"Violations, violence, displacement, and replacement – Khartoum's pattern with all of the marginalized people of Sudan. And far too frequently, the U.S. pattern has been to never hold Khartoum accountable." -- IRD Director of Religious Liberty Programs Faith J.H. McDonnell
Contact: Loralei Coyle 202-682-4131, 202-905-6852 cell, lcoyle@ird-renew.org; Radio Interviews: Jeff Walton, jwalton@ird-renew.org; both with the Institute on Religion and Democracy
WASHINGTON, June 10 /Christian Newswire/ -- A coalition representing all of the Sudan's marginalized groups called today for the United States to work for a whole Sudan solution and to hold the Islamist government in Khartoum accountable for its actions.
Sudan's Islamist regime is refusing to abide by the decisions of a boundary commission that sought to re-establish the traditional boundary lines between north and south. Sudanese advocates are joining with aid groups and legislators to bring this failure to public attention, chronicling both a pattern of ignoring established agreements and systematic efforts to depopulate disputed border areas of their indigenous populations.
Reportedly, the Khartoum government is now attempting to repopulate the region with those who are in sympathy with their agenda. According to Dinka elders, the Arabs who are being resettled into the Abyei boundary region are no other than the same Janjaweed of Darfur.
The coalition includes the Institute on Religion & Democracy, Hudson Institute, ENOUGH Project, Damanga Coalition for Freedom & Democracy, Southern Sudanese Voice for Freedom and International Christian Concern.
IRD Director of Religious Liberty Programs Faith McDonnell commented,
"We have lost count how many times the National Congress Party, formerly known as the National Islamic Front, has fooled us in the West. Shame on us for not holding the National Islamic Front accountable for their actions throughout Sudan.
"Khartoum has never paid a price for its violations, but our friends in Sudan – from South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, from Darfur, from Nubia, from eastern Sudan – all of them have paid with their land, their culture, and their lives.
"Khartoum has used the promise of conceding to the West’s requests for U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur as a bargaining chip to both figuratively and literally get away with murder. We have continued to make agreements with Khartoum that they have no intention and no basis to keep.
"Violations, violence, displacement, and replacement – Khartoum's pattern with all of the marginalized people of Sudan. And far too frequently, the U.S. pattern has been to never hold Khartoum accountable."
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