wfn.org | [NSCC] Darfur Crisis is diverting resources meant for Southern

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

September 12, 2004
PRESS RELEASE
Darfur Crisis is diverting resources meant for Southern Sudan

Darfur crisis is diverting global attention from the Sudan peace process 
and resources meant for the betterment of southern Sudanese.

This was stated in Berlin, Germany today, by the Executive Director of New 
Sudan Council of Churches, Rev. Dr. Harunn Runn.
Addressing a joint Conference of Catholic and Protestant Church leaders, 
Rev. Runn pointed out that the Darfur genocide was predetermined by 
Khartoum government aimed at depopulating the agricultural and potentially 
mineral rich Darfur for subsequent resettlement by Arabs from northern Sudan.
As a result, global attention has shifted from the peace talks while 
resources which could have been used to support an estimated one million 
Sudanese refugees to return home, are being diverted to Darfur.

While in Germany, Rev. Runn will also address German parliamentarians, 
civil society groups and the German media.
He went on, from time immemorial, we have dreamt of the day Sudan would be 
peaceful.  We endured nightmares during a period when the world, including 
the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) and its members forgot the 
civil war in Sudan.  God however, did not forget Sudan.  We are still 
dreaming, except now we do so with renewed hope that a new era of peace is 
about to dawn, thanks to the international community.
He recalled that having attained political independence from the British 
colonial rule in 1956, Sudan should be counted as among the first countries 
in Africa to gain independence but this has not been the case.	Often 
references are made to Ghana, which became independent a year later in 1957 
while for southern Sudanese that independence has had no meaning and was 
therefore left in the dustbin of history as time stood still, he pointed out.
With a renewed hope for post-war Sudan, Rev. Runn went on; attention is 
being focused on the need for reconstruction of southern Sudan.  This is as 
it should be but what kind of reconstruction does Sudan need?  What kind of 
development paradigms should apply to Sudan?  Having been marginalized and 
denigrated at will, what kind of development will enable us to join the 
path of humanity and be recognized as people, though emerging from the 
ashes of protracted civil wars that dehumanized us?
He pointed out that these questions reflect our search for the kind of new 
frontiers we should demarcate for the Sudan.  Much of Africa, he said, has 
gone through over four development decades and yet they do not have much to 
show.  Instead some 50 per cent of Africas population remains illiterate.

The tyranny of poverty is spreading to a point that we no longer talk of 
poverty elimination but alleviation.  As such, when the people of southern 
Sudan are told that in their reconstruction era they have to move fast to 
catch up with the rest of Africa, we find it amusing.  Instead, we must 
avoid the false start that many African nations launched themselves into 
upon attainment of independence.
He observed that, the post-war Sudan will attract new actors into Southern 
Sudan, purporting to support reconstruction of the new Sudan but  actors 
who never identified with the suffering southern Sudan.  Given the history 
of Sudan, the people of southern Sudan can be excused for being cautious 
and seeking to determine the real agenda, particularly the hidden agenda of 
the new actors so that rebuilding of relationships becomes genuine.
Rev. Runn stressed that what southern Sudan needs are human centered 
visions for development as it emerges from a world where contempt for human 
dignity and sanctity of life were routinized as a matter of course.  We do 
not need the so called trickle down development concept which contends 
that development occurs when those at the top get very rich and in time, 
wealth trickles down.  For over forty years, Africa has created its stock 
of few billionaires but their wealth never tricked down, he added.
  In the reconstruction era, Sudan will have to search for new social 
contracts that will bind together democratic citizenship and social 
justice.  We must deliberately and right from the start, engage in the 
process that promotes community empowerment, the type that fuses social 
actions and public responsibility, he stressed.
Referring to Sudanese women, Rev. Runn noted that poverty was invariably a 
burden borne more heavily by women.  In Africa, women have been discounted 
within the theory and practice of development.	They are disadvantaged in 
terms of income, assets, education and political clout.  We want to avoid 
that route for Southern Sudan.

In southern Sudan, thousands of women, he observed, lost their husbands in 
the civil war.	As a result, many households are headed by women.  Special 
attention will have to be given to Sudanese women so that they do not feel 
powerless to act in society or denied access to support mechanisms.  Women 
will have to be supported in developing income generating projects.
As for the Sudanese youth, Rev. Runn observed that majority of them have 
never known peace in their lifetime.  Southern Sudan will need a youth 
policy that aims at assisting the youth towards social inclusion.  Such 
policy must be clearly articulated and pursued strategically by the 
Sudanese society to ensure that they do not become victims of structural 
marginalization.  They must enjoy equitable opportunities in life, he 
emphasized.
The Church and the ecumenical movement, he noted, will have to play the 
centre-stage role in healing Sudan.  We need the kind of healing that leads
to new ethics of thought and practice.	We need healing that leads to the 
stimulation of people in creative and collective achievements.	We need 
healing that encourages a process in which people can find both emotional 
and spiritual fulfillment to be able to engage in economic progress.  For 
the church to play this role, church leaders will need to be healed first 
as a matter of great urgency, he added.
He urged the international community to maintain its advocacy and its 
focused attention on Sudan.  That attention helped to dismantle apartheid 
in South Africa.  It will equally speed up the dawning of a new era for 
southern Sudan.  Then together we will dream pleasant dreams.
For further information, contact:

Mitch Odero
Solid Strategy-Africa
Email: mitch@solidstrategyafrica.org
Tel: 254  0734564045