“We as a Church know that neither the Sudan government nor the SPLA shall win the war””

Despite all appeals for peace, in South Sudan, war continues. Since 1983 2,5 million have died in Africa’s largest country and according to the Cap Anamour Committee estimation 1,7 million people are facing starvation. On June 26, fundamentalist government airplanes have bombed several church buildings as well as the residence of the Bishop of Torit.

Bishop Paride Taban of the Diocese of Torit in South Sudan recently visited Aid to the Church in Need in Königstein, Germany. Here are excerpts from an interview by Christine du Coudray (06.06.2002).

Q. Bishop Taban you are in Europe to inform unaware people about the situation in Sudan and to convince politicians to put pressure on the government of Khartoum. Could you summarize the situation you have to face?

A. I would like to give a message to the people in Europe because it seems that with all the messages that we have given under pressure to bring just peace in Sudan, they are a bit relaxed. And at present there is a danger that they feel that this government is “a good guy” and they give credit to him. The genocide is still going on in Sudan and apartheid is still going on in Southern Sudan, in Nuba Mountains and Gazena Mountains, especially in the area now surrounding the oil around Bahr-el-Ghazal and Upper Nile. It is time now for the international community to put a stronger pressure as they have already started, but not to let the situation become worse.

Q. Does it mean today that the oil production is the main reason of this genocide?

A. It is one of the most important reasons that should immediately be stopped: because now the population of Upper Nile is going to be wiped out. Another reason is that now the government has enough money from the revenue of the oil, which is used to purchase sophisticated weapons.
Previously the government was asking money from other Islamic fundamentalist countries like Iran, Iraq.

Q. Why should the population in these areas disappear?

A. The Dutch have to clear the area for the oil company and I feel that these people are also supporting the rebels. So, they only think to clear the area, they are not interested in the population. They are interested in the land, which has got oil.

Q. Do you think that the silence or the lack of interest, surrounding the situation is due to the fact that companies from different Western countries are involved in this oil production?

A. Everybody is after economy, thinking of economy but they don’t think about the life of people. We had last year a meeting with the “Talisman” and told them to withdraw. They said, well, they are having a development. We objected, that we did not see any development in that area.

Q. What is “Talisman”?

A. An organisation from Canada, an oil company. We told them to stop and to wait until peace comes back for continuing. And we know, that there are other companies from Malaysia, China…We have warned them, we have asked them, we have appealed to their governments through other Bishop Conferences like in America, Canada to convince them for these companies to be stopped.

Q. What is happening now regarding your diocese, which is caught between the government of Khartoum and the rebels of Uganda, called the Lord’s Resistance army?

A. It is ridiculous to see the very government of Sudan who arms the Lord Resistance Army and gives them very sophisticated weapons, even those anti tanks, to invite the Uganda defence people forces to come and attack the Lord’s Resistance Army inside the Sudan…Many people lost their lives already. In the diocese of Torit now nearly 9.000 families have been displaced by the Lord’s Resistance Army and in May alone, they have killed nearly 500 people. The war between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Uganda People Defence Forces is going on in my own diocese.
And the victims are my people, that’s why we are appealing to the international community to help us because we are helpless. Also the OLS (Operation Life Sudan at the UN) gave this place as a place very dangerous, it means that no envoy is allowed to go there. It is only the Diocese of Torit, which is committed to the life of the people, which can work in that area. We thank CRS (Catholic Relief Service), who manage to send some little food in that area but it is not enough.

Q. In this way, what do you expect from Church organisations such as ACN, for example?

A. That’s why you saw my letter SOS, if they could help us at least financially to get some food, but also blankets, plastic sheets to cover themselves, because it is the rainy season. As we say, our area is too large! Now I am like a nomadic bishop, who moves with his people from one place to another. And we cannot escape to another country. We can still survive for years inside our own country if we are interested to be inside. But what we are asking is to get something for survival. We know this war. This conflict with the Lord’s Army will soon come to an end, but we need to be settled in places where there is peace and sun.

Q. We see quite clearly the role of the Catholic Church, which is so important, to inform the world. What would you add to this message?

We as the Church are concerned about the life of people. We are with the people, not after the economy or money. We don’t see any of this economy being used for the good of our people; it is used for the genocide. We are part of the people, who are facing the conflict and we are witnessing the death of our people. And we are also a part who is likely to die any moment.
We never asked for arms, we ask for peaceful solutions.
We are asking the international community to join the IGAD declaration of principles signed by Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Egypt, Sudan, which proposes a referendum of people choosing either for federation or secession. If they are not interested in IGAD, at least let them know through a way the declaration of principles, which is a solution to the problem of 50 years of conflicts since 1947. Again, the Sudan Government has signed it; all the other conflict groups have signed it. So it is a point, which all acknowledge, but all are trying to avoid it. We want the international community to pressurize, until they commit themselves to it.
That is our request from all the Church in Sudan and also we ask the international community to withdraw from the drilling from the oil until peace comes because we see, that oil is not a blessing four our people.

For this we have written a joined letter: “Let my people choose”. We as the Church are united for the cause of peace of Sudan. Up to now only the politicians are involved, they leave the very people, who are to decide of their rights always kept aside. Religion and government should be separated in order to take away the Islamic law.
At present there is not respect for the people of the South. They only
are black slaves.
Do you want to have more people as refugees? It is easier to prevent.
For the name of development is peace.

Sudan covers an area of 967,489 square miles with an estimated population of
of 28 millions. There are over 69,5% Sunni Muslim in the 12 northern provinces, 17% animists and 13,5% Christians in the South of the country.

Photo: Bishop Paride Taban of the Diocese of Torit in South Sudan