DATE=2/15/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SUDAN CIVIL WAR (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-259190
BYLINE=JON TKACH
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Human rights activists and Sudanese exiles are
urging the U-S government to help stop what they call
genocide and religious persecution in Sudan. As V-O-
A's Jon Tkach (pron: Kotch) reports from Washington,
testimony before a U-S commission on religious freedom
(Tuesday) included criticism of the international
community's response to Sudan's long-running civil
war.
TEXT: Exiled Catholic Bishop Macram Max Gassis says
Sudan's Islamic rulers in Khartoum have embarked on a
campaign to exterminate Christians and other non-
Muslim people in southern Sudan.
He says government planes bombed a Catholic primary
school in Kaouda in the country's southern Nuba
mountains last week and that this proves the need for
action against Sudan's leadership:
/// Gassis Act ///
We can not take back the 14 martyred children
under the trees in Kaouda. This terrible,
heartbreaking incident is yet another piece of
evidence that the war in Sudan is a religious
and ethnic war launched by Khartoum aimed at the
destruction of my people.
/// End Act ///
The Reuters news agency quotes Sudanese government
officials as justifying the attack, saying the school
was a legitimate target in the country's bloody civil
war.
As many as two-million people have been killed in
fighting and a war related famine since insurgents
took up arms in 1983. But witnesses at the first
meeting of the U-S Commission on International
Religious Freedom say Sudan's government has shown few
signs of seeking peace.
Aid agencies have warned that the humanitarian
situation is getting worse, and several speakers at
the hearings in Washington also criticized the United
Nations aid group, Operation Lifeline Sudan, for not
doing enough to ensure that aid gets to those who need
it.
University professor C. Eric Reeves has been studying
the situation in Sudan and was one of those testifying
at the Washington hearing. He said international oil
companies involved in Sudan's "Greater Nile Project"
are also to blame for the violence.
/// Reeves Act ///
Crude oil from a well developed by the Greater
Nile Project, flowing through a pipeline built
by the Greater Nile Project, daily supplies the
refinery that produces the fuel that enables
these bombers to fly on their deadly missions
/// End Act ///
Mr. Reeves wants the U-S government to sanction
Canadian, Chinese and Malaysian companies that jointly
run the project.
The Canadian government had been threatening to
penalize its largest international oil concern,
Talisman. But Canadian officials ruled out any
sanctions Monday following the release of a long-
awaited government report. (signed)
NEB/JON/JP
15-Feb-2000 16:22 PM EDT (15-Feb-2000 2122 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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