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(The following is an abridged version of text released in Arabic)
Anti-Slavery International is calling on Sudan's President Omar
al-Bashir to take action to end the pattern of abductions and slavery
that has existed in Sudan for the past 15 years.
Since the beginning of 2002, both the Sudanese President, and the
Vice-President, Ali Osman Taha, have publicly denied the existence
of slavery in Sudan. However, when Mike Dottridge, Director of Anti-Slavery
International, the world's oldest international human rights organisation,
and an Algerian human rights lawyer visited Khartoum and parts of
South Darfur in Western Sudan in October 2000, they found that abductions
have been continuing unabated for 15 years. This has resulted in
thousands of cases of enslavement and slavery-related violations.
Even though the Government of Sudan formed the Committee for the
Eradication of Abductions of Women and Children (CEAWC) in 1999,
it has failed to end the pattern of slavery.
"I am deeply concerned that, despite its assurances, the
Government of Sudan has done little to prevent abductions and to
resolve the predicament of people remaining in slavery,"
says Mike Dottridge, Director of Anti-Slavery.
In January 2002, following discussions with a representative from
the United States Government, responsibility for CEAWC was transferred
from the Ministry of Justice to the President's Office. While this
initiative appeared to assuage concern in the US and elsewhere about
the persistence of slavery, the President's subsequent denial that
slavery exists in the country has alarmed Anti-Slavery International.
Recent government actions are of particular concern. "In
January this year a journalist was detained in Khartoum for reporting
slavery continues to occur. This obviously discourages crucial independent
investigations into the nature and scale of abductions and slavery.
We are pressing the Government to confirm that no-one will be penalised
in future for collecting or publishing information about abductions,
slavery or related patterns of human rights abuse in Sudan. We are
also urging the Government to issue regular, public reports on CEAWC's
activities - both its successes and the obstacles it has encountered
in carrying out its work".
In March last year Anti-Slavery submitted a 26-page report, Is
There Slavery in Sudan?, to Sudan Government officials. In August
2001 the Chairman of CEAWC responded stating it was considering
the recommendations. However, a year on, virtually nothing seems
to have been done to put any of the recommendations into practice.
It has been a year since Anti-Slavery submitted recommendations
on steps the government needs to take to end slavery. The recommendations
are based on Anti-Slavery's findings following Mike Dottridge's
October 2000 visit to Khartoum, Nyala and Ad-Dha'ein. The mission
met government officials, interviewed survivors of slavery who had
been released with the Government's support, and talked to the leaders
of one of the two main tribes involved in abducting people.
The principal recommendations are:
1: The Government of Sudan should take immediate action to stop
attacks on civilians in North Bahr El Ghazal (and other areas) by
either government forces or irregular forces based in South Darfur
or West Kordofan.
2: The Government of Sudan should clarify what practices associated
with abductions and with keeping victims of abductions are illegal,
amend the law accordingly, and give priority to enforcing the law.
Anti-Slavery International's representatives concluded that the
cases they heard about clearly constitute an abuse of the United
Nations' conventions against slavery, as well as of Sudan's existing
laws. They noted that there seemed to be little awareness of the
specific provisions and implications of these conventions. Both
Government officials and others seemed to believe that an abducted
person who is absorbed into the household of another family, whether
as a result of abduction, sale, false adoption, marriage, or as
a result of the passage of time and forgetting their own origins,
need not be considered to be a victim of human rights violations,
and certainly not a victim of slavery.
3: The Government should announce a deadline after which the
heads of households responsible for holding victims of abduction
against their will should be prosecuted. In the meantime, anyone
responsible for a new abduction or for any sort of assault against
an abducted person should be prosecuted.
Clear condemnation is needed, not only of abductions and kidnapping,
but also of enticement, "false adoption", debt bondage,
employing children away from home and without the consent of their
parents or guardian, and persuading girls or women into marriage
while keeping them ignorant of their own origins or their rights
and options to return home. In addition to clarifying what is illegal,
the Government should also ensure that all those who have been carrying
out these practices are aware that they are not allowed and will
be punished.
Anti-Slavery's mission to Sudan concluded there had been good reasons
for CEAWC not to pursue its mandate initially by prosecutions,
but to adopt a different procedure - one of identifying those who
should be released and then securing releases, by involving representatives
of both the Dinka community (the victims) and the community holding
them. However, the process has been unacceptably slow, and Dinka
representatives have continued to be harassed. They require greater
protection from the Federal authorities, notably to make it clear
to local officials they must co-operate with CEAWC and with the
release process.
It is time the Government took steps to speed up releases and to
end the de facto amnesty for offenders (responsible for abductions
or for holding victims of abduction). Late last year CEAWC announced
it would start prosecutions, but none has been reported.
4: As a matter of priority, the Government and the Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA) should re-establish a safe corridor to enable
the return of people who have been abducted and enslaved; if necessary
by air and under the supervision of a suitable neutral organisation.
By July 2000, the groups set up by CEAWC at the local level
had identified more than 1,200 people as probable abduction cases.
Of these, more than 450 had been reunited with relatives, in 178
cases by travelling via Aweil to parts of Bahr El Ghazal which are
outside Government control. Estimates that a total of 14,000 people
were abducted from North Bahr El Ghazal between the mid-1980s and
1999 confirmed that CEAWC still has large numbers of cases to deal
with and resolve, and that its rate of progress from September 1999
to June 2000 was not fast enough. It was discouraging to learn that
the rate of progress during the second half of 2000 had slowed down.
In June 2000 arrangements for ensuring safe passage out of Aweil
had come to an end and the Government had not taken the necessary
steps to establish a new safe route for victims of abduction to
return to their homes in North Bahr El Ghazal.
5: A special procedure needs to be developed to ensure proper
and fair consideration of all the cases of Dinka girls or adult
women who have been married into communities in South Darfur and
West Kordofan.
CEAWC should convene a joint working group of women from the
Arabic- and Dinka-speaking communities involved, in order to establish
if the girls and women concerned gave their informed consent to
marriage, and if they now wish to leave and rejoin their original
family.
CEAWC needs to identify suitable procedures for making the options
clear to the girls and women involved, giving them an opportunity
to chose as freely as possible, while also addressing the question
of the custody of children born to such women. The procedure should
involve women and possibly male representatives of the Dinka community.
They should visit all of the girls and women concerned, to explain
that they may leave the family into which they have married if they
so wish.
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