In a statement PPF President Brad Phillips said he has a list showing that 222 Christians were among 234 civilians killed during Government sponsored attacks near the town of Akobo in May 2004.
"Gatluak Goryang Chol was less than a year old," Phillips said. "His brother was four. This list puts names and ages to impersonal statistics." Phillips stressed that PPF, a nonprofit Christian ministry serving and assisting victims of persecution and genocide in Africa, hopes that the "U.S. State Department" will "reconsider whether it is at all wise to remove Sudan" from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
"I hope they’ll take a hard look at the names of the women and children on this list. These 93 children were not the unfortunate victims of war, or merely innocent bystanders. They were the intended targets. This is not an act of war; this is an act of terrorism,
pure and simple," Phillips said.
VISIT
During a recent visit to the region, Phillips also met church officials who "provided firsthand accounts of atrocities committed by Government forces in May" along with a list of recent genocide victims, said PPF. One of the church officials, Rev. Both Reath, reportedly said that the anti-Christian violence began May 1, initially killing 204 civilians. Another 30 people were slaughtered n Wunbut near Akobo on May 10, he said.
"Most of the dead are women and children," Phillips said in the PPF statement. "Ninety-three of the victims "nearly half of those murdered" were children 12 years old or younger." Another 78 people were wounded, and 58 of the most seriously wounded were evacuated to the Red Cross hospital in Lokichoggio, Kenya, PPF explained.
Raiders reportedly looted and burned homes and stole 6,000 cattle. In addition the PPF quoted The Sudan Mirror newspaper as saying that militia forces destroyed facilities belonging to Doctors Without Borders and the South Sudan Disabled Persons Association.
REBELS
Rebels say the military authorities are trying to control Akobo and other towns near the Ethiopian, Ugandan and Kenyan borders before a comprehensive peace agreement is signed. Last month, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell told the military government that it should end the world’s worst serious humanitarian crisis and Africa’s longest civil war.
Earlier this year Sudan’s military government and the main rebel group extended a ceasefire for three months to clinch a peace deal that could also end a separate conflict in an other area of the country. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) took up arms in 1983 to demand better treatment for southerners, who are predominately black Christians and animists, from the Muslim Arab-controlled government in Khartoum. Human rights groups hope a similar deal can be struck in the Dafur region with the hard-line Muslim government.
Last year, the U.S. based Persecution Project Foundation and its partner The Voice of the Martyrs, based in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, were reportedly the first Non Governmental Organizations to assist the displaced Christian community in Akobo by delivering many tons of Bibles, food, medicine and crisis relief "Life Pack" supplies, PPF said.
