Letter to the Editor

Carnage in Sudan

Byron Hurst
The Washington Post
Saturday, November 11, 2000; Page A28


Irving Greenberg and Jerome Shestack's Oct. 31 op-ed column, "Carnage in Sudan," brought needed attention to the longest-running civil conflict on a continent that has seen more than its share of war, ethnic violence, persecution and genocide.

Of the many human rights abuses committed during this war, none stands out so vividly in the Western mind as the taking of slaves.

According to Simon Wol, liaison of the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association to the U.N. Operation Lifeline Sudan program in Lokichokio, Kenya, the government of Sudan not only knows of these raids, it backs them as an instrument of war.

The embellishment by rebel factions or Western groups that all prisoners of war are hostages or slaves, or that the slavery issue is a religious one, undermines the seriousness of the matter.

The existence of slavery under any circumstances demands an international response at once.

BYRON HURST
Arlington


© 2000 The Washington Post Company