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 Slavery and Abduction
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RECYCLING LIES:
THE STRANGE CASE OF THE SUDANESE "SLAVE GIRL" ZEINAB NAZER
Introduction
The publication in Germany in September 2002 of a book entitled 'Sklavin' ('Slave'), has provided a clear insight into the continuing propaganda war that is being waged against Sudan. The book, and the claims made within it, has also shown the lies, duplicity and naivety at the heart of this campaign, and those associated with it.
In September 2000, 'The Sunday Telegraph' published an article written by Christian Lamb alleging that Mr Abdel Mahmoud al-Koronky, a senior Sudanese diplomat who had served as Sudan's Charge d'Affaires in London
between September 1998 and April 2000, had kept a "slave girl" in his house. (1) The "slave girl", Zeinab Nazer, alleged that she had been "enslaved" following a raid on her village in the Nuba mountains. The newspaper had received the "story" from Baroness Cox's Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and Sudanese opposition members. Mr al-Koronky initiated legal action against 'The Sunday Telegraph'. It should also be noted that 'The Sunday Telegraph' has long been hostile to Sudan, and defended the case.
The 'Sunday Telegraph' Admits the Nazer Story is Untrue
After an extensive twenty-one month investigation of the claims, the newspaper, part of a well-resourced international media group, subsequently admitted the article was untrue (See Appendix). Every one of Ms Nazer's claims have been proven to be false. Far from being a "slave girl", Ms Nazer had been employed as an au pair within the al-Koronky household for three months. She arrived in Britain on 13 June 2000 with a British government-issued visa to work for Sudanese embassy officials. She was with the al-Koronky family from 13 June until 30 July 2000, when Mr al-Koronky and his family left for a vacation in Sudan. Ms Nazer then spent 41 days with another Sudanese family. During these periods, she visited shopping centres, supermarkets and restaurants and visited numerous other Sudanese families and friends, including several members of the Nuba community living within the United Kingdom. Amongst them were members of the Sudanese political opposition. They then suggested to her that she seek political asylum, claiming to have been a "slave".
The story that was constructed for her meant that she had to lie about her age. To have been abducted as a fourteen year-old in 1994, as she claimed, she would have to have been born in or around 1980. Inconveniently for her story, she was born in late 1972. Her Sudanese passport (No. 248065, issued at Omdurman on 7 September 199 and visa application (dated 7 May 2000) clearly state that she was born on 25 December 1972. Her father, in a statement made in August 2001, stated that she would then be "about 29 years old". He also stated that she was not abducted from the village in 1994 and that she was working in Khartoum at that time. It was also documented that she sat the Intermediate School Certificate examination at Dalanj School in 1986. Her examination number was 10906. She passed the exam with a total of 148 marks. Her school certificate was obtained. It was an examination that is taken at 13/14 years of age. Mr al-Koronky's lawyers were also
able to produce a certificate from the Shuhada and Suba Town Municipality that she was a licensed tea seller at the local market from 1996-1999.
Claims of Slavery in the Nuba Mountains Contradicted
Ms Nazer had claimed that dozens of children were enslaved with her and that numerous other villages were attacked. A stark contradiction of these claims about endemic slavery in the Nuba mountains came from an
organisation hostile to the Khartoum government. The London-based African Rights had established in the 1990s a "human rights monitoring programme that covers each of the seven districts of the region" - that is to say the Nuba Mountains. It further stated that "[t]his programme uses Nuba citizens as monitors; to date it is the only formal human rights monitoring programme in Sudan". The preparations for this monitoring and investigations programme began in 1994. The programme was set up by Alex de Waal. It is significant to note that writing three
years later, in 1998, Mr de Waal noted that "'African Rights' monitors in the Nuba Mountains have come across two incidents of possible - but unconfirmed - enslavement in two and half years". (2) He pointedly
referred to the sorts of claims made by Baroness Cox and others of "mass enslavement in the Nuba Mountains". Mr de Waal wrote that they have "alleged that there is mass enslavement in the Nuba Mountains, which is
contested by Nuba human rights activists." (3) Mr de Waal also cited an October 1995 article entitled "What is Slavery", published in 'NAFIR: The Newsletter of the Nuba Mountains', written by the Nuba human rights
activists to whom he had referred.
Ms Nazer had claimed mass enslavement in the Nuba mountains, claiming that 30 children had been "enslaved" with her alone. 'The Sunday Telegraph' article in question, for example, echoed her claims that "government militiamen often raid the Nuba Mountains for girls as young as seven who are sold into slavery in the city".
In conceding that Ms Nazer's claims were false, 'The Sunday Telegraph' acknowledged that they had "greatly wronged" the diplomat in question, "unreservedly" withdrew the allegations, and "sincerely and
unequivocally" apologised for the "distress and gross hurt" the article had caused. The newspaper also paid "very substantial" damages to Mr al-Koronky. (4)
There is little doubt that Ms Nazer has been caught up in the anti-Sudanese propaganda campaign, and that she has been ruthlessly exploited by the anti-Sudan industry in Britain and Europe. It comes at a pivotal time in the Sudanese peace process and this sort of propaganda seeks to obstruct reconciliation in that country, something which only serves those hard-line factions that seek to perpetuate the conflict.
