Plight of Sudan's Christians sparks public concern

    PORTLAND -- As this issue of Christian News Northwest went to press, local residents were publicly expressing their concern over the plight of the persecuted Christians of Sudan.    

A rally on their behalf was to be held Tuesday, Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Washington Park Rose Garden Amphitheater.  Featured speaker Dennis Bennett of the Blue Nile Project, based in Tempe, Ariz., was scheduled to speak, and a documentary, The Butcher of Blue Nile, was to be shown.    

Blue Nile Project was founded by Bennett. He received national recognition and publicity when his high school class saved money and purchased the freedom of many Sudanese slaves.  He now regularly visits Sudan and is reportedly one of the few American Christians permitted in that nation, said Deborah Dombrowski of Silverton.  

  The rally was organized by Keith Humphrey of Portland, who was Oregon’s representative to a recent national observance called Sudan Day.    

For the past 17 years, a bloody civil war has raged in Sudan between the Islamic government of Sudan in the north, and the Sudan People’s Liberation  Army in the south. Most of the people in the south are Christians, and they are slaughtered, tortured, and driven from their lands by Muslim soldiers, according to Bennett. It  is estimated that more than 2 million Christians have been killed in Sudan since  1983. This is one of the longest ongoing conflicts in the world today, and has taken more lives than any conflict  since World War II, he says.    

The fiercest fighting is carried out in the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile region of south Sudan. This area has been declared off limits by the United Nations, and most international relief agencies do not reach the people there. More than 70,000 displaced people are seeking refuge in the Blue  Nile, where they are in danger of mass starvation unless emergency aid is sent to them.    

More than 4 million  people have been displaced by the fighting and lost their means of livelihood, as Islamic soldiers systematically destroy crops and loot livestock. Unarmed villagers have often been attacked by government troops, with many men and babies slaughtered, villages destroyed, and women and children taken  captive and sold into slavery. Women and young girls are subjected to rape and physical mutilation. Survivors are forced to march to the north, carrying  looted goods, where they are sold as slaves to Arabic households. It is  estimated that more than 10,000 Sudanese Christians are currently enslaved.      

An Islamic war has been declared against the Christians of the South. According to Bennett, Christians have often been subjected to horrific tortures by Muslims trying to force them to deny their faith. Atrocious crimes have been reported, including crucifixions, live burnings, and genital mutilation. Pastors have been killed in front of their churches. Unarmed villagers have been nailed  through the head or hacked to death with axes and machetes. Defenseless women  and children have been run over with tanks.    

Equipped with fighter planes supplied by China, and tanks from Poland, the government of Sudan continues to deliberately and repeatedly bomb Christian hospitals, schools, and churches, Bennett charges.    

He says the Islamic government has received funding for their attacks on civilians from Chinese and Canadian oil companies seeking rights to oil in South Sudan.      

These companies are traded on American and Canadian stock exchanges, and many Americans unwittingly own them through mutual funds or employee pension funds.    

For more information, send an e-mail to Humphrey at wayimp@yahoo.com or
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