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Save Yar and Ajak
Campaign to end child abductions in South Sudan
University of Minnesota Human Rights Program
University of Minnesota Amnesty International Legal Support Network
United Nations Student Association of the University of Minnesota
Minnesota students fly to D.C. to call for action against wave of child abductions
in Sudan
Trip made possible with donated frequent-flyer miles
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2007 – A group of University of Minnesota students
arrived in Washington, D.C. , on Wednesday to press for the release of a classmate's
nieces who were abducted in Sudan. The students will attempt to meet with South
Sudan President Salva Kiir during his trip to Washington and ask Kiir to negotiate
with the Murle militia that is held responsible for the abduction of Yar and
Ajak Mading and an estimated 450 other children in the last two years.
Local officials in South Sudan have done nothing to find or free the girls,
who are 18 months old and 3 years old, since the abduction October 3 in which
their great-grandmother was fatally shot and their grandmother wounded. Their
uncle, Gabriel Solomon, 27, of St. Paul, Minn., and three fellow graduate students
from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis will attempt to meet with Kiir
in between his visits with Bush administration officials.
The group is also raising awareness on Capitol Hill of how South Sudan's failure
to stop a wave of child abductions is threatening a return to vigilantism. The
students are scheduled to meet Thursday with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.,
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and aides
to U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.
Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines provided airfare for the students' mission
on a charitable basis by using frequent-flyer miles donated by other passengers.
The U. of M. students have gathered more than 1,000 signatures and mailed more
than 600 postcards to Kiir calling for peaceful negotiations for the release
of the nieces and all abducted children.
"I'd never thought of coming forward this much," Solomon said at
a press conference Tuesday at the U. of M. Law School. "I was surprised
at the response that I received from my classmates. I wasn't expecting that
much support."
The U. of M.'s Human Rights Program and Institute for Global Studies provided
assistance for the trip, as did the Center for Victims of Torture. Governmental
relations firm McElligott Associates is advising the group in Washington on
a pro bono basis.
Abductions have become so frequent in the last two months in South Sudan's
Jonglei state that eight village schools were temporarily closed for fear that
children would be abducted walking to and from school, the Gurtong Peace Project
reported. [1] In the last two years, more than 450 children have reportedly
been abducted by the Murle ("MUR-lay") militia, but the community
is so heavily armed and remote that officials have been unable to stop them.
[2] The Murle, who suffer from low fertility rates, seize children from neighboring
communities to raise as their own to become spouses for their biological children.
Students accompanying Solomon are law student Amanda Lyons, president of the
U. of M Amnesty International Legal Support Network; and public policy students
Robyn Skrebes, secretary of the Public Affairs Student Association, and James
E. Collins, a former State Department employee.
The postcards sent to the South Sudan government bear a photo of Yar Mading
and a quotation by former UNICEF Director Carol Bellamy. At the press conference,
Lyons read the quotation aloud: "'When the lives and rights of children
are at stake, there must be no silent wit |
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