In October 2002, the Home Office rejected Ms Nazer's political asylum claim. A senior British diplomat is reported as having observed that Nazer had been shown to be liar. (5)
The Involvement of Baroness Cox and Christian Solidarity Worldwide
In the course of the legal case, 'The Sunday Telegraph''s Christina Lamb stated that Nazer's "slave girl" story was brought to her by the British-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a Christian fundamentalist
organisation headed by Baroness Cox. Interestingly, Cox denied that CSW had anything to do with the story. (6) Cox's claims with regard to Sudan have long been questioned. (7) She has been described as "overeager or
misinformed" by reputable human rights activist and past director of African Rights Alex de Waal, with regard to her previous claims about slavery in Sudan. ( Her claims that Sudan was involved in chemical weapons have been denied by the United Nations, the British government and UNSCOM. (9) Cox's claims about genocide in Sudan were dismissed by the British government. (10) As a general view on Baroness Cox's reliability on Sudan, it is worth nothing that in Andrew Boyd's sympathetic biography of her Dr Christopher Besse, of Medical Emergency Relief International, a humanitarian aid organisation with which Cox is closely associated (Dr Besse and Baroness Cox are both trustees of Merlin), is quoted as saying:
"She's not the most popular person in Sudan among the humanitarian aid people. She has her enemies, and some of them feel she is not well-enough informed. She recognizes a bit of the picture, but not all that's going on." (11)
For someone who is even said by her friends to only recognise "a bit of the picture, but not all that's going on" to be making the sort of claims she has made on Sudan is regrettable. It has not stopped her making more blunders.
The claims made by Baroness Cox and Christian Solidarity Worldwide to have "redeemed" tens of thousands of Sudanese "slaves", for example, were sharply called into question earlier this year. In February 2002,
in an unprecedented international focus, 'The Irish Times', London's 'Independent on Sunday', 'The Washington Post' and 'International Herald Tribune', chose to publish, or republish, articles exposing the gullibility, fraud and corruption at the heart of claims of "slave redemption" in Sudan. (12) 'The Washington Post' reported that in
numerous documented instances "the slaves weren't slaves at all, but people gathered locally and instructed to pretend they were returning from bondage". (13) 'The Independent on Sunday' reported that it was
able to "reveal that 'redemption' has often been a carefully orchestrated fraud". (14) 'The Irish Times' reported that: "According to aid workers, missionaries, and even the rebel movement that facilitates it, slave redemption in Sudan is often an elaborate scam." 'The Irish Times' article also stated that in many cases "the process is nothing more than a careful deceit, stage-managed by corrupt officials". Baroness Cox's naivety was once again there for all to see.
Recycled Lies
Amazingly enough, within weeks of Nazer's story having been proved to have been false, it was recycled in the 'Sklavin' ('Slave'), a book published in German in Germany, beyond the reach of the British legal system. And equally surprisingly, perhaps, her name appears to have changed from Zeinab Nazer, which appeared on all the legal documents which she signed. She is now known as "Mende" Nazer, probably because it sounded less Muslim than Zeinab. That would fit in more easily with the imagery of Arab "raiders" "enslaving" Christians in Sudan.
While she put her name to the book, it was actually written by Damien Lewis. Along with his associate Baroness Cox, Mr Lewis's track record on Sudan is deeply questionable. His unreliability was exemplified by another one of his projects, 'Death in the Air', a "documentary" film he made in the course of 1999. (15) A 27-minute long programme, it claimed to be an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons within southern Sudan in July 1999 by Government of Sudan forces. It claimed to have produced "compelling" evidence to substantiate this claim. The word "chemical" was used 44 times in the programme. "Gas" was also mentioned several times, as was "poisoning" and "[c]ontaminated". "War crime" was also mentioned. Damien Lewis claimed in his programme that: "The results of the analysis by the UK and Finnish chemical weapons agencies provides tantalising evidence..." He further states: "Experts say the evidence so far is compelling" and said that there is "[a] convincing body of
evidence." Those interested in media accuracy, press sensationalism and misinformation in general, and with regard to Sudan in particular, can read the transcript of the programme and compare it against the results of the tests conducted which were central to the claims made in it. (16)
The dozens of samples he theatrically produced in the course of his programme were subject to detailed, vigorous independent testing by chemical weapons agencies of his choosing in three countries: there was not the slightest trace of anything remotely indicative of the use of chemical weapons. Even a cursory examination of what the British and Finnish chemical weapons agencies actually said unambiguously contradicted the claims made in 'Death in the Air'. The Finnish laboratories stated: "Analysis of the gloves, control soil sample and one water sample, revealed no relevant chemicals. Analysis of all soil samples and one water sample revealed the presence of
2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). In addition to TNT, one soil sample contained the following degradation products of TNT: 1,8-dinitronaphtalene, 1-nitronaphtalene and 1,5-dinitronaphthalene." (17) That is to say, no evidence of any chemical weapons. There was, however, evidence that a conventional bomb had gone off.
