PHILADELPHIA, Aug 08, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- There is a deeper aspect to the story of Lopez Lomong, Sudanese Lost Boy and flag-bearer for the US Olympic team, because when he stands up for the people of Darfur he is standing up for his former enemies, says a Darfurian medical doctor.
Dr. Abdelgabar Adam, a resident of Philadelphia, and founder and President of the Darfur Human Rights Organization, says Darfurians were used by the Government of Sudan against Southern Sudanese, but the forgiving attitude of Southerners like Lopez Lomong is blurring the lines of division between Sudanese Muslims in the North, and the largely non-Muslim population in Southern Sudan.
Dr. Adam is available for interviews.
"The Government of Sudan tried to convince the people of Darfur that the non-Muslims in the South were our enemies, and used us to oppress the Southerners" Dr. Adam says. "But now that we Darfurians are the victims, Lopez and other Southern Sudanese are doing what they can to stand up for our people, despite the fact that their family members were killed by soldiers from Darfur."
According to Dr. Adam, by standing up for Darfur, Lopez is forever changing the mindset of Darfurians, and other Sudanese Northerners, revealing that Southern Sudanese and Darfurians should not be enemies, but brothers.
"Lopez's example is giving hope to Sudan," Dr. Adam says.
The 22-year war between the extremist Islamist regime in Khartoum, and the largely Christian and animist Southern Sudan was ended in January '05 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord. The Government of Southern Sudan is semi-autonomous, and in 2011 a referendum will give the Southern Sudanese the opportunity to choose to remain as a region of a united Sudan, or secede. In 2003-2004 conflict broke out in Darfur, as Khartoum's violent response to demands from Darfurian rebels who demanded roads, schools and clinics for the impoverished region of Darfur. The North -- South war had a religious aspect to it, however the killing in Darfur is not religious but racial in its character. Border clashes between North and South Sudan, particularly in the oil-rich and contested Abyei region, have led some experts to predict a renewed North - South war, that would be far bloodier than the current crisis in Darfur ("A Genocide Foretold," by Nicholas D. Kristof, NY Times, February 28, 2008).
Dr. Abdelgabar Adam has been one of the leading Darfurian activists, in the U.S., seeking to deepen reconciliation between Darfurians and Southern Sudanese, and among all of the marginalized people of Sudan. In July 2007 he was the spokesperson at a meeting of Lost Boys, Darfurians and Sudanese Northerners who met to deepen reconciliation among marginalized Sudanese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmoGimthQCs
http://www.sudansunrise.org/Vision%20Statement3.pdf