouble.” It could cause the Government of South Sudan to act unilaterally and declare South Sudan’s independence, an action which the Islamist regime considers illegal.

Chan reported that the northern government is “still advocating for unity.” At the time of the CPA signing it was understood to be the responsibility of the regime that previously attacked, enslaved, starved, and killed the people of South Sudan to begin to make “unity attractive,” so that the people would not wish to separate. But by continually violating the peace agreement, and by demonstrating that it will continue the process of Islamization over all of Sudan and all of Africa, the National Congress Party regime has failed to make unity attractive. Now South Sudan fears that the referendum will be rigged in favor of unity. There are various complicated methods by which Khartoum could rig the vote that have to do with percentages of people and influx of internally displaced persons.

In addition, having been dealt deception by the National Congress Party in the north for decades, the people of South Sudan rightly fear that any delay will simply be additional time for Khartoum to amass troops and weapons along the north/south border — something that is already taking place. Witnesses have reported that the Khartoum regime has released 70,000 additional troops in the border areas of Abyei, Blue Nile, and Nuba Mountains (Southern Kordofan). Other witnesses have seen tanks in border towns.

Two other key provisions of the CPA that were to have occurred before the referendum have not yet been implemented. One of these concerns involves the border region of Abyei and whether the Misseria, nomadic Arab who use Abyei for grazing, have the right to vote in the referendum. The other provision is for organizing what is called a “popular consultation” in the border areas of Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains. In these areas, the people will not have a vote on secession themselves, but an elected legislative assembly is to discern and then do the will of the people on whether these areas should be considered north or south. But there is concern that some within these assemblies were fraudulently elected this past April and represent the will of Khartoum, not the people. The church delegation made an impassioned plea for these problems, as well as for the Darfurians and the marginalized Nubians in the far north and Beja in the east.

Taban, a cofounder with the Rt. Rev. Nathaniel Garang (ECS) of the New Sudan Council of Churches, spoke of the courage and determination of the people. “Many people look at the situation as hopeless,” he said, “but the hopeless time has passed.” He added that southerners “are willing to sell their cows to pay for the referendum.”

Bishop Kur spoke about the lion’s den that is Khartoum. He said the former president of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi, has added his support, saying that he is “looking forward to seeing South Sudan free.” Kur added that unity with the north “cannot be made attractive if you do not address the causes of the conflict.” The problem that many euphemistically refer to as “identity” is the root cause of the conflict in Sudan.

The problem of how Sudan is identified not only affects South Sudan, but also all of the marginalized people of Sudan. In fact, they are marginalized by the regime in Khartoum because of their identification — as Christians, as black Africans, and/or as Muslims who disagree with the Islamist agenda of the government.

“When you say that Sudan is an Islamic country, you say that there is no religion, no culture, no ethnicity other than Arab, Islamic ones,” Bishop Kur said. “The north has shown it will continue the process of Islamization all over Africa. Sudan sees itself as the springboard for Islamization,” Kur said. The other members of the delegation agreed and said that nobody wants to remain a second-class citizen.

Kobia, a Kenyan and the only non-Sudanese member of the team, has been working on advocacy for Sudan for the last four months. Kobia reiterated the sacrosanct nature of the referendum’s date of Jan. 9. “This is not a technicality,” he said. “It is a matter of life and death for the people of South Sudan.” He warned that the alternative would be war, so mechanisms “must be put in place to resolve the dispute after the referendum.”

In addition, Kobia said, the international community must ensure that there is adequate security for an “atmosphere of peace for voting” and that United Nations peacekeepers should establish a buffer zone in the border area, between the two armies. Only five miles stand between the northern and southern troops.

“I have seen the impact of what the churches are doing,” Kobia said. He affirmed the Sudanese churches as those who have influenced the international community and conveyed the message from the grassroots. Churches are doing a civics and voter education program for people throughout South Sudan, Kobia said.

Archbishop Deng Bul said that churches are engaging with the government of South Sudan to bring all ethnicities together. In the past the Khartoum regime has manipulated tribal conflicts to divide the people of South Sudan against each other. Deng Bul reported that South Sudan President Salva Kiir, in the spirit of reconciliation, has made a declaration of amnesty to those leaders of factions that created division among the people. Deng Bul said sternly that division among southerners would not be tolerated.

The archbishop reminded his Christian brothers and sisters in America to pray for this historic moment in South Sudan. He said some churches around the United States are joining with Christians in South Sudan in praying for the referendum on the 9th of every month leading up to the vote. “We need your prayers,” he said.