The British government's chemical and biological defence agency at Porton Down rigorously tested seventeen samples of water, soil and shrapnel provided by Lewis for the spectrum of known chemical agents. In the government's response, the British Minister of State for Defence Procurement stated that "very careful analysis of all the available evidence" led the government to "conclude that there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations that chemical weapons were used in these incidents in the Sudan." More of Lewis's samples were independently
tested in the United States. The minister also stated with regard to these and other samples that "a separate set of samples taken from the sites of the alleged CW attacks in the Sudan was tested independently in the US. The results of these tests also indicated no evidence of exposure to CW agents. I understand that Mr Lewis also passed samples to the Finnish institute responsible for chemical weapons verification ("VERIFIN") and I am advised that this analysis likewise found evidence of TNT but none for CW agents." In fact, the British government remarked on "the consistency of results from these three independent sets of analysis".19 Yet despite all these tests on his samples Mr Lewis somehow found the courage to claim in his programme that the tests provided
"tantalising evidence...", that "[e]xperts say the evidence so far is compelling" and that there is "[a] convincing body of evidence." It is for the readers of this study to draw their own conclusions about Mr Lewis's credibility and ethics as a reporter.
Such is the reliability of the man who wrote 'Sklavin' for Nazer.
Conclusion
The Zeinab Nazer case is an important one. It provides a telling, and carefully documented insight into the propaganda campaign against Sudan.
Firstly, it provided the first instance where claims of slavery in Sudan could be examined in an independent, legal format where fact rather than propaganda would be established. And in 'The Sunday Telegraph' the CSW
"slavery" faction had a wealthy entity willing to bank-roll their claims. 'The Sunday Telegraph' gradually realised that the "slavery" claims were unsustainable and admitted that it had made a terrible mistake in publishing them. Secondly, it showed that even when its claims of "slavery" had been exposed as black and white falsehoods, the
anti-Sudan industry has nevertheless continued to propagate these lies. And, tellingly, but not surprisingly, Baroness Cox and Damien Lewis have not had sufficient courage to repeat these lies in Britain - preferring instead to voice them in Germany.
When confronted by the fact that Nazer's claims have been proven to be false, Nazer campaigners are now saying that having written the 'Sklavin' book, she would now be unpopular in Sudan. If Ms Nazer is now in a predicament because of her lying in an attempt to win asylum, it is one of her own making. British or European taxpayers should not be made to pay for her deceit.
ESPC.org
Notes
1 "Sudan Diplomat 'Kept Slave Girl in London Home'", 'The Sunday Telegraph' (London), 17 September 2000. The story was also carried internationally. See, for example, "Sudan Diplomat Kept Servant Girl as Slave in London Home: Report", News Article by Agence France Presse, 17 September 2000.
2 Alex de Waal, 'Exploiting Slavery: Human Rights and Political Agendas in Sudan', 'New Left Review', Number 227, p.145.
3 Alex de Waal, 'Exploiting Slavery: Human Rights and Political Agendas in Sudan', 'New Left Review', Number 227, p.145.
4 "Statement in Open Court", Case No. HQ006869, In the High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, between Abdel Mahmoud al-Koronky and Dominic Lawson, Christina Lamb and The Sunday Telegraph Limited, 4 July 2002.
5 "Foreign Office Investigates Claim that Woman was Kept as Slave by Diplomat", 'The Guardian' (London), 9 October 2002.
6 See Letters to the Editor, 'The Sunday Telegraph' (London), 1 October 2000.
7 See, for example, 'Baroness Cox and Sudan: How Reliable a Witness?', The British-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, 1999, available at www.espac.org.
8 De Waal is a director of the human rights group, Justice Africa. He was formerly a co-director of African Rights, and has worked for the Inter-Africa Group. He has written several books on Africa. He is an acknowledged expert on Sudan.
