Slavery in Sudan

CONCURRED

WHEREAS, there is a humanitarian crisis which exists in Sudan due to the National Islamic Front (NIF) government's genocidal war in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the Ingessena Hills; and

WHEREAS, the NIF government has deliberately inflicted upon people of the traditional "animist" or Christian south deplorable conditions of life with intent to bring about their physical destruction; and

WHEREAS, as a result of these deliberate acts, the NIF government has succeeded in that an estimated two million people have died as a result of the war and four million others have been forcibly displaced and removed from their homes and families; and

WHEREAS, according to the World Food Program, an estimated 2,600,000 southern Sudanese are at risk of starvation and an estimated four million people are in need of emergency assistance; and

WHEREAS, the NIF government has specifically used the deliberate prohibition of food and international food aid as a weapon against the southern Sudanese to complete their mission of genocide in southern Sudan; and

WHEREAS, the NIF government has perpetuated a prolonged campaign of human rights and discrimination throughout Sudan; and

WHEREAS, it has also been documented that the NIF government sponsored Popular Defense Force militia has been engaged over the past decade in the enslavement of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly; and

WHEREAS, the now common slave raids being carried out by the NIF's militia are undertaken as part of the government's self‑declared holy war against the southern Sudanese; and

WHEREAS, according to the American Anti‑Slavery Group of Boston, there are tens of thousands of women and children now living as chattel slaves in Sudan; and

WHEREAS, these women and children are commonly captured in slave raids by the NIF militia and are then traded, sold, branded and/or bred for slavery; and

WHEREAS, the Department of State in its report on Human Rights Practices for 1997 affirmed that reports and information from a variety of sources have indicated that after February 1994 the number of cases of slavery, servitude, slave trade, and forced labor have increased alarmingly; and

WHEREAS, observers of the conditions in Sudan have estimated that the number of people enslaved bythe government sponsored militia is in the tens of thousands; and

WHEREAS, the NAACP categorically and unconditionally deems the enslavement of any people a "crime against humanity"; and

WHEREAS, these deplorable acts and conditions have existed in Sudan for over 15 years and have gone virtually unnoticed by the international community.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP hereby condemns the NIF government for its genocidal war in southern Sudan and its state‑sponsored slavery, its support for terrorism, and its continued human rights violations; and

BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP strongly condemns any government that in any way supports or endorses the Government of Sudan in its genocidal war against the southern Sudanese or the NIF's state‑sponsored enslavement of innocent people; and

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED, that the NAACP reaffirms its support for economic sanctions on military assistance or arms transfers to the NIF government in Sudan or to any foreign country that is involved in any way in the establishment, conduct or perpetuation of slavery in Sudan; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED  that the NAACP calls on the United Nations Security Council to:

(i)to formally condemn the NIF government for its genocidal war in southern Sudan, its support for terrorism, its state‑sponsored enslavement of innocent civilians in southern Sudan and its gross human rights violations;

(ii)to condemn the slave raids being perpetrated by the NIF militia, call on the NIF government to immediately end the practice of slavery in Sudan and bring to justice those responsible for these crimes against humanity;

(iii)to immediately assert economic pressure on the NIF government to force the cessation of the government's imposition of abhorrent conditions and other atrocities on the southern Sudanese; and

(iv)to internationally expose the rampant human rights violations which are occurring in Sudan.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the NAACP calls on the President of the United States to:

(i)to intensify and expand United States diplomatic and economic pressure on the NIF government;

(ii)to immediately engage in a substantive and aggressive effort to promotepeace in Sudan; and

(iii)to plan a strategy to abolish the practice of slavery in Sudan.