May 2002

Here is a copy of the letter that Fergus wrote to the Westminster MPs, Hilton Dawson, Jenny Tonge, Andrew Robathan and David Drew.

I was interested to hear of your recent trip, with your colleagues, to Southern Sudan. I was in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal just before your visit and have been involved with relief and rehabilitation work in that area for much of the last 10 years, originally with Save the Children UK. During the early to mid-nineties, the main obstacle the area faced was that of chronic insecurity, particularly from Kerubino Kuanyin and his government-sponsored militia. In the last few years, however, the area has been relatively peaceful, though I understand there is fighting going on between Sudan government troops and the SPLA at the moment. However, some areas, especially those within reach of the railway line, are still targeted by the government-backed Popular Defence Forces and their main aim is to loot cattle, burn villages and abduct women and children.

The British government must seriously consider how the lives of the people in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, in particular, but Sudan as a whole, can be improved and the one way of doing this is to concentrate on funding for community development projects rather than relief. With a relatively more peaceful environment, markets have expanded and trade between the north and the south and the south and Uganda have increased. There is more chance now than there was five years ago to encourage the setting up of cooperatives and community development initiatives and The Shading Tree (Tim Atiep) is particularly interested in supporting community initiatives in education. It is this sector, which has been so neglected in the past and is still being given a low priority. Too often funding agencies and governments make the excuse of chronic insecurity to avoid supporting education programmes and meanwhile a whole generation of children in Southern Sudan have lost the opportunity to go to school. Not only is the primary education system neglected, but the chance of progressing on to secondary or tertiary education is almost too impossible a dream, as there are no facilities available in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal.

At present, most children who manage to get some schooling and are able to progress to class 8 are then basically dumped, because there is nothing to offer them after that, unless they can afford to be sent away to Rumbek, Western Equatoria or to neighbouring countries. Quite a few of them, if they have done well are recruited back into the school to become teachers themselves.

However, in the long run, the provision of more opportunities for education is not going to be sufficient for the people of Southern Sudan. Peace has to be achieved in order for the children of Sudan to have a chance of a normal life. The UN and the governments of the world have not done enough, and are still not doing enough, to promote peace or to put pressure on the warring parties to find a solution. At the moment the Americans have become more involved in Sudan, but this is more for their own interest as part of their “war on terror” than for finding a just solution to Sudan’s problems.

At present, there is an internationally monitored ceasefire in the Nuba Mts, but why stop there? Why can this not be extended to the whole of the conflict zone. In Western Upper Nile at the moment a humanitarian crisis is looming, because the GoS has denied humanitarian access to the area because of its determination to hold on to the oilfields. A consortium which includes a Canadian company, and which is being supplied by, amongst others, British manufacturers and companies, is exploiting these oilfields. I assume you have read the report by John Ryle and Georgette Gagnon, regarding how the oilfield bases are being used by the GoS to send helicopter gunships against the civilian populations of the area. What happened to the PM’s ethical foreign policy claim?

I am sure you have heard on many occasion, ordinary as well as official Southern Sudanese people saying that Britain, as the former colonial power, has a duty to do more to try and find a solution. I have to agree with them. For too long Britain has cowered away from its responsibilities, (though it seems to think it has every right to exert them fully in Zimbabwe, for example) and has made excuses to justify not becoming involved.

I hope that you and your committee are striving to exert pressure on the British government to stand up to its responsibilities and help the children of Sudan. The present stage of civil war is approaching its twentieth year. Much more effort needs to be made to prevent it reaching that anniversary.

I enclose a copy of my recent newsletter and a leaflet about the Shading Tree (Tim Atiep) and look forward to hearing from you.