US Minnesotans call for talks to free abducted South Sudan girl

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota students and officials gathered Monday to commemorate the second birthday of a girl who is still missing more than three months after she and her sister were abducted in South Sudan. The group praised the Government of South Sudan for placing a priority on recovering an estimated 400 abducted children with a military operation launched two weeks ago. But amid reports that the abducting bandits have largely retreated, taking the children with them, the Minnesota group urged South Sudan officials to negotiate for their release.

“We are grateful that President Salva Kiir and the Government of South Sudan have declared it a priority to recover abducted children. They deserve credit for that,” said Robyn Skrebes of St. Paul, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota and chair of the student-led campaign against child abduction in South Sudan. “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.”

Following the speeches, Skrebes symbolically blew out candles on a birthday cake that bore the message, “Happy Birthday, Ajak: Not Forgotten.” (Download photos at www.save-yar.org/photos )

Ajak Achiek Mading and her 3-year-old sister Yar are the nieces of Gabriel Kou Solomon, a St. Paul resident and graduate student at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus. The girls were abducted Oct. 3, 2007, in Solomon’s native Sudan; their great-grandmother was killed and their grandmother injured in the abduction. Solomon’s classmates founded the Save Yar Campaign, later adopted by the U. of M. Human Rights Program. Groups of bandits are held responsible for abducting more than 400 young children from three states in South Sudan in the last two years alone because of their value as future brides, but until recently the crimes were overshadowed by other security problems in Sudan, which is still recovering from a long civil war.

Aides to U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum of St. Paul, and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis spoke at the event, praising South Sudan’s positive steps to end child abduction, encouraging nonviolent steps, and offering the United States’ support. “Congressman Ellison is standing behind the Save Yar Campaign and its efforts to end child abduction in Sudan. He has contacted the Sudan Programs Group at the U.S. Department of State to express his deep concern for Yar and Ajak, asking that all possible efforts be used so they may be found and safely reunited with their family without delay,” said Alison Harris, community representative for Ellison. “Congressman Ellison strongly believes that the ongoing human trafficking and child abduction issues in Sudan and other parts of the world can no longer be tolerated or ignored.”

All four members of Congress deserve credit for influencing the South Sudan government to prioritize ending child abduction, said Daniel Lynx Bernard, coordinator of the Save Yar Campaign. South Sudan President Kiir agreed to meet with the student group in Washington, D.C., in November only after urging from the Minnesota delegation.

The U. of M. campaign also praised the South Sudanese official Sultan Ismail Konyi for supporting the government’s effort to disarm the abducting groups. Konyi is of the same ethnicity, Murle, as the armed groups held responsible for the wave of abductions, but he and other Murle leaders have denounced child abduction. Innocent Murle were injured and killed in December during retaliations over the abductions. The university group appealed to Sultan Konyi to work with local Murle leaders to locate Yar, Ajak, and other young children who have been violently abducted, and to negotiate for their peaceful release.

Multiple reports from South Sudan indicate that the South Sudan military (the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army or SPLA) advanced into the stronghold of the armed Murle groups, Pibor County, two weeks ago. According to a reporter for the Sudan Tribune web site, some of the groups voluntarily released 73 children of Anuak and Nuer ethnicity (Yar and Ajak are ethnic Dinka), and the SPLA’s goal is to recover all abducted children in February. But multiple reports indicate that most of the armed groups retreated to other remote locations in South Sudan or across the border into Ethiopia.

The student movement and the response of members of Congress demonstrate that Minnesotans are prepared to speak out for the protection of human rights in far-away places, said Dr. Barbara Frey, director of the U. of M. Human Rights Program. “Minnesota is the human rights state,” Frey said.

Also attending Monday’s event were Minnesota state Rep. Erin Murphy of St. Paul; state Senator Mee Moua of St. Paul; Catherine Ryan, aide to state Sen. Sandy Pappas of St. Paul; Nathan Hansen, aide to state Sen. Dan Sparks of Austin; and Jill Anderson of Calvary Baptist Church in Roseville.

For more information on this case and child abduction, see www.save-yar.org.