Sudan: Update to SDN3539 of 25 January 1990 on the situation of the Dinkas, and particularly women

Dr. Francis Deng, a Sudanese scholar at Brookings Institute in Washington, DC, describes the Dinka as "the largest ethnic group in Sudan, numbering several million in a country of around twenty million and several hundred tribes (Sudan Democratic Gazette, Mar. 1999). Apparently, Colonel John Garang, the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Front (SPLA), which has been fighting the central government in Khartoum for the self-determination of the people of southern Sudan, since 1983, belongs to the Dinka tribe (IPS 21 Oct. 1998).

According to the Sudan Democratic Gazette, since 1996, the government of the National Islamic Front (NIF), has been using the Nuer and Arab militias together with the Popular Defence Forces (DPF) to subjugate the Dinka of Bahr El Ghazal (July 1998, 1). Attacks on the Dinka date back to 1991 but surprise attacks were reportedly carried out in April, May, and June 1998 with the intention of displacing the Dinka and populating their lands with Arab nomads. "Villages were destroyed, cattle looted and women and children captured and sold into slavery" (ibid.). This information is corroborated by a report in the Ottawa Citizen  of 28 February 1999, which states that although slavery in Sudan is about 1,300 years old, it became a weapon of war when the National Islamic Front (NIF) assumed power in 1989. The NIF reportedly began to impose its Islamic war on the predominantly Christian and animist south, capturing slaves and forcing them to take on Muslim names and pray Islamic prayers (ibid.; The Toronto Star 13 June 1998). An article published in New African states that Islamic shariah has been enshrined in the Sudanese constitution as the principle source of legislation in the Sudan. Additionally, the NIF has reportedly declared a holy war, jihad, on the SPLA.

Non-Muslims must first be invited to embrace Islam. However, if they refuse and decide to fight back, as the Southern Sudanese have been doing for the past 40 years since independence from Britain, they and their families may be enslaved and all their property seized as booty. They have not legal rights whatsoever. They become the property of the owner who is entitled to dispose of them by sale, gift, dowry or in other ways. Female slaves are available to their owners for purposes of "concubinage" (ibid.).

The Ottawa Citizen further states the 15-year old war between the Arab Muslim north of Sudan and the Christian and animist south has lead to the death of 1.9 million people, the flight of 4.5 million, and the enslavement of an "an estimated" tens of thousands of southern Sudanese including the Dinkas and Dinka women. The Toronto Star of 13 June 1998 states that "thousands of women and children from the Dinka tribe in southern Sudan have been kidnapped and enslaved in northern Sudan." The Ottawa Citizen adds that  Dinka have been "captured, beaten, raped and forced to work" without pay by their Arab captors.  During the first half of 1998, an estimated 3,000 young Dinka boys and girls had reportedly been forced into slavery. "The adolescent girls serve as concubines, or 'pleasure instruments' for Muslim militia and the armed forces" (27 Feb. 1999), and "some girls have been subjected to the non-southern custom of female genital mutilation" (New African Sept. 1998).

Since 1995, Baroness Cox, a deputy speaker of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom and president of the human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and other western Christians have reportedly been going to Sudan to secure the release of the slaves (ibid., Africa News 26 June 1998). With $27,500 "in donations by viewers of Canada's most popular Christian television program, and a donation of $5000 from the American branch of the Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Baronness Cox and other Christians were able to buy the release of 5,391. On 27 February 1999, 325 Dinka captured 10 months earlier were reportedly released (Ottawa Citizen 27 Feb. 1999).

In July 1998, the NIF and the SPLA reportedly signed a cease-fire agreement in Bahr el Ghazal (Sudan Democractic Gazette Mar. 1999). However, in February 1999 three different militias were reportedly at war in this region and "eleven people killed and two hundred Dinka captured as slaves" (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Africa News. 26 June 1998. "Sudan: More Evidence on Slavery in Sudan." (NEXIS) Inter Press Service. 21 October 1998. "Politics-Sudan: Gov't Solicits Arab Support to Quell Rebellion." (NEXIS)

New African [London]. September 1998. "Slavery in the Sudan." [Internet: http://www.dialspace.dial.pipex.com/icpubs[Accessed 4 Sept. 1998].

The Ottawa Citizen [Ottawa]. 27 February 1999. Bob Harvey. "People for Sale: $100 a Head: An Ottawa Citizen Special Report on the Slave Trade in Sudan." (NEXIS)

The Sudan Democratic Gazette [London]. March 1999. No. 106. "The Non-Existent Humanitarian Cease-Fire in Southern Sudan."

_____. March 1999. Francis M. Deng. "The Cow and the Thing Called "What": Dinka Perspectives on Wealth and Poverty."

_____. July 1998. No. 98. "NIF Fails to Break the Speak of the Dinka People of Bahr el Ghazal."

The Times [London]. 2 June 1998. David Orr. "Raiders Sow Terror on Sudan Front Line." (NEXIS)

The Toronto Star [Toronto]. 13 June 1998. Martin Regg Cohn. "New Face of Slavery Flourishes in Sudan: The Star Finds Cruel Human Trade." (NEXIS)