Dinka Committee
The Dinka Committee ( Dinka Committee ) was created by James Aguer Alic and other members of the Southern Sudanese ethnic group of Dinka established to slavery in Sudan to fight and north Sudan to free slaves held Dinka. In doing so, the committee works with Dinka chiefs on the one hand and “Arab” northern Sudanese and the central government in Khartoum on the other.
history
During the war of civil secession in South Sudan , southern Sudanese civilians were abducted and enslaved by militias from northern Sudan. The Dinka in particular were affected by slave hunts. James Aguer Alic himself experienced an attack on his village and fled as a result. In a refugee camp in Khartoum, he and other Dinka decided in 1989 to campaign for the liberation of the slaves.
By 2003 the Dinka Committee had obtained the freedom for an estimated 2,200 slaves. At the same time, James Aguer Alic had been arrested 33 times for his activities. Three committee members were killed while they were working.
In 2003 James Aguer Alic received the World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child , and in 2006 the Anti-Slavery Award . In the same year the number of those liberated by the committee was estimated at 4,000.
Working method
Aguer Alic and his colleagues initially traveled through Darfur and Kurdufan disguised as Arabs in order to locate slaves and record them statistically. They tried to obtain their release through negotiations with local leaders and sultans. Some of these leaders were accommodating; others responded with threats.
After long denying the existence of slavery, the Sudanese government founded the Committee for the Abolition of the Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC) in 1999 under international pressure . James Aguer Alic and his colleagues joined and worked with this organization. This also brought them criticism, as the CEAWC only serves to continue to veil slavery and to play down "kidnappings". According to its own statements, the CEAWC freed 6,000 Dinka slaves until they ceased their activities in 2006 due to financial problems.
Furthermore, the Dinka Committee is in contact with the American organization Christian Solidarity International , whose program for ransoming slaves in Sudan is not without controversy.
Web links
- World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child 2003: James Aguer Alic
- Anti-Slavery International: Anti-Slavery Award ( Memento from February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- Anti-Slavery International: Anti-Slavery Award: James Aguer ( Memento from February 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Sudan Tribune, August 22, 2006: Ghosts haunt forgotten former Sudan slave.
- ↑ CSI: Sudan: Forgot 8000 slaves? ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated September 14, 2006. (Retrieved July 15, 2011.)