9 House of Lords 'Official Report', 19 March 1998, cols. 818-820.
10 House of Lords 'Official Report', 10 December 1998, column 103.
11 Andrew Boyd, 'Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless', Lion Publishing, Oxford, 1998, p.324.
12 "The Great Slave Scam", 'The Irish Times', 23 February 2002; "Scam in Sudan - An Elaborate Hoax Involving Fake African Slaves and Less-than-Honest Interpreters is Duping Concerned Westerners", 'The Independent on Sunday', 24 February 2002; "Ripping Off Slave 'Redeemers': Rebels Exploit Westerners' Efforts to Buy Emancipation for Sudanese", 'The Washington Post', 26 February 2002; "Sudan Rip-Offs Over Phony Slaves", 'International Herald Tribune', 27 February 2002. "Slave Redemption" has also been extensively questioned. See, for example, 'The Reality of Slave Redemption', European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, March 2001; 'The Use of Intertribal Raiding as "Slavery" Propaganda in Sudan: A Statement of Concern to Mrs Mary Robinson, The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights', European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, March 200, all available at http://www.espac.org. Christian Solidarity International's Sudan activities have long been seriously questioned. See, for example, 'Time to Speak out on Christian Solidarity International and Sudan: An Open Letter to Anti-Slavery International', European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, June 2001; 'Prejudiced and Discredited: Christian Solidarity International and Sudan', European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, 2000, available at http://www.espac.org; David Hoile, 'Sudan, Propaganda and Distortion: Allegations of Slavery and Slavery-Related Practices', The Sudan Foundation, London, March 1997.
13 "Ripping Off Slave 'Redeemers': Rebels Exploit Westerners' Efforts to Buy Emancipation for Sudanese", 'The Washington Post', 26 February 2002.
14 "Scam in Sudan - An Elaborate Hoax Involving Fake African Slaves and Less-than-Honest Interpreters is Duping Concerned Westerners", 'The Independent on Sunday', 24 February 2002
15 Lewis had made earlier, equally-questionable, propaganda documentaries, including "Sudan: The Secret Story", featuring SPLA commander John Garang and Baroness Cox alleging oil-related "genocide".
16 'Sudan - Death in the Air', Phoenix Television, web-posted at The entire transcript of the programme is available at www.phoenix-tv.net/html/orange/recent/sudanche1.htm
17 As published in 'The ASA Newsletter', Issue No. 79, 2000, Applied Science and Analysis Inc., available at www.asanltr.com/newsletter/00-4/sudan_verifin.htm
18 For text of the British Government's Letter to Baroness Cox Regarding the testing of Damien Lewis's samples at the Chemical and Biological Defence Agency, Porton Down, (Reference D/MIN(DP)/ECS/13/3/3), 5 June 2000, see 'Damien Lewis, Sudan and 'Death in the Air': A Case Study in Irresponsible Television', European
Sudanese Public Affairs Council, August 2001
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Re: Slavery and Abduction (Re: bayan)
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Dr Bayan:
Can you give me your point of view about the following statement??????????
"Sudan Diplomat 'Kept Slave Girl in London Home'", 'The Sunday Telegraph' (London), 17 September 2000. The story was also carried internationally. See, for example, "Sudan Diplomat Kept Servant Girl as Slave in London Home: Report", News Article by Agence France Presse, 17 September 2000.
2 Interview with BBC Radio 4 - PM Programme, 18 October 2002.
3 See, for example, 'Baroness Cox and Sudan: How Reliable a Witness? ', The British-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, 1999, available at www.espac.org.
4 De Waal is a director of the human rights group, Justice Africa. He was formerly a co-director of African Rights, and has worked for the Inter-Africa Group. He has written several books on Africa. He is an acknowledged expert on Sudan.
5 House of Lords Official Report, 19 March 1998, cols. 818-820.
6 House of Lords Official Report, 10 December 1998, column 103.
7 Andrew Boyd, 'Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless', Lion Publishing, Oxford, 1998, p.324.
8 "The Great Slave Scam", 'The Irish Times', 23 February 2002; "Scam in Sudan - An Elaborate Hoax Involving Fake African Slaves and Less-than-Honest Interpreters is Duping Concerned Westerners", 'The Independent on Sunday', 24 February 2002; "Ripping Off Slave 'Redeemers': Rebels Exploit Westerners' Efforts to Buy Emancipation for Sudanese", 'The Washington Post', 26 February 2002; "Sudan Rip-Offs Over Phony Slaves", 'International Herald Tribune', 27 February 2002. "Slave Redemption" has also been extensively questioned. See, for example, 'The Reality of Slave Redemption', European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, March 2001; 'The Use of Intertribal Raiding as 'Slavery' Propaganda in Sudan: A Statement of Concern to Mrs Mary Robinson, The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights', European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, March 200, all available at http://www.espac.org. Christian Solidarity International's Sudan activities have long been seriously questioned. See, for example, 'Time to Speak out on Christian Solidarity International and Sudan: An Open Letter to Anti-Slavery International', European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, June 2001; 'Prejudiced and Discredited: Christian Solidarity International and Sudan', European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, London, 2000, available at http://www.espac.org; David Hoile, 'Sudan, Propaganda and Distortion: Allegations of Slavery and Slavery-Related Practices', The Sudan Foundation, London, March 1997.
9 "Ripping Off Slave 'Redeemers': Rebels Exploit Westerners' Efforts to Buy Emancipation for Sudanese", 'The Washington Post', 26 February 2002.
