NEWS STORY: Lawmakers to Clinton: Special envoy needed in Sudan to bring peace

c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ At a Capitol Hill news conference scattered with photos of severely malnourished Sudanese children, Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, singled out the haunting image of a tiny, mangled skeleton lying on a dusty roadside.”As we were going in the Land Rover, what we saw here was all kinds of […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ At a Capitol Hill news conference scattered with photos of severely malnourished Sudanese children, Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, singled out the haunting image of a tiny, mangled skeleton lying on a dusty roadside.”As we were going in the Land Rover, what we saw here was all kinds of bodies … carcasses … some of the clothes still on and lots of vultures. It was an amazing scene,”Hall said Thursday (June 4) of his recent fact-finding mission to Sudan.”This is as bad as anything I’ve seen since (the 1984 famine in) Ethiopia.” The escalating crisis in Sudan has spurred Hall and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., to call on the Clinton administration to appoint a special peace envoy _ as it has in other trouble spots _ to mediate the political conflict there.

Clashes between the Muslim Arab-controlled government in the north and rebels in the mostly Christian and animist south have resulted in more than 2 million deaths since 1983. In recent months, the situation in Sudan has grown even more critical as some 700,000 face immediate starvation in Bahr el Ghazal, one of the worst-hit regions in the south.


Making matters worse, relief efforts have been hampered by the Khartoum government, the lawmakers said.”I don’t know why you have to listen to a government to feed people,”said Hall, adding that a peaceful resolution to the political conflict is as equally pressing a need as food aid.”As desperately as the Sudanese need food, they need peace,”he said.”They have the resources if they can get the peace.” Wolf, who like Hall has made three humanitarian trips to Sudan, expressed outrage at the apparent lack of interest in the crisis in the east African nation.”This is a classic example of what’s wrong with this town,”he said, referring to the minimal media and government attention given to Sudan.”The Bible says, `To whom much is given, much is expected,’ yet where’s the interest in the United States?” In a letter dated Thursday, Hall and Wolf urged Clinton to appoint a special peace envoy”of significant stature”to Sudan.”Senator George Mitchell and Richard Holbrooke have made a difference in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and hopefully, in Cyprus,”the lawmakers wrote.”Why not in Sudan?” At the news conference, Hall said there was no indication as to where the White House stands on the possibility of naming a special envoy to Sudan. The lawmakers hope to speak personally with Clinton about the Sudan crisis within a week.”If they don’t appoint (an envoy),”Wolf said pointing to a photo of a malnourished child,”that’s going to tell me … that this little kid … is not worth those in other countries.” Sudan, the largest nation in Africa, has a population of some 27 million to 30 million. It also is the only nation with a substantial population of Arabs and Africans, Hall said.

Wolf said the capital, Khartoum, has become a haven for international terrorists.”They (the Clinton administration) have put all their effort on peace in the Middle East but this is destabilizing peace in the Middle East,”he said, referring to the”large number”of terrorists, including those from Iran and China, who operate out of Khartoum.

Despite the problems with Khartoum, some religious aid groups are attempting to do what little they can to help ease the suffering in Bahr el Ghazal.

Action by Churches Together, a Geneva-based umbrella humanitarian agency for a worldwide network of churches, is working with local churches in the region to help return people displaced by the civil war to their villages. In addition, ACT recently has managed to channel $16,000 in relief into the area, as well as blankets, soap and oil.

And World Vision, the Washington state-based evangelical Christian aid and development agency, has in recent months been calling for greater international assistance in dealing with the famine. During the last decade, World Vision said it has distributed $2.2 million in food and supplies in Sudan.

Still, more needs to be done, the lawmakers said.”The world and the United States need to start caring about this country,”said Hall.”… It’s a forgotten country. It’s like it doesn’t exist.”

DEA END PAQUETTE

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!