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 Investigating allegations of slavery in Sudan
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KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- A U.S.-sponsored commission investigating allegations of slavery in Sudan said Wednesday the practice exists but was hard to quantify.
"There is indeed a form of slavery in existence in Sudan," Penn Kemble, head of the eight-member "Eminent Persons Group," told a news conference at the end of a two-stage, fact-finding mission to the African country.
But the group, with members from the United States, Britain, Italy, Norway and France, said in its report delivered to the Sudanese government Wednesday it was "unable to establish the scale of abduction and enslavement" in the vast country.The report said the government had armed tribal militias while employing them as auxiliary forces in its 19-year-long war with southern rebels, and this had aided the militias in carrying out abductions and encouraged them to behave in a lawless manner. Sudan says there are abductions but no slavery.
The absence of democratic institutions in both government and rebel-held areas had made it more difficult to prevent abductions and forced servitude, the report said.
Military commanders should be held more accountable for slavery conducted by militias under their control and a train link in Bahr al-Ghazal province in southwest Sudan should be suspended because militias have used it for their slave trade.
The group, formed in February on the recommendation of U.S. peace envoy to Sudan John Danforth, also visited government and rebel-held areas in April, backed by a technical team.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) began fighting in 1983 for autonomy for mainly animist and Christian south Sudan from the Muslim, Arab north. Around 2 million people have died in the conflict in one of Africa's most impoverished nations.
The conflict has been marked by widespread abductions of children and adults.
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Al-Masafaa
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست