Ajak Birthday Comments: January 14, 2008

Dan introduction:

Thank you all for coming.

For those of you who are already familiar with the abduction of Yar and Ajak Mading, and if you have heard a little about the broader problem of child abduction in South Sudan , then we have some hopeful news to relate today.

For those of you joining us today who are new to this issue, thank you for listening.

I'm sure all of us agree that no parent should live in fear of their children being taken away by armed bandits. And if such a crime were to occur, then no parent should suffer the bitter frustration of a local government that is incapable of doing anything to find the bandits or return the children. Yet that is exactly what has happened in South Sudan in recent years. Our campaign believes that Americans have the power and the responsibility to help South Sudan restore order in the aftermath of their civil war and to deal with the underlying problems that caused this crisis of child abduction.

I will introduce our speakers, starting with the chair of this campaign, Robyn Skrebes. We are honored to have representatives here on behalf of the key members of Minnesota 's delegation to Congress. They will each make brief comments along with Professor Barbara Frey, director of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Program .

But first let us acknowledge those who are not here:

Gabriel Solomon of Saint Paul , a graduate student at the University of Minnesota , is on travel during the winter break from classes. He wished he could be here but since today is his niece Ajak's birthday, he asked us to go on without him. Gabriel sent a statement which will be read by one of his classmates.

Most poignantly, the birthday girl cannot be here today because her family doesn't know where she is. Let me introduce the chair of our student movement, the Save Yar Campaign. Robyn Skrebes is a master's candidate in the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota , where she is also the secretary of the Public Affairs Student Association. Robyn?

Robyn comments:

Hello, and thank you for coming. I'm Robyn Skrebes, chair of the Save Yar Campaign in the University of Minnesota 's Human Rights Program.

Ajak Achiek Mading turns two years old today. She and her three-year-old sister Yar were abducted in South Sudan on October 3, 2007 . Their parents had left them with their grandmother and great-grandmother while they went into town. (POINT TO PHOTOGRAPH) This is a picture of Yar and her grandmother. A group of armed men came to the family compound, called the great-grandmother out, and told her to bring out any children who were inside. She refused; the men shot her dead. They took Yar and Ajak. The grandmother ran to them, shouting; they shot her and left her for dead. She survived and was able to describe the abductors. We can only imagine the horror that the parents felt when they returned to find the great-grandmother dead, the grandmother shot down, and their little girls missing.

That was the first tragedy. It was soon compounded by the inability of the local government to do anything to find the abductors. South Sudan is poor in resources, and local police have no vehicles or communications equipment. The county commissioner told the family there was nothing he could do and that they might be better off getting guns of their own and hunting for the abductors. There is a national army, but dealing with child abduction had not been a priority for them, to date.

This might seem to be a far-away tragedy, and it would have been for us, too. Except that those girls are the nieces of our classmate, Gabriel Kou Solomon. Gabriel is one of the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan. He sought refuge in the United States in 1995 and become a U.S. citizen. Now he attends the University of Minnesota and lives in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul .

As soon as we began to help Gabriel seek action on behalf of his nieces, we discovered that this incident was all too typical in South Sudan . By a conservative estimate, more than 400 children in the last two years have been abducted in three adjacent states in South Sudan – all by the same type of armed group.

Why are they being abducted? Simply put, the dowry for a bride is very expensive, and this area is poor. For these armed groups, they have judged it more cost-effective to steal girls and grow them up to be brides.

Now there is some good news. And for this we need to give thanks to Minnesota 's congressional delegation. Because of the very strong and public support of Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Congressman Keith Ellison, Senator Amy Klobuchar and Senator Norm Coleman, our group was able to meet with the president of South Sudan in November. In that meeting, the president of South Sudan , Salva Kiir, assured us that he would send in his troops to deal with the abducting group.

We have just learned that this military advance did take place in the last two weeks. Their official mission was to disarm the bandits and recover abducted children. The South Sudanese army apparently succeeded in taking control of the county where the abducting gangs were based. We understand that a few of the armed groups gave up their weapons and returned some abducted children from a different area. Thankfully there were no bloody confrontations.

Unfortunately, most of the armed groups simply retreated and went to a different location, taking the abducted children with them.

We are grateful that President Salva Kiir the Government of South Sudan has declared it a priority to recover abducted children. They deserve credit for that.

The armed groups who perpetrate this type of child abduction have all been from the ethnic group the “Murle.” But we should note that other Murle leaders have condemned child abduction, and the prominent Murle leader Sultan Ismail Konyi has actively participated in this current disarmament operation.

Despite these hopeful results, with respect, we renew our request to the government of South Sudan to attempt a nonviolent approach. Rather than chase the armed groups around – or worse, confront them and risk the lives of the abducted children – instead, reach out to them. Work with prominent Murle leaders to connect with the leaders of the armed groups and negotiate a settlement.

Although we cannot excuse child abduction, we should acknowledge that poverty is a contributing factor in these abductions. The United States helped bring an end to the Sudanese civil war. We have committed millions in aid to help South Sudan come out of that dark time into new prosperity. Let's include this problem in that work.

Dan introduces congressional aides:

We have made strong progress since October in raising awareness on the wave of child abduction in southeastern Sudan , and that is in large part because this cause has been strongly and publicly supported by Senator Norm Coleman, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Keith Ellison, and Representative Betty McCollum.

Representing Senator Norm Coleman today is his aide Jacob Olson:

Representing Senator Amy Klobuchar today is her deputy state director, Jake Spano:

Representing Congressman Keith Ellison today is his aide Alison Harris:

Representing Congresswoman McCollum today is her aide Chao Lee:

This campaign has been housed, nurtured, and nourished by the University of Minnesota's Human Rights Program, namely by its Director, Professor Barbara Frey. ….