the property was confiscated by armed police and later apparently given to a company, BosNewsLife monitored Friday, March 25.
The Sudanese Arab United Al Azra Company moved into the complex of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) in the capital Khartoum despite a court decision "barring any alterations or use of the property" before a judicial ruling on the case reported news agency Compass Direct, which investigates the plight of persecuted Christians.
"Stunned representatives" of the five million strong ECS discovered during a March 15 hearing at the Khartoum Public Court that the firm had taken possession of their complex, which was "first confiscated at police gunpoint 10 months ago," Compass Direct said.
"The same day that we were at court, we learned that the company has moved into the building," ECS Interim Provincial Secretary Rev. Enock Tombe was quoted as saying. "They have put up a big signboard reading ‘Cardinal’."
PARKING CARS
During the past month, the company apparently cut down a large tree in front of the outer wall and started parking cars in its place. "So it seems the guesthouse is now turned into an office," Tombe allegedly said.
Before last week’s hearing began an ECS lawyer asked the judge what action had been taken in response to reports that “extensive repairs” amounting to “a complete renovation” were being made on the property in violation of a court injunction ordered in June, Compass Direct reported.
"Yes, that is the order of the court, but it is up to me to decide what to do with the fact that the law has been broken," Judge Wahhabi Ibrahim reportedly said. A next hearing was reportedly scheduled for April 4.
WATCHDOGS CONCERNED
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the reported statement by the judge, but human rights watchdogs have in the past expressed concern about what they see as a government crackdown on Christian groups.
Over the decade preceding the peace agreement signed between the government and the Southern rebel movement in January, the "Khartoum regime" had followed "a repeated pattern of aggression against Episcopal churches, schools and other institutions across Sudan," claimed Compass Direct.
Sudanese government officials have reportedly denied involvement in church persecution. Britain’s Lord George Cary, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, discussed the case two months ago with Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha, the news agency said.
UNITED STATES
The United States State Department has also put pressure on Sudan’s government to respect religious rights. …"The Government continued to place many restrictions on non-Muslims, non-Arab Muslims, and Muslims from tribes or sects not affiliated with the ruling party," it said last month.
"The Government, which came into power in 1989 with a goal of Islamization, treated Islam as the state religion, declaring that Islam must inspire the country’s laws, institutions, and policies," the State Department added in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
Christians are estimated to comprise about 5 percent of the African country’s over 39 million people. (With: Stefan J. Bos, Compass Direct, BosNewsLife Research).
