Resolution Adopted by the CCAR
RESOLUTION ON RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN
SUDAN
Adopted by the Board of
Trustees
June, 2001
Background
Of the African nations
currently engaged in civil war, Sudan has been at war the longest and
seen some of the most heinous violations of human rights. The conflict
in Sudan has cost the lives of over 2 million people and displaced
nearly 5 million others, with no significant movement towards peace.
The war is now over 18 years old, and the U.S. has done little to
address the ongoing genocide, rape, torture, slavery, and religious
persecution in Sudan.
The Muslim-dominated government in the north of
Sudan has called for the Islamization of the country and have targeted
the predominantly Christian and Animist populations in the South,
utilizing ethnic cleansing, cutting off of food supplies, slavery, and
destruction of the civil infrastructure as ways to enforce its control
in the South. The Sudanese government intentionally and repeatedly
bombed and burned hospitals, refugee camps, churches, schools, and
other civilian targets. By manipulating foreign food aid, thereby
denying civilians of food, the government brought 2.6 million South
Sudanese to the brink of starvation in 1998 and some 100,000 people in
fact did die of hunger, according to the U.S. Agency for International
Development. Predictions are that such a famine may face the South in
2001. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that most international
food aid is delivered through the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS)
system which allows the government of Sudan to veto deliveries to
particular regions.
In addition, the Sudanese government has continued its
assault on the religious freedom of non-Muslims as well as some
Muslims (particularly those either of Muslim sects not affiliated with
the fundamentalist Islamist view of the government or Muslims
associated with the political opposition). Religious groups must be
registered by the government to operate legally, and approval can be
difficult to obtain. Unregistered groups cannot build places of
worship or meet in public, and even registered groups face
difficulties.
That the government of Sudan has not yet prevailed in the
war may be due to the fact that, until 1999, it was financially
strapped, and in default to the IMF and other international lenders.
In August 1999, the Khartoum government developed a joint venture
partnership with foreign companies based on oil in South Sudan. This
partnership has begun to provide windfall profits for the regime, as
well as a critical source of new international respectability for the
government. The proceeds from the oil revenues are being used to
support the Sudanese military’s actions. Though U.S. companies are
barred by anti-terrorist sanctions from investing in Sudan, foreign
companies investing in Sudan’s oil pipeline are permitted to raise
funds from U.S. capital markets. Talisman Energy of Canada and the
Chinese government’s PetroChina are Khartoum’s two major oil
partners, and are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Canadian
government commissioned a special governmental report on the
situation. The so-called Harker Report (which is the documented source
for most of the background material) was a ringing condemnation of the
Sudanese government – but led to no significant steps led by the
Canadian government.
There is ample evidence indicating that the human tragedy
in Sudan is worsening. In 2000, the government of Sudan more than
doubled its bombing campaign of humanitarian and civilian targets in
southern Sudan.
As North American Jews who believe in religious freedom,
we can never be indifferent to religious intolerance nor to ethnic
cleansing no matter where it occurs. When others are hounded or
persecuted for their religion or beliefs, we are diminished by our own
failure to act or speak out. We must use our moral and political
influence to galvanize the international community to stop the brutal
actions of the government of Sudan.
THEREFORE, the Central Conference
of American Rabbis resolves to:
1) Call upon the United States and
Canadian governments to promote peace and security throughout Sudan by
following the steps, based on the recommendations by the U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom:
process in Sudan and make a just and lasting peace a top priority of
this administration’s global agenda. Towards that end, we applaud
President’s Bush’s appointment of Andrew Natsios as special
humanitarian coordinator to monitor aid deliveries in Sudan, and urge
the President to appoint a person of high national stature to be
special envoy who will have appropriate authority and access, whose
sole responsibility is directed to bringing about a peaceful and just
settlement of the war in Sudan and an end to the religious freedom
abuses committed by the Sudanese government and the militias
associated with the government;
humanitarian assistance that passes outside of Operation Lifeline
Sudan (OLS) and press OLS to deliver aid wherever it is needed,
especially the Nuba Mountains, with or without the approval of the
Sudanese government;
its food, civilian infrastructure, and civil society assistance to
southern Sudan;
diplomatic initiative aimed at enlisting international pressure to
stop the Sudanese government’s bombing of civilian and humanitarian
targets; ground attacks on civilian villages, feeding centers, and
hospitals; slave raids; and instigation of tribal warfare;
Sudan and urge other countries to adopt similar policies. Among these
steps should be: 1) the U.S. and Canada should prohibit any foreign
company from raising capital or listing its securities in U.S. and
Canadian markets as long as it is engaged in the development of oil
and gas fields in Sudan;
Work to increase human rights and media reporting on abuses in
Sudan, including supporting, diplomatically and financially, the
placement of human rights monitors in southern Sudan and in
surrounding countries where refugee populations are present;
and,
doing business in Sudan should be required to disclose the nature and
extent of that business in connection with their access to U.S.
capital markets.
2) Urge our member rabbis to
take a leadership role in their congregations/institutions to educate
their constituents and the public on the gravity of the situation in
Sudan, and encourage them, in the spirit of Jewish tradition and
Jewish experience, to voice their commitment to and concern for the
people of Sudan.