April 7, 2006
by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE – One day after the House of Representatives passed a bill that would step up pressure on Sudan's government to implement the peace agreement it signed months ago, Simon Deng is taking the train back to New York City.

He had made the 300-mile journey from the United Nations building to the Capitol in Washington on foot.

He arrived there Wednesday, the day before the House vote.

Deng's trek was a personal protest against the slave trade in Sudan and the ongoing genocide there, especially in the eastern province of Darfur, where Sudan's government is accused of arming Arab militias who have killed and displaced more than 3.5 million black Africans.

An ex-slave himself, Deng, 45, walked across five states, making stops in 19 cities to call on Washington to take stronger action to rein in Khartoum.

Deng's Sudan Freedom Walk Campaign was backed by The Sudan Campaign, a coalition of groups trying to end more than 50 years of civil conflict in Sudan by means including a drive to get people to divest their stock in multinational firms with operations there.

The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming vote – 416 to 3. The Senate had passed a similar version earlier. Now the two legislative bodies will try to reconcile the versions in a conference committee. If they reach an agreement, the resulting bill would then go to President George W. Bush for signature.

That's heartening for Deng, but he fears the legislation is just more empty rhetoric.

After all, he said, the U.S. government declared the atrocities in Darfur to constitute "genocide" in July 2004, but that hasn't stopped the dying.

"I didn't do this just because I was crazy and wanted to walk from New York to Washington," Deng said. "Not at all. I took this walk because I was desperate at the lack of action taken to end the human trafficking and the killing. I took this walk because – when it comes to Sudan – people do things as usual. I took this walk to cry out. ... If I am crying out every day, maybe people will say, ‘What is it that makes him so crazy?'"

Deng's story is much like those of thousands of black Africans in Sudan swept up in the slave trade. He was kidnapped back into freedom after three years of beatings, sleeping on straw and eating scraps in an Arab house in Kosti, a city upriver from his home, the port town of Malakal.

He repeatedly refused pressure to convert from Roman Catholicism to Islam, despite promises that doing so would improve his treatment and status in the household.

A spokesperson for Christian Solidarity International (CSI), a Swiss human-rights organization, said more than 8,000 slaves have been identified in the Arab north of Sudan, but Khartoum has not allocated money to return them to their homes in the south.

Doug Welch, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) liaison to Sudan, said the denomination's partners in Sudan want a bill much like the one working its way through the House.

"Khartoum is dragging its feet on implementing the comprehensive peace agreement; that's been our theme here for a long time," Welch said yesterday after returning from a visit to southern Sudan. "Our partners have clearly said that we need to be pushing Khartoum to fulfill ... the comprehensive peace agreement. That's the bottom line."

Welch said if progress isn't apparent in the peace process, the country may again plunge into violence before the Sudanese vote on a referendum that will determine whether the country remains united or not. The vote is set for 2011.

The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act characterizes Sudan's government as complicit in atrocities there, including mass murder, rape and sexual violence.

The chaos has spread into Chad, worsening a desperate refugee crisis there. Arab gunmen from Darfur have pushed across the border to steal cattle, burn crops and kill anyone who gets in their way – terrorizing more than 200,000 Sudanese who fled to Chad for safety and at least 20,000 Chadians forced out of their homes.

The House bill would call for an end to the violence and pressure Khartoum to accelerate the peace process that ostensibly ended the war that split the nation along religious and ethnic lines after the government adopted Islamic Sharia law.

The legislation would:

Allocate money in support of the undermanned and poorly equipped African Union force charged with keeping the peace in Darfur

Call for political and military assistance from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union, as well as the United States

Appoint a special presidential envoy to Sudan to work for peace

Restrict humanitarian assistance to parts of Sudan until the government honors its pledges to "cease attacks upon civilians, demobilize and demilitarize (militias), grant free and unfettered access for deliveries of humanitarian assistance in the Darfur region, and allow for the safe and voluntary return of refugees and internally displaced persons"

Establish a student-loan forgiveness program for Sudanese in the United States who commit to return to southern Sudan for at least five years to help in its reconstruction

The bill also would require the Bush administration to impose diplomatic and financial sanctions against Sudanese officials and Arab militia leaders deemed responsible for the Darfur violence a confidential United Nations report.

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the PC(USA), endorsed the legislation.

"The PC(USA) has the longest, deepest roots of any organization in this country in relation to Sudan," he said, "and we are deeply grateful that the House has taken this action to stop the genocide. We believe this is a terrible injustice, and the world needs to rise up and assure peace and justice in Sudan."

Deng said hundreds of people joined him for parts of his New York-to-Washington journey – high school and college students, children, old folks, including a 77-year-old woman who joined the entourage in New Jersey. He said people flew in from Boston, Rochester NY, Madison WI and other cities just to walk a few miles in his shoes. One 6-year-old told Deng he was there because he just hates the thought of people dying.

He was cheered by the support.

During the rally at the Capitol, Deng was flanked by Sens. Hillary Clinton and Sam Brownback and several members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Lee, Michael Capuano and Betty McCollum. Towering over the crowd was former NBA star Manute Bol, a native of southern Sudan who had accompanied Deng on parts of his trek.

"But I want (the U.S. government) to take leadership here," Deng said. "The United Nations is not going to do it. ... Go to Rwanda and ask the skeleton heads there if they trust the United Nations. Go ask the people of Darfur. ... I'm not going to be satisfied until this genocide is under control."

Presbyterian News Service