September 12, 2004

BERLIN - Addressing a joint Conference of Catholic and Protestant Church leaders, Rev. Dr. Harunn Runn, Executive Director of New Sudan Council of Churches, pointed out that the Darfur genocide was predetermined by Khartoum government aimed at depopulating the agricultural and potentially mineral rich Darfur for subsequent resettlement by Arabs from northern Sudan. As a result, global attention has shifted from the peace talks while resources which could have been used to support an estimated one million Sudanese refugees to return home, are being diverted to Darfur.

While in Germany, Rev. Runn will also address German parliamentarians, civil society groups and the German media.

He went on, from time immemorial, we have dreamt of the day Sudan would be peaceful. We endured nightmares during a period when the world, including the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) and its members forgot the civil war in Sudan. God however, did not forget Sudan. We are still dreaming, except now we do so with renewed hope that a new era of peace is about to dawn, thanks to the international community. He recalled that having attained political independence from the British colonial rule in 1956, Sudan should be counted as among the first countries in Africa to gain independence but this has not been the case.

Often references are made to Ghana, which became independent a year later in 1957 while for southern Sudanese that independence has had no meaning and was therefore left in the dustbin of history as time stood still, he pointed out. With a renewed hope for post-war Sudan, Rev. Runn went on; attention is being focused on the need for reconstruction of southern Sudan. This is as it should be but what kind of reconstruction does Sudan need? What kind of development paradigms should apply to Sudan? Having been marginalized and denigrated at will, what kind of development will enable us to join the path of humanity and be recognized as people, though emerging from the ashes of protracted civil wars that dehumanized us? He pointed out that these questions reflect our search for the kind of new frontiers we should demarcate for the Sudan. Much of Africa, he said, has gone through over four development decades and yet they do not have much to show. Instead some 50 per cent of Africas population remains illiterate.

The tyranny of poverty is spreading to a point that we no longer talk of poverty elimination but alleviation. As such, when the people of southern Sudan are told that in their reconstruction era they have to move fast to catch up with the rest of Africa, we find it amusing. Instead, we must avoid the false start that many African nations launched themselves into upon attainment of independence. He observed that, the post-war Sudan will attract new actors into Southern Sudan, purporting to support reconstruction of the new Sudan but actors who never identified with the suffering southern Sudan. Given the history of Sudan, the people of southern Sudan can be excused for being cautious and seeking to determine the real agenda, particularly the hidden agenda of the new actors so that rebuilding of relationships becomes genuine.

Rev. Runn stressed that what southern Sudan needs are human centered visions for development as it emerges from a world where contempt for human dignity and sanctity of life were routinized as a matter of course. We do not need the so called trickle down development concept which contends that development occurs when those at the top get very rich and in time, wealth trickles down. For over forty years, Africa has created its stock of few billionaires but their wealth never tricked down, he added.

In the reconstruction era, Sudan will have to search for new social contracts that will bind together democratic citizenship and social justice. We must deliberately and right from the start, engage in the process that promotes community empowerment, the type that fuses social actions and public responsibility, he stressed. Referring to Sudanese women, Rev. Runn noted that poverty was invariably a burden borne more heavily by women. In Africa, women have been discounted within the theory and practice of development. They are disadvantaged in terms of income, assets, education and political clout. We want to avoid that route for Southern Sudan.

In southern Sudan, thousands of women, he observed, lost their husbands in the civil war. As a result, many households are headed by women. Special attention will have to be given to Sudanese women so that they do not feel powerless to act in society or denied access to support mechanisms. Women will have to be supported in developing income generating projects. As for the Sudanese youth, Rev. Runn observed that majority of them have never known peace in their lifetime. Southern Sudan will need a youth policy that aims at assisting the youth towards social inclusion. Such policy must be clearly articulated and pursued strategically by the Sudanese society to ensure that they do not become victims of structural marginalization. They must enjoy equitable opportunities in life, he emphasized.

The Church and the ecumenical movement, he noted, will have to play the centre-stage role in healing Sudan. We need the kind of healing that leads to new ethics of thought and practice. We need healing that leads to the stimulation of people in creative and collective achievements. We need healing that encourages a process in which people can find both emotional and spiritual fulfillment to be able to engage in economic progress. For the church to play this role, church leaders will need to be healed first as a matter of great urgency, he added. He urged the international community to maintain its advocacy and its focused attention on Sudan. That attention helped to dismantle apartheid in South Africa. It will equally speed up the dawning of a new era for southern Sudan. Then together we will dream pleasant dreams.

Solid Strategy-Africa