More than 100 Episcopalians marched on the Embassy of the Sudan in Washington, D.C., May 26 to protest the Sudanese government's recent seizure of the headquarters of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) and its continued involvement in human-rights abuses in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
Last week, armed police of the Government of Sudan entered the Guesthouse of the ECS in Khartoum--which also serves the Church's Provincial Office--and ordered the eviction of Church personnel and property from the building. The police were acting on a court-issued order in which the judge authorized the use of force to ensure eviction. Church staff had no choice but to vacate the building peacefully while trying to follow the legal process. They have since taken refuge in the Cathedