Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . NEWS . Crisis in Sudan . April 27, 2001 | PBS

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Crisis in Sudan
April 27, 2001 Episode no. 435

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BOB ABERNETHY (anchor): Some of the loudest voices urged more U.S. action in the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. An increasingly diverse coalition, led by church groups, is mobilizing new pressure to end the ongoing suffering in that Horn of Africa nation. Kim Lawton reports on the grassroots campaign and this foreign policy dilemma.

Protestors

Protestors

KIM LAWTON: In front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, cries for an end to genocide, persecution, and slavery in Sudan. The Church Alliance for a New Sudan promises regular protests and acts of civil disobedience to ratchet up attention to their cause. They're also urging the U.S. government to take stronger steps to end the suffering.

DIANE KNIPPERS (protestor): We're demanding so much more from our government.

LAWTON: For the past 18 years, Sudan has been locked in [a] civil war between the National Islamic Front government, in the north, and the largely Christian and animist south. More than two million people have been killed and four million Bombed out church

Bombed out church

displaced, most in the south. According to human rights groups, civilian targets -- hospitals, schools, and churches -- are routinely bombed. Women and children are abducted and sold into slavery.

Evangelist Franklin Graham, son of [the Reverend] Billy Graham, is one of the leading voices urging a solution.

FRANKLIN GRAHAM (Evangelist): In ... Sudan, I have black brothers and sisters in the same faith, and somebody needs to speak out on their behalf.

LAWTON: Surprisingly diverse allies are speaking out with him. Singer Michael Jackson says he'll go to Sudan next month to call attention to ongoing slavery.

A delegation representing the U.S. Catholic Bishops visited the region earlier this month. One of the delegation members shot this video. They called on the U.S. government to help negotiate an immediate U.N.-monitored cease-fire.

Others are urging even stronger action.

GRAHAM: The United States needs to take the lead here morally and do everything in its power, to use its economic power and its diplomatic power, to bring this to an end, and I believe at the last resort, we always have the military option.

LAWTON: There is widespread agreement that the situation in Sudan is desperate. The problem for policymakers is deciding what to do about it. Some foreign policy experts say the complexities of the situation demand a pragmatic approach.

DR. J. STEPHEN MORRISON (Center for Strategic and International Studies): We need to show leadership. There's no question. I think that's a point of consensus. The question is, what has been attempted and why did it not generate results, and what are the alternatives now?

LAWTON: The Bush Administration is trying to hammer out a Sudan policy that addresses the religious, political, and tribal factors fueling the conflict ... a policy that takes into account what America can, and would be willing, to do. Some advocates worry the government too often uses the complexity to avoid action.

Franklin Graham

Franklin Graham

GRAHAM: This is evil and the United States, regardless of how complex the issues are, we should not stand by and just say, well this is complicated, and we should think about this before we do anything. Listen, two million people have died here.

LAWTON: Morrison cautions that any American action must be well thought-out, so it doesn't backfire.

DR. MORRISON: What is the level of investment that would be required to reverse the situation? And if we're not really prepared to do that, but talking rhetorically in that area, is that having inadvertent, very negative consequences?

LAWTON: As officials debate the next diplomatic steps, grassroots activists are pledging to keep up the pressure, so the people directly affected by those policies aren't forgotten.

I'm Kim Lawton in Washington.

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	Related Links: National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference: Statement of U.S. Catholic Bishops Delegation to Sudan The American Anti-Slavery Group Christian Solidarity Worldwide Samaritan's Purse The Center for Strategic and International Studies: Africa Program

	The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) Angels in Sudan The site of the Institute on Religion and Democracy's Church Alliance for a New Sudan. United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Congressional testimony by members of the commission and their reports on the repression of religious freedom in Sudan can be found here.