wfn.org | Mission worker hailed for making peace amid war

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6944 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

07-November-2001
01425

Mission worker hailed for making peace amid war 

Group honors Dr. Haruun Ruun for defense of human rights in Sudan 

by John Filiatreau
              
LOUISVILLE - Dr. Haruun Ruun, a Presbyterian Church (USA) mission worker
serving as general secretary of the New Sudan Council of Churches, was one
of five activists honored as "Global Rights Defenders" on Nov. 5 by Human
Rights Watch (HRW), a non-profit organization that works in defense of human
and civil rights in 70 countries.

The honorees were chosen as international rights "monitors" for HRW, the
group's highest honor. They are being recognized at HRW dinners in New York,
Los Angeles and San Francisco, and are meeting in Washington, DC, with
officials of the State Department and members of Congress.

"Those we honor have shown great courage and dedication to the cause of
human rights," Kenneth Roth, HRWs executive director, said at the groups
headquarters in New York. "They have worked tirelessly - often in dangerous
environments - to expose rights abuses and to turn the international
spotlight on their countries."

Ruun's organization represents Protestant and Catholic churches in
rebel-held areas of southern Sudan, a nation that has been ravaged by an
18-year-long civil war. The fighting pits poor and powerless African
peoples, most of whom are Christians, against soldiers of the Arab- and
Muslim-dominated government.

Ruun has been involved with the People-to-People reconciliation process,
which tries to make peace among the ethnic tribes of southern Sudan. He has
played a leading role in opposing slavery and returning abducted women and
children to their families; rebuilding villages destroyed in the conflict;
and restoring law and order to a chaotic region.

Under his leadership, the New Sudan Council of Churches also has taken a
courageous stand against oil exploration in southern Sudan, which it says
has destroyed countless homes and villages and forced many Sudanese citizens
off their land without compensation.

The PC(USA) has had mission workers in Sudan for more than a century. 

The other honorees were Afrasiab Khattak of Pakistan, an advocate for Afghan
refugees in Pakistan; Ismail Adylov of Uzbekistan, who has opposed religious
repression and mass violations of human rights in the former Soviet country;
Abdul Rahman Yacob of Indonesia, who defends human rights in the midst of a
war between guerrillas of the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian army and
police; and Rosa Isabel Garcia of Guatemala, who opposes exploitation of the
many women who migrate to Guatemalan cities from the countryside to seek
work as live-in domestics.
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