10 "Scam in Sudan - An Elaborate Hoax Involving Fake African Slaves and Less-than-Honest Interpreters is Duping Concerned Westerners", 'The Independent on Sunday', 24 February 2002
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Re: Slavery and Abduction (Re: bayan)
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David Hoile and NOI-AMC: Playing the Devil Advocate
By: New Sudan African Society
The London based European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council
(ESPAC) headed by David Hoile, a South African born Briton has been known for sometimes now for consistently accusing the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) of war mongering,recruiting children into its army ranks, among others. Furthermore,Hoile denies there is such a thing as slavery in Sudan (but preferred only to rename and baptize it as "abductions"), and finds no link between the oil exploration in Southern Sudan and the massive aerial bombardment and displacement of the population in the oil region by the Sudan army to provide security zones for oilcompanies. Recently it launched vicious media attack on human right activists, and accused the new Bush Administration and US
Congress of "obstructing peace" by the passing Sudan Peace Act.
The organisation, ESPAC, finds no fault and wickedness with a regime that toppled a democratically elected government in 1989, sent thousands to ghost or concentration houses, forcedly drafted hundreds of thousands of university students and school children and declared "Jihad" on population in South Blue Nile, South Sudan, and Nuba Mountains. It finds no fault and iniquity with a
regime that armed militia to pillage, and lay waste towns and villages in South Sudan, South Blue Nile, and Nuba Mountains, bombed relief centres, hospital and schools, razed villages and captured women and children and took them into slavery. The "see no evil" and "hear no evil" organisation, [with ever increasing
applause and admiration of the Nation of Islam and the American Muslim Council (NOI-AMC)], is never alarmed by the well-documented facts that the regime it now seeks to defend was and is the one--a regime which until recently hosted international terrorists such as Bin Laden, Carlos the Jackal, and Hamas. It is
the regime that sponsored terrorists responsible for bombing of the US embassies in East Africa (resulting in hundreds of African and American civilian casualties), assassination attempts on Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, and the bombing of International Trade Centre in New York.
The "see no evil, hear no evil" organisation, applauded by NOI-AMC, has thecourage and the gut to take on a "European" name, and speak on behalf of Europeans and the British about what it calls "European-Sudanese Affairs"; no matter how questionable, ridiculous, convoluted, lubricous and controversial their position clearly appear to any rational observer. Small wonder, Hoile who founded and ######### the ESPAC is a man characterised by extremely chilling background. In a revelation published by Search Light (December 2000), Hoile was once a deputy head to Marc-Henri Glendening, who once chaired the Federation of Conservative Students (FCS). Glendening, Hoile's right-wing bedfellow, was best known for his infamous attitude towards blacks as reflected in his villainous saying: "it is the right of any man to discriminate against blacks if he so wishes". Driven by nothing other than opportunism and racial bigotry, Hoile and his organisation have now found a new cause for being "colour blind" so much that he can now team up with the Nation of Islam-American Muslim Council (NOI-AMC), in order to defend the grotesque, genocidal, and murderous Islamic
regime in Khartoum. It is as if in the heat of a moment David Hoile has become a partner to an organisation (NOI-AMC) which is an exact opposite to the British National Party, BNP, and the Klan (KKK) to which Hoile should rightly belong.
But that is not all to Hoile's background to sufficiently explain the very atypical and peculiar stand his ESPAC has been advocating for regarding the Sudanese Arab created and led civil war that has already claimed more than two millions African Sudanese lives. There is more about Hoile that can make most wonder why a man who should be behind-the-bars is still at large. According to Search
Light magazine, Hoile was a passionate apologist for the infamous RENAMO in Mozambique, an agent of South African Apartheid military intelligence. The International Freedom Foundation, IFF (UK), which Hoile and Marc Gordon (another notorious right-winger)****helped found,***** had one of its mission statements: "the combating of sanctions and support to constitutional initiatives
through publications, lobbying, conferences etc," according to the investigation by Khan Commission into South African secretintelligence operations. In the spirit of that extremely questionable mission of IFF, Hoile wrote his book "Understanding the Sanctions" with funds from John Carlisle, the pro-South African racist Tory MP for Luton North. This was nothing other than attempts to break the economic siege on the Apartheid.
Hoile, the current defender of the Islamic Arab regime in Khartoum, persistently accused the South African's African Nationalist Congress (ANC) of being in the "grip of Communism". That the ANC was going to turn South Africa into a Communist country. One of the icons and role models of African freedom movements, according to Hoile, is (the pariah) Mr. Jonas Savimbi of UNITA who
was hired by South Africa to destabilise Angola. None of those bizarre accusations or assumptions had any shred of connection to the truth, as we know it. It only***** saves***** the fact that Hoile and his highly faulty and controversial causes had not withstood the tide of change which swept away the South African Apartheid system, bringing in its place: democracy, respect for human rights,and sanity itself. In the same rein, we can be sure that Hoile's
ESPAC and his collaborators in NOI-AMC are no doubt destined to the graveyard and dustbin of history, so long as they maintain their support of this grotesque, genocidal, murderous and insatiate African enslavement policies of the Arab Islamic regime in Khartoum.
Just to avoid the danger of us being accused of bias and rhetoric, or running a "media circus" as ESPAC-NOI-AMC would like to label the regime of Sudan's critics, we would like to ask the same questions (which ESPAC and NOI-AMC has often asked). This is--what evidence is there to support the accusations that are held against the Arab Islamic Khartoum regime? Not one, not two and
not three, but plenty-- On the question of modern day slavery in Sudan, the existence of the practice was first highlighted by two Khartoum university professors and themselves devout Muslims: Dr. Ushari Muhamoud, and Dr. Sulyman Ali Baldo in 1987 following their investigation into a massacre of thousands of African Sudanese by government armed militia in the city of Daein in Western Sudan. Since then the existence and practice of slavery was independently**** confirmed**** by the Amnesty International, UN Human Rights Watch, United States Commission for Refugees (USCR), the Canadian Foreign Ministry and host of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) working in Sudan, and testimonies from former victims of slavery. Moreover, drilling for oil in South Sudan has only increased human suffering in South Sudan since the Khartoum regime has resorted to policy of a scorched-earth warfare which has led to massive displacement and death among the local African Sudanese population. Again these have been documented and acknowledged by the investigators
from UN Human Right Watch, Amnesty International, USCR, British Christian Aid, Canadian Haker's Report on "the human cost of oil development", and most recently the UN Special Investigator Leonardo Franco, among others. The IMF reported an increase in the regime's military spending since oil export begun in 1998. This is an enormous amount of credible information which supports two
important facts: That the Sudan regime is involved in gross violation of human rights (of abhorrent nature such as slavery, and waging a genocidal war on African Sudanese), and that this situation can only get worst if oil exploration (with attendant scorched-earth warfare) is allowed to continued.
Unfortunately, by finding no fault and vileness with the present Khartoum regime and taking a hostile stand against measures (economic or otherwise) that would increase the pressure on the regime to negotiate a peaceful settlement in good faith, the ESPAC and their accomplices in the NOI-AMC are in effect propagating for the maintenance of the status quo and thereby heightening and lengthening the suffering of the African Sudanese in South Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains, and South Sudan. We should make no mistake by not realising that the present regime in Khartoum is *****bent**** on finding a military solution to war. It is committed to using the proceeds from oil exploration to import more advanced
military hardware as well as building its growing arm and ammunition industry to achieve "arm sufficiency" as Reuters (on 16th June 2001) quoted Omer Al Bashir stating: "Sudan will celebrate the festival of the revolution this year with the production of tanks and heavy equipment by Sudanese hands". This regime is
determined as ever to frustrate the claims of South Sudanese, people of Nuba Mountains and South Blue for self-determination or the dismantling of the current system by separating religion fromstate.
Every peace loving person in the world should therefore work very hard to achieve a just and peaceful settlement to Sudan's conflict. Ignoring the policies of appeasement promoted by questionable organisations such as ESPAC we would encourage you all to add your voice to the ever-increasing voices for peace, liberty and justice in South Sudan, Nuba Mountain and Southern Blue **** Nile****.
No to slavery in Sudan, No to oil exploration without peace, No to import of Sudan's blood tainted oil, and Yes to a peaceful settlement which must recognise the right of self-determination for the African Sudanese in South Blue Nile, South Sudan, and Nuba Mountains.
Finally, let David Hoile, his cronies and co-accomplices in the NOI- AMC know in no uncertain terms, that by their skewed and hypocritical stand on the Arab created and led conflict in Sudan, the union between Hoile and NOI-AMC is nothing other than for gluttony. Thus, they are headed for the graveyard of history and shame. With the established existence and practice of slavery in
the Sudan by credible bodies such as the UN Human Right Watch, Amnesty International, USCR, British Christian Aid, Canadian Haker's Report on "the human cost of oil development", and most recently the UN Special Investigator Leonardo Franco, freed slaves among others, Hoile and the Nation of Islam-American Muslim Council should agonize not over denial, but their ruined and
irreparable credibility.
Deng.
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Re: Slavery and Abduction (Re: bayan)
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Open door
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T-shirt test
The readers' editor on... a correction we shouldn't have made
Ian Mayes
Saturday October 6, 2001
The Guardian
On Tuesday September 11, the day on which our priorities changed dramatically and complaints to my office dropped to practically nothing from the record level at which they had been running, we carried a correction that has proved to be unusually contentious. Indeed the question that subsequent developments have raised is: should the correction have been carried at all? Certainly had I known what I know now it would not have appeared.
The correction concerned Dr David Hoile, the director of the European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council (Espac). Dr Hoile had been the subject of three items in the Guardian Diary up to that time. A further item appeared in the Diary on the day that the correction appeared. At the time of writing, eight more have appeared - suggesting perhaps that corrections, far from suppressing inquiry, sometimes stimulate it.
The main question the Diary was asking was whether Dr Hoile had, in his student days in the 1980s, when he was associated with the Federation of Conservative Students, worn a "badge or T-shirt" (Diary, August 30) carrying the slogan "Hang Mandela". The Diary made several appeals to readers for photographic evidence that would prove the point.
On September 6, Dr Hoile complained by fax to the editor of the Diary, to the editor of the Guardian and to me about "misreporting" on several points and requesting "corrections and clarifications". Dr Hoile was adamant in his rebuttal of any suggestion that he had ever worn a T-shirt carrying the slogan "Hang Mandela" or anything like it.
In one of several telephone conversations I warned Dr Hoile against pursuing a correction that might subsequently be found to be false. Dr Hoile told me there was absolutely no chance of that happening and insisted that no such T-shirt had existed.
He advised me to talk to a journalist who had been closely following his activities and those of the Federation of Conservative Students at the time. I did that and the journalist told me, "I never saw him or anyone else wearing a [Hang] Nelson Mandela T-shirt."
After discussions with the Diary and others, I concluded that there were minor inaccuracies and that there was no convincing evidence that Dr Hoile had worn a Hang Mandela T-shirt.
This remained the position four days after Dr Hoile had made his original complaint to me and on September 11, the following correction appeared: "References to David Hoile in several recent Diary items have suggested that he is currently a researcher for the Conservative MP Andrew Hunter. Dr Hoile tells us categorically that he is not and we accept that. There is no evidence that Dr Hoile ever wore a 'Hang Mandela' T-shirt, or that he possessed or borrowed a rottweiler. Furthermore, Dr Hoile wishes to say equally categorically that at no time did he propose a motion at Warwick University that 'Nelson Mandela is a terrorist and should be hanged' nor would he have done so. The Guardian has no evidence for that either."
Immediately after the publication of this correction, the Diary was held out for a week because the page on which it normally appeared was accommodating more material relating to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
In the interim, the Diary did indeed obtain a photograph of Dr Hoile, the publication of which it began to trail in Diary items, referring now to his denial of ever having worn "Hang Mandela accoutrements" (September 20), or "paraphernalia" (September 25). It published on September 26 what it presented as a picture of Dr Hoile wearing his "Hang Mandela kit" - in the form of a sticker attached to his tie. I rang up Dr Hoile on the day of publication and suggested that he owed the Guardian an apology. Dr Hoile apologised profusely to me for any "embarrassment" he had caused me personally. He insisted, however, that word for word, the correction remained correct. He had absolutely no recollection of wearing anything of the kind shown in the photograph, but he had known beyond any doubt that he had not worn a Hang Mandela T-shirt.
There are several things to be said here. The first is to assert the principle that it is better to have conclusive evidence before rather than after serious allegations are made. Minor errors render serious arguments vulnerable to doubt. But the equally important point is that when a sentiment such as Hang Mandela is expressed, the precise nature of the vehicle on which it is carried is not the main thing.
Dr Hoile does not seem to be quite ready to concede the point. For my part, I am ready to say to the editor of the Diary and his colleagues, that on the main issue, you were right.
• Readers may contact the office of the readers' editor by telephoning 0845 451 9589 between 11am and 5pm Monday to Friday (all calls are charged at local rate). Mail to Readers' editor, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER. Fax 020-7239 9897. Email: [email protected]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
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Re: Slavery and Abduction (Re: bayan)
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Who is David Hoile of the notorious European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council (ESPAC)?
Mr. Hoile has used a variety of organizations to give apparent substance to his interminable propaganda efforts. In addition to "The European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council," he also uses the name "British-Sudanese Public Affairs Council," and "Westminster Associates." The latter is important because, as the authoritative Africa Confidential has revealed in its most recent issue (Vol 42, No 17), "the parliamentary register of interests lists the client of [Westminster Associates] as the Sudan government."
The Sudan government is completely dominated by the extremist National Islamic Front; it is the regime responsible for the bombing of civilian and humanitarian targets throughout southern Sudan; it is the regime presently responsible for denying emergency humanitarian relief to tens of thousands of the most desperately needy people in the world; it is the regime that has been repeatedly and unambiguously found responsible for massive scorched-earth warfare in the oil regions of southern Sudan. Those who have reached this latter conclusion include: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the last three UN Special Rapporteurs for Sudan, Christian Aid (UK), the Harker Mission of the Canadian Government, and numerous others.
But Mr. Hoile is clearly happy to take money from this brutal regime. Is there anything in Mr. Hoile's character that could account for a willingness to work for such savagely cruel paymasters? As it happens, The Guardian, Britain's most distinguished newspaper, has recently given us a couple of rather clear glimpses of Mr. Hoile's twisted soul in the "Diary" entries of Matthew Norman (August 29, 2001 and August 30, 2001).
Perhaps most revealing is Mr. Norman's acerbic inquiry of August 30th:
"When we speak to David [Hoile of ESPAC] to discuss some recollections readers have been sharing about him, he keeps asking if we can provide a photograph of him wearing a hilarious "Hang Mandela" badge or T-shirt. Can anyone help?"
Perhaps you had to be there with David Hoile of ESPAC to see the humor of wishing Nelson Mandela to be executed.
In any event, Talisman Energy of Canada sees something of value in David Hoile's perceptions: they have used his materials in communicating with the news media about the situation in Sudan, where they are the direct beneficiaries of the scorched-earth warfare that has been so authoritatively established. Mr. Hoile's propagandistic denials of these realities are evidently just what they want to hear. Perhaps in their views of Africa they share more yet with this profiteering bit of human viciousness.
----Eric Reeves
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From The Guardian (UK)
"Diary"
Matthew Norman
Wednesday August 29, 2001
The Guardian
Iain Duncan Smith may have sacked that Monday Clubber Andrew Hunter from his team, but what of his researcher David Hoile? In his other post, as director of the British-Sudanese public affairs council, Dr Hoile lobbies ceaselessly for a government fabled for its systematic abuse of human rights. Dr Hoile, who promoted British involvement in that engaging oil pipeline project, routinely dismisses the regime's atrocities and writes letters attacking critics such as our own Julie Flint, who this month highlighted how new oil revenues are being used to buy missiles. A safe Tory seat for Dr Hoile, then, if such a thing should exist under IDS.
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"Diary"
Matthew Norman
Thursday August 30, 2001
The Guardian
What a popular chap is Dr David Hoile, the researcher for sacked IDS campaigner Andrew Hunter MP who doubles up as a professional apologist for Sudanese human rights abuses. David is particularly fondly remembered from his days at Warwick University in the early to mid 80s when he was chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students, the group eventually disbanded by spoilsport Norman Tebbit for being too barkingly rightwing. When we speak to David to discuss some recollections readers have been sharing about him, he keeps asking if we can provide a photograph of him wearing a hilarious "Hang Mandela" badge or T-shirt. Can anyone help?
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Re: Slavery and Abduction (Re: bayan)
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الاخوه الكرام
لا ازلت اكون فكره عن موضوع الاسترقاق في السودان
هل هل لازال يمارس بشكله التقليدي؟ أم هو عباره عن
الاختطاف القهري في حاله النزاعات القبليه ولكن
ما أستوقفني حقا هو خبر أورده الاخ الصاوي في تعليقه
علي بوست سابق للاخ sign بعنوان الاف العبيد في
السودان وها أن أورد ما طرحه الاخ الصاوي
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07-06-2003, 06:25 AM
Alsawi
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Registered: 06-08-2002
Total Posts: 451
Re: آلاف العبيد في السودان (Re: sign)
الاخ ساين بعد التحية والترحيب اشكرك على البوست
الاخوة الذين حملوا على الرجل بلا ذنب جناه: أقول لهم التركي ولا المتورك، يعني ناس حكومة الجبهة ما نكروا ما ورد في التقرير فلماذا تدافعون عنهم بنكرانه؟؟ المسألة ليست اتهامات عشوائية هنا، هذه ليست منظمة التضامن المسيحي التي زعمت انها حررت مائتي الف عبد في يوم واحد. لا . هناك منظمة حكومية في السودان اسمها سيواك هي التي قالت انها حررت 11 الف عبد، او من اسمتهم ضحايا الاختطاف القهري، كأن المخطوف قهريا اسمه الضيف، ونال احد اعضاء اللجنة، العمدة أقوير من الدينكا، جائزة "نوبل الأطفال" قبل اسابيع واحتفلت بها حكومة السودان كإنجاز باهر لهذه اللجنة. فاين التلفيق واين الوطن من هذا؟؟ اذا كنتم محظوظين ولم تكونوا من الضحايا فاحمدوا ربنا، واذا لم تساعدوا على اعادتهم لإنسانيتهم وذويهم، فاتركوا الآخرين يفعلوا ذلك، واذا لم تساعدوهم باليد فساعدوهم باللسان والقلم بالحديث عن قضيتهم بدلا من انكار وجودهم، او حتى لا تطقعوا ولا تجيبوا الحجار، اسكتوا وخلوا الناس اهل الانسانية والرحمة الذين جعل الله لهم قلوبا، خلوهم يتكلموا
والسلام
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Re: Slavery and Abduction (Re: bayan)
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هؤلاء يسمون سبايا حرب ، يفرق بينهم على اساي الدين يعني حراير وغير حرائر ، على ايام المهدية كانو يسبون الجميع بما فيهم الجعليين وخاصة النساءوهذا النظام لاشر من الدولة المهدية
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bayan
أحمد أمين
Deng
Abomihyar
kamalabas
عشة بت فاطنة
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست