The Honourable Lloyd Axworthy
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Room 418 North Centre Block
Wellington St.
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Axworthy,

As a Canadian, the crisis in Southern Sudan is of the gravest concern to me. The extremist northern government is attempting to overwhelm and crush the largely Christian and animist south. International media is finally becoming alerted to, and is focusing attention more frequently on the slave-taking raids, the forced population relocation, the genocide of the peoples of the Nuba Mountains and the entire south, notably the Dinkas, the forced religious conversions, and the largely man-made famine resulting from the war waged by the Sudanese government against the south. Humanitarian agencies have been denied access to areas such as the Nuba Mountain region, and food distribution centres and hospitals have been the targets of bombing raids conducted by the Sudanese regime. While most of the regime’s genocidal tactics are directed at Christians and animists in the south of Sudan, Muslims who are perceived as not radical enough by the government are targeted as well, especially in the Nuba area.

Currently 2.5 million Southern Sudanese are suffering the worst famine since the one in Ethiopia in 1984-85, due largely to malevolent government policies; 4 million people have been forcibly displaced, many resettled in grim concentration camps called "Peace Villages". Since 1983 more than 1.9 million people have died in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountain region as a result of the government’s aggressive campaign against the south, more than all the victims of Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo combined.

These atrocities are well-attested, and cannot be dismissed as partisan religious exaggerations:
* the BBC account of the U.N.C.H.R. report, Millions dead in Sudan civil war, Dec. 11/98
* the U.S. Committee for Refugees report, Quantifying the Genocide in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, 1983-1998, Dec./98
* the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa report, Cries from the Heart, Who Will Stop the Genocide in Sudan, Feb./99
* the U.S. Freedom House Centre for Religious Freedom report of its fact-finding mission in Khartoum from January 23 to February 2, 1995, published in The First Freedom, Vol. 8, No.1, Spring 1995 (available at http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/ click on National Campaign of Conscience on Sudan and scroll down and click on Sudan Publications and Articles)

A Canadian company, Talisman, has a key role in oil exploration and development work in the Nuba Mountain area. Could it be that "our" presence there is in fact indirectly helping to support the Sudanese government's activities? Profits from any increased oil production would probably flow in part back to Canada – and would also enable the government to step up the war on the south. Some profits are too costly!

In view of your excellent record in fighting the proliferation of land mines and in speaking out at the UN Security Council, I am convinced that you could be a powerful and articulate spokesperson for the suffering peoples of Southern Sudan. Humanitarian agencies should have immediate access to all famine areas, and a UN investigation into war crimes (enslavement, bombing of hospitals, churches, etc.) needs to be authorized immediately. I urge you to pursue action immediately to achieve these ends. Furthermore, in line with your recent initiatives toward combating the problem of child soldiers, I urge you to investigate the problem of children’s camps in places like Fau, Wad Medani, Soba and Abu Dom in Sudan. Christian and animist children are routinely kidnapped during kashas, "round ups" conducted by the Sudanese government, and taken to these camps where they are harshly treated and forced to convert to Islam and undergo military training; these are described in The First Freedom, cited above.

Thank you so much for your consideration of this letter.

Sincerely,