Ex-captive stresses plight of Sudan’s slaves
http://chrissmith.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Testimony_Ex_slave_Ker_Deng.pdf
By Olivia Hampton (AFP) –
WASHINGTON — A former Sudanese slave blinded by a cruel master pleaded for help Tuesday in throwing the spotlight on the plight of others like him, and to find his missing mother.
Ker Aleu Deng was a victim of the 22-year civil war between Sudan’s northern and southern regions that ended in 2005 after claiming two million lives and displacing four million people.
Taken during the war to the Muslim north from his home in the Christian and animist south by government-backed Arab militias after his father died, Deng was forced to look after goats and pick hibiscus tea leaves for his owner, who he said beat him regularly. His mother was made into the master’s sex slave.
The former master, known as Zakaria Salih, “would take out all his anger on us,” Deng told reporters at the US Congress after being brought to the United States for restorative eyesight surgery.
“I was treated worse than the animals I slept with. Like them, I was property,” he later told lawmakers at a House Foreign Affairs Committee panel hearing on US policy toward Sudan.
“But the animals weren’t beaten every day. I was. Every single day, with a horsewhip… The animals were fed every day. But I wasn’t.”
Salih blinded Deng when he was about 12 years old by hanging the boy upside down from a tree, rubbing chili pepper in his eyes and lighting a fire nearby.
The doctors said it was the equivalent of throwing acid in his eyes, and his corneas were left white and opaque.
Deng, who was fed horse feed and tied to the goats he kept at night in order to keep him from fleeing, said his mother remains enslaved and he has no means to find out where she is.
Now about 18 years old, the soft-spoken boy pleaded for help to end such atrocities.
“I want to see my mother again, in freedom, along with all the others being held in slavery in Sudan,” he said, dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and black tie.
“You are powerful men and women. Please, find some way to help.”
A neighboring imam took Deng in after he was blinded and the boy worked there for about two or three years.
Christian Solidarity International, a Zurich-based charity, brought Deng to the United States in August to get surgery in hopes of restoring his eyesight. But one eye was found to be so badly damaged that there is no hope for repair.
After receiving a donor cornea at Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Deng can now distinguish some shapes and movements though it is likely he will always have limited vision and need a white cane. He is also learning English, Braille and how to play the piano.
Representative Chris Smith, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, expressed outrage that slavery remained a reality in Sudan, which recently saw South Sudan split from the north to form the world’s newest nation.
“All of us need to do more in terms of exposing this horrific behavior on the part of enslavers and combat it. And frankly, we have done too little,” he said.
According to the State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons report, hundreds of children were abducted last year alone during conflicts and cattle raids between rival tribes, and some were later forced into animal herding or domestic servitude.
“Sudan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking,” it added.
The State Department says “thousands” of women and children from Deng’s Dinka tribe were abducted and enslaved like him by members of rival tribes during the civil war.
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Freed Teenage Slave Testifies before Congress
WASHINGTON and AWEIL, South Sudan, Oct. 4, 2011 /NEWS.GNOM.ES/ — Ker Aleu Deng, a blind former slave liberated by Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and its partners, testified today before Congress on the persistence of slavery in Sudan.
Addressing the members of the House Subcommittee for Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, Ker said, “From a time I can’t remember until very recently, I slept with cattle and goats. … Like them, I was property. But the animals weren’t beaten every day. I was.” Ker was frequently tortured and eventually blinded by his master. Ker, now a teenager, was released from slavery last year, but his mother, a victim of extreme violence, remained behind.
Ker begged the American people and government to find a way to free his mother and the other Southern Sudanese who remain in captivity in the north. ”You are powerful men and women,” he said. “Please, find some way to help.”
In addition to Ker’s testimony, the subcommittee was presented with a video recording of the late Dr. John Garang, who subsequently became First Vice President of Sudan, and president of the autonomous region of South Sudan, calling for an international campaign and a domestic Sudanese conference for the eradication of slavery in Sudan.
Testimony was also presented by Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News, who has participated in the documentation of freed Sudanese slaves, and who has enabled Ker to have eye surgery in the United States. She stated, “Every time I look into young Ker’s damaged, unresponsive eyes, I sense the unspeakable suffering endured by him, and his mother, and countless thousands of others still being held.”
According to a leading member of the Sudanese Government’s now-defunct Committee for the Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children, James Agueir Alic, approximately 35,000 Southern Sudanese remain enslaved in the North.
Last week, 412 men, women and children were liberated from slavery in north Sudan, and repatriated to their homeland, South Sudan. CSI, which facilitated their liberation, was present to document their experiences, and provide them with food and other supplies.
The liberated slaves were either captured by Sudanese government militias, or were the offspring of captured female slaves. The overwhelming majority of them were subjected to horrific abuses, including regular beatings, rape, genital mutilation, death threats, forced labor, racial insults and forced conversion to Islam.
Subcommittee Chairman Congressman Chris Smith called on the U.S. government to vigorously combat slavery in Sudan – an internationally recognized crime against humanity. He also declared, “Christian Solidarity International’s lifesaving work in slave redemption often goes unrecognized. I would like to publicly thank CSI for their work.”
The CEO of CSI-USA, Dr. John Eibner, calls on the U.S. government to make the eradication of slavery in Sudan a policy priority. He furthermore warns that, “Slavery in Sudan is a symptom of an underlying racism and religious bigotry that, if not addressed, could lead to an unraveling of North-South peace and bring yet more violence and death to that troubled region.”
CONTACT: Joel Veldkamp, 515-421-7258, joel@csi-usa.org
SOURCE Christian Solidarity International (CSI)
http://news.gnom.es/pr/csi-facilitates-liberation-of-412-sudanese-slaves
Freed Sudanese Slave Testifies to US Congressional Panel
Cindy Saine | Capitol Hill
Photo: AFP
US Rep. Christopher Smith (l) greets Ker Deng, a young man who in recent years was freed from slavery in Sudan during which he was blinded, October 4, 2011
A U.S. congressional panel is highlighting the plight of an untold number of Southern Sudanese people still being held as slaves in northern Sudan after being kidnapped in their southern villages by Arab militiamen. 18-year-old Ker Deng, who was blinded by his slavemaster while in bondage in Sudan, is now free and told his powerful story on Capitol Hill.
Republican Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey introduced a very special guest at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
“Ker Deng has suffered unspeakable treatment at the hands of people from the Republic of Sudan who kidnapped him and his mother and held them in slavery until very recently,” said Smith.
Ker Deng shared his story with reporters and then later at a House hearing on the victims of slavery in Sudan.
He said that when he was a toddler, Arab raiders from the north came and invaded his village, burning their huts, killing the men and tieing the women and children to camels and dragging them to a life of slavery in the north. His slave master was named Zacharia. Ker’s mother was forced to be a concubine and to work in the garden, and Ker was forced to gather red hibiscus leaves for tea and to tend to the goats. Ker spoke with the help of an interpreter.
“So at night, Zacharia would tie me to the goat so that I would not leave the room where the goats are,” said Ker Deng.
Ker said he was treated worse than the animals he tended. He was beaten every single day, and was fed grain just like the horses. But he said the worst thing that his slave master did was, in a fit of rage, he tied Ker upside down to a tree and rubbed hot chili peppers in his eyes, blinding him. After that, he was no use to Zacharias any more, and a neighbor took him in, before he was recently brought to the United States. Ker said his mother is still enslaved, like many others.
“And my mother is still in that horrible situation,” he said. “I really have no clue where she is right now.”
Several groups and individuals are now helping Ker. Dr. Julia Haller of the Wills Eye Center in Philadelphia is one of the surgeons who operated on him to try to help restore at least some of the vision in his right eye – the left eye has been permanently damaged.
“Virtually every part of the eye was impacted by his injuries,” said Dr. Haller. “So all of the different tissues that make up the complicated organ that gives us our sight were involved.”
It will take several months to know how much vision Ker will regain. The organization LIghthouse International is working with Ker to teach him to perform ordinary daily tasks in a city, and to teach him English. Mark Ackerman, President and CEO of LIghthouse International says Ker also has other talents.
“And Ker, as it turns out, has a natural music ability,” said Ackerman. “He is taking piano lessons, drum lessons, a number of other things – you can see him smiling, this is what he enjoys the most!”
The United Nations estimated in 2000 that there were as many as 15,000 southern Sudanese held in bondage in northern Sudan after being abducted in raids on southern villages. No one is sure how many southern Sudanese are still being held, but more than 100,000 have been liberated by groups such as Christian Solidarity International.
Congressman Smith called on the U.S. government and other countries to speak out so that the plight of those still being held as slaves in northern Sudan is not forgotten. And Ker Deng asked members of Congress to help his mother and all of the others still in bondage, saying “you are powerful men and women, please find a way to help.”
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Freed-Sudanese-Slave-Testifies-to-US-Congressional-Panel-131110293.html
 Dr. Julia Haller speaks to reporters as Ker Deng listens during a press conference on Capitol Hill (© 2009 AFP) |
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By: Olivia Hampton
04/10/2011 21:03 GMT
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Ex-captive stresses plight of Sudan’s slaves
A former Sudanese slave blinded by a cruel master pleaded for help Tuesday in throwing the…
A former Sudanese slave blinded by a cruel master pleaded for help Tuesday in throwing the spotlight on the plight of others like him, and to find his missing mother.
Ker Aleu Deng was a victim of the 22-year civil war between Sudan’s northern and southern regions that ended in 2005 after claiming two million lives and displacing four million people.
Taken during the war to the Muslim north from his home in the Christian and animist south by government-backed Arab militias after his father died, Deng was forced to look after goats and pick hibiscus tea leaves for his owner, who he said beat him regularly. His mother was made into the master’s sex slave.
The former master, known as Zakaria Salih, “would take out all his anger on us,” Deng told reporters at the US Congress after being brought to the United States for restorative eyesight surgery.
“I was treated worse than the animals I slept with. Like them, I was property,” he later told lawmakers at a House Foreign Affairs Committee panel hearing on US policy toward Sudan.
“But the animals weren’t beaten every day. I was. Every single day, with a horsewhip… The animals were fed every day. But I wasn’t.”
Salih blinded Deng when he was about 12 years old by hanging the boy upside down from a tree, rubbing chili pepper in his eyes and lighting a fire nearby.
The doctors said it was the equivalent of throwing acid in his eyes, and his corneas were left white and opaque.
Deng, who was fed horse feed and tied to the goats he kept at night in order to keep him from fleeing, said his mother remains enslaved and he has no means to find out where she is.
Now about 18 years old, the soft-spoken boy pleaded for help to end such atrocities.
“I want to see my mother again, in freedom, along with all the others being held in slavery in Sudan,” he said, dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and black tie.
“You are powerful men and women. Please, find some way to help.”
A neighboring imam took Deng in after he was blinded and the boy worked there for about two or three years.
Christian Solidarity International, a Zurich-based charity, brought Deng to the United States in August to get surgery in hopes of restoring his eyesight. But one eye was found to be so badly damaged that there is no hope for repair.
After receiving a donor cornea at Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Deng can now distinguish some shapes and movements though it is likely he will always have limited vision and need a white cane. He is also learning English, Braille and how to play the piano.
Representative Chris Smith, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, expressed outrage that slavery remained a reality in Sudan, which recently saw South Sudan split from the north to form the world’s newest nation.
“All of us need to do more in terms of exposing this horrific behavior on the part of enslavers and combat it. And frankly, we have done too little,” he said.
According to the State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons report, hundreds of children were abducted last year alone during conflicts and cattle raids between rival tribes, and some were later forced into animal herding or domestic servitude.
“Sudan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking,” it added.
The State Department says “thousands” of women and children from Deng’s Dinka tribe were abducted and enslaved like him by members of rival tribes during the civil war.
© 2011 AFP
http://www.starafrica.com/en/news/detail-news/view/ex-captive-stresses-plight-of-sudans-sl-193978.html
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