Slavery thrives in chaos of civil strife

ALMOST a century after it was abolished by the British imperial rulers, slavery continues to thrive in the midst of Sudan's brutal 14-year civil war.

In the struggle between the Islamic government in the north and the mainly Christian and animist south, the government regularly turns a blind eye when its militias kidnap children as "war booty" to be kept in servitude or sold.

Now, according to Sudanese church leaders visiting Ireland, the practice has taken a new and even more sinister turn. "The government has always used slavery to divide and rule between the different groups in our country. But now it is using slaves to kill slaves," Dr Nathaniel Garang, the Anglican Bishop of Bor, said.

The Rev Dr Marc Nikkel, an American missionary, told a meeting in Dublin yesterday: "We've had numerous reports of children being forcibly abducted, trained in warfare by the mujahidin and then sent back to communities to attack their own people."

Sudan sits on the front line of the struggle between Christianity and Islam. Since 1983, when the regime in Khartoum started to impose fundamentalist Muslim law, some 1.5 million people have died. At least five million people fled their homes as a result of the war which ensued.

The catalogue of atrocities since then is appalling, even by the standards of the region.

"Government forces have slaughtered one million cattle in an attempt to rip the soul out of the region," Dr Nikkel said. "Among the Dinka tribe of southern Sudan, cattle are at the heart of all human activity. They are used as blood sacrifice, as wedding dowries and to define a person's wealth."

The conflict has been aggravated by internal division in the south.

More than 450,000 Sudanese refugees have fled the fighting to camps in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. The Irish-based Sudan Support Group has appealed to the Government for help to assist those in northern Kenya.