WASHINGTON: Christian Solidarity International (CSI) welcomes legislation introduced last week by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) to combat slavery in Sudan. If it becomes law, Smith’s bill -- The Eradication of Slavery in Sudan Act of 2006 (H.R. 5911) -- will create a commission of independent persons to investigate progress in the eradication of slavery in Sudan and make policy recommendations to the U.S. government.

"CSI congratulates Congressman Chris Smith on launching this important anti-slavery legislative initiative and urges both Houses of Congress to present it quickly to President Bush for signing", said CSI’s U.S. Executive Director Dr. John Eibner. "This legislation will enhance the prospects of freedom for all Black African slaves in Sudan and of peace for all peoples of that war-torn country.

President Bush cited the enslavement of Black African women and children as one of the major reasons for launching his Sudan peace initiative in September 2001. The President’s Special Envoy for Peace in Sudan, the now retired Sen. John Danforth, also identified the eradication of slavery as one of the pre-conditions for a just and lasting peace in Sudan. But the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in January 2005 by Sudan’s President Omer Bashir and the Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the late Col. John Garang, failed to address this internationally recognized "crime against humanity".

Tens of thousands of Black African women and children remain in bondage in Sudan more than one and a half years after the signing of the CPA. Most of Sudan’s slaves were captured in Southern Sudan in the context of Khartoum’s openly declared jihad against Black African communities.

The continuing enslavement of tens of thousands of Black Africans from Southern Sudan and Darfur is an open sore that poisons efforts to reconcile Khartoum’s National Islamic Front -- dominated government with Black African communities in Southern and Western Sudan.

Earlier this year, the President of Southern Sudan (also First Vice-President of Sudan) Salva Kiir declared that the retrieval of Southern Sudanese slaves was a part of the Southern Government’s program. Last November, a Southern Minister in the Government of National Unity called for the reform of Khartoum’s showcase Committee for the eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC) to make it an effective instrument for liberating slaves. But despite the initiatives of these two Southern Sudanese statesmen, President Bashir has suspended funding for CEAWC’s slave retrievals.

CSI has been in the forefront of the liberation of Sudanese slaves since 1995, and first called for the establishment of an independent U.S. commission to monitor the eradication of slavery in Sudan over two years ago. (end)

Contact: Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick, CSI’s Washington Representative, (202) 498-9644