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Although the number of women and children abducted and enslaved
during raids has varied over the years since the civil war re-started
in 1983, it is undoubtedly the case that slavery remains a reality
in Sudan with thousands of people awaiting release and new abductions
still taking place.
The victims mostly come from North Bahr El Ghazal (in Southern
Sudan), and the raiders from South Darfur and West Kordofan (parts
of North Sudan). Most of the victims belong of the Dinka ethnic
group, the largest in Southern Sudan. The men who carry out the
raids, and the families which subsequently keep Dinka children and
women in slavery, belong to the pastoralist groups in North Sudan
known as Baggara (cattle herding people), comprising the
Rizeigat and the Misseriya, both Arabic-speaking tribes.
Government authorities in Sudan went on denying that either militia
raids or slavery were occurring from the time of the first public
reports in 1987 until 1999. In April 1999 the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights, which for several years had expressed concern at
reports that slavery was occurring in Sudan, changed its use of
words and criticized cases of "abduction" and "forced
labour" instead. The following month, the Government of Sudan
set up the Committee for the Eradication of Abduction of Women and
Children (CEAWC), an institution attached to the Ministry of Justice.
CEAWC was given a wide mandate to end abductions, to secure the
return home of all those abducted, and to punish anyone involved
in abducting or holding another person.
In October 2000, two representatives of Anti-Slavery International
visited Sudan to assess the impact of CEAWC's work. They interviewed
members of CEAWC, the Dinka Committee, the Dinka community living
in North Sudan and former slaves living in three transit centers
managed by CEAWC.
Two months ago Anti-Slavery submitted a report to the Government
summarising the information collected during its representative's
visit and presenting a series of recommendations to the Sudanese
authorities.
Anti-Slavery's representatives were concerned to discover during
their visit that Government officials and others did not consider
that abducted persons who are absorbed into the household of another
family, whether by sale, false adoption, marriage, or as a result
of the passage of time to be a victim of a human rights violations,
let alone a victim of slavery.
Clear condemnation is needed, not only of abductions, kidnapping
and forced labour, but also of "false adoption", debt
bondage, employing children away from home and without the consent
of their parents or guardian, and coercing or persuading girls or
women into marriage while keeping them ignorant of their own origins
or their rights. The Government should also introduce or amend legislation
to ensure that all these practices are prohibited and that the penalties
are commensurate with the human rights violations committed (e.g.
forced labour is currently an offence under the Criminal Act 1991,
but the penalty is only one year of imprisonment).
Anti-Slavery observed that while CEAWC has secured the release
of some women and children who were abducted, its progress has been
extremely slow. Between May 1999 and July 2000, CEAWC identified
1,230 cases of abductions in South Darfur and West Kordofan. However,
by the beginning of April 2001, CEAWC had only facilitated the return
of approximately 550 abductees to their homes. This figure represents
only a small percentage of the total number waiting to be released,
which is generally considered to be between 5,000 and 14,000.1
The slow pace of people being returned to their homes in the second
half of 2000 is partly explained by a flare up in fighting between
the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and Government forces
in the Aweil area in June 2000. This put an end to the safe corridor
out of the government controlled Aweil town through which people
were returning to their homes in SPLA-controlled parts of North
Bahr El Ghazal.
CEAWC has not pursued its mandate by prosecutions, but instead
has chosen to adopt a procedure for identifying those who should
be released and securing releases, which involves the participation
of representatives of both the Dinka (the victims) and the community
holding them. However, as the figures above demonstrate, this process
has been unacceptably slow. Indeed, James Aguer, the head of the
Dinka Committee, was reported in April 2001 to have strongly criticised
the Government for not facilitating the Dinka Committee's work in
releasing slaves. He noted that the Government's inaction has the
effect of encouraging more abductions. Dinka representatives continue
to face harassment in carrying out their work.
It is time that the Government took urgent steps to speed up releases
and to end the de facto amnesty for those responsible for
abductions or for holding victims of abduction. The Government also
needs to make it clear to local officials that they must co-operate
with CEAWC and the release process and protect Dinka representatives
from harassment.
The Government has not taken action to prevent new abductions.
Some new raids were reported in 2000, most notably the abduction
of some 300 women and children from villages in Northern Bahr el
Ghazal on 21 February. The fact that UN sources in Khartoum reported
in mid-January 2001 that Government-supported militia again carried
out raids in North Bahr El Ghazal in early January 2001, abducting
122 women and children, confirms fears that the Government has not
taken practical steps to give force to its avowed commitment to
end raiding and slavery.
Urgent and effective action is needed to end abductions; secure
the release of every one of the thousands of Sudanese affected by
slavery; and ensure the prosecution of those responsible for these
human rights violations. In order to achieve this, Anti-Slavery
International recommends that the Government of Sudan:
1. Publicly state that abductions and associated practices are
illegal, make the appropriate legislative amendments and give priority
to enforcing the law.
2. Provide CEAWC with the material and political support it requires
to carry out its role effectively. Protection should be provided
to all those involved in the tracing, release and rehabilitation
activities of either CEAWC or the Dinka Committee, and officials
or private individuals who obstruct their work should be punished.
3. Take immediate action to stop attacks on civilians and prevent
new raids and abductions from taking place. Priority should be given
to ensuring all those responsible for new abduction or for any sort
of assault against an abducted person are prosecuted.
4. End the de facto amnesty for heads of households responsible
for holding victims of abduction against their will and instruct
both CEAWC and the various Baggara communities that all Dinka
people held illegally must be released immediately, setting a date
when prosecutions will be started against anyone who fails to follow
these instructions.
5. Establish and maintain a land or air corridor from North to
South Sudan, under the supervision of a suitable neutral organisation,
to enable victims of slavery who have been released to return home
safely to the areas now under SPLA control from which they were
abducted.
6. Set up a joint working group under the auspices of CEAWC to
assess marginal or disputed cases, in which the authorities and
representatives of the Dinka community will both be involved. In
the case of children, the child's best interests will be the principal
criterion for deciding what should happen to them. Abducted women
who have subsequently married should be given full information about
their options in a neutral setting, enabling them to decide freely
to remain with their husbands or to leave.
1 There is no official figure regarding the number
of people enslaved since 1983. However, the Dinka Committee estimates
that around 14,000 Dinka have been abducted in total, of whom 8,000
were taken to West Kordofan and 6,000 to South Darfur. In early
2000, a UNICEF representative was reported to have estimated that
between 5,000 and 10,000 children were believed to remain in captivity.
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