e-HUM Alert

August 5, 2004

UMCOR providing emergency relief in Sudan

By Linda Green
United Methodist News Service

As destabilization threatens Sudan, the United Methodist Committee on Relief is working with partners to expand support for what is being called the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

The Darfur region of western Sudan has suffered 16 months of armed conflict. Nearly 30,000 residents have been killed and more than a million people displaced.

The United Methodist humanitarian agency is working through its ecumenical partner, Action by Churches Together (ACT), to help people affected by the militia attacks in Darfur maintain their basic daily activities with dignity. The collaborative effort is also aimed at initially stabilizing and then reducing the incidence of environmental health-related diseases, said the Rev. Kristin Sachen, a staff executive with United Methodist Committee on Relief /Emergency Services International.

UMCOR supports relief and development work in Sudan to meet immediate emergency needs and long-term recovery solutions.

ACT initiated an appeal for Sudan in June and UMCOR responded by sending an initial $25,000. Sachen said the international faith community's response would provide for 500,000 people in areas designated by the UN OCHA (coordinating body for humanitarian disasters).

The efforts would include work with people in camps in Chad and in the communities that host the camps, as well as with people living in the bush, irrespective of religion, race or political affiliation.

The key items in the emergency response include shelter, water, toilets, hygiene and promotion of public health, supplementary food, and non-food items to set up a household. Primary health care, educational services, psycho-social support, seeds and tools, and advocacy will also be a part of this "holistic approach to what has been referred to as the worst humanitarian disaster on the planet," Sachen said.

"The situation in Darfur cries out for international attention and intention. We must bring our political will to the efforts to demilitarize the area and our compassion to bring healing to those who have been so traumatized," she said.

"The violation of human rights is on a huge scale, including rape, abduction of children, killings, beatings and complete destruction of homes and possessions," Sachen added.

She said United Methodists and others might wonder why there should be interest in the Sudan when there are other places of concern in the world. "If ever there was a time and place to witness to the power of God who suffers with us, dies with us and resurrects with us ... the refugee camps in Chad today are that place and time. Looking the other way is not an option for people of faith," she said.

In an effort to focus more attention on the Sudan crisis, the Rev. Robert Edgar, a United Methodist pastor and president of the National Council of Churches, was arrested July 14 in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. He followed U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) who was arrested July 13.

According to the human-rights organization Christian Solidarity International, Edgar, Rangel and the Congressional Black Caucus are demanding that the Sudanese government end its support of rebels who are murdering hundreds of people a day.

Although a comprehensive peace accord to end the 21-year civil war in Sudan was signed May 26 by the Sudanese government and major rebel forces, the accord is unrelated to the conflict in the Dufar region where fighting between the government and rebels continue to raise fears of ethnic cleansing.

Edgar and other protestors are demanding an end to the genocide in the Sudan and the black caucus is demanding sanctions against the Sudanese government. Like Rangel, others have been arrested while still other high-profile individuals plan to be arrested. CSI notes that arrests "will continue until the world community wakes up."

Edgar recently sent e-mail to peace colleagues and "friends in the faith community" stating that the horror occurring in the Sudan cannot be allowed to continue, as the people of faith and members of the human family did in Rwanda 10 years ago.

In the Darfur province of Sudan, more than a million black Africans have been bombed and burned out of their villages, and chased into the desert by government planes and Arab militias allied with the country's oppressive regime, he said. The camps are now surrounded, and anyone who tries to leave is raped or killed, he added.

Quoting U.S. governmental estimates, which he called "conservative," Edgar said, 370,000 people are dead or certain of dying of starvation in "these extermination camps." The death toll could reach 1 million within the next few months, he said.

"The United States has tough words for Sudan, but threats to act are mild, suggesting only sanctions on the militia leaders, and perhaps later the government," he said. "The Sudanese are used to sanctions, and even the toughest sanctions take months to have any impact. We don't have that kind of time. Only one thing will stop the killing in Sudan: an immediate international intervention to protect the people of Darfur and deliver aid to them."

UMCOR requests that churches use an illustrative relief supplies cost list, released in June by ACT, to encourage donations to UMCOR's Sudan Emergency, Advance #184385. The list and range of cost, which may be found online at gbgm-umc.org/umcor/emergency/sudanact.stm, enables United Methodist congregations, groups, and individuals to choose the amount of their contribution.

Gifts to UMCOR's Sudan Emergency, Advance #184385 will support relief efforts. Donations can be sent to the General Advance, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Checks should be designated for Advance #184385. Call 800-554-8583 to make a credit card donation.

South Indiana Board of Church and Society urges advocacy for human rights in Sudan

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. ? As genocide becomes an ever-present threat in western Sudan, the South Indiana Conference Board of Church and Society is calling on all local churches to take action to prevent this tragedy. Meeting on July 22, the board approved a letter writing campaign to Secretary of State Colin Powell and to members of Congress urging them to support a United Nations Security Council resolution that would launch an arms embargo against the Sudanese government and government backed paramilitary groups that have been systematically raping and killing people in the Darfur region.

Over the last five years, war and famine have killed some two million people. Another five million have been displaced both within Sudan as well as in refugee camps in neighboring countries. U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) estimates that 400,000 will die in the next 9 months from direct violence and violence-induced famine.

The crisis stems from a 20 year old civil war marked by racial, ethnic and religious prejudice. Sudanese government is controlled by Muslim fundamentalists who took over after the fall of communism and government-backed paramilitary groups, such as the Janjawid, have targeted black Sudanese who are animist or Christian. The government has conducted aerial bombardment of villages and refused to allow relief workers in the region. The situation is rapidly becoming one of genocide.

In early May 2004, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a United Methodist, and other senators passed a resolution which called on the Sudanese government to allow relief workers and human rights monitors in Darfur and calls on the United Nations to take strong action if the government of Sudan does not comply.

On May 26, the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed several major peace protocols, aimed at ending 20 years of civil war. Unfortunately, just as peace appears at hand for one part of the country, the same human rights abuses that characterized the larger conflict have erupted and plunged the people of Darfur into a nightmare that has been overlooked by policy makers anxious for a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A.

The Darfur region of Western Sudan has been racked by violence since February 2003, when armed opposition groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and later the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), took up arms against the Sudanese government. These armed opposition groups cited lack of government protection for agricultural ethnic groups from attacks by nomad militias and the marginalization and underdevelopment of the region as cause for their opposition to the government. The Sudanese government reacted by giving free rein to these nomadic militias known as the Janjawid to attack the villages of the mainly agricultural ethnic groups, such as the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

In May, General Conference passed a resolution concerning the crisis in Sudan. Over the past several months the General Board of Global Ministries and General Secretary Randy Day have been calling attention to the issue. Local churches are urged to contact Secretary of State Powell, their Senators and Representatives about this urgent matter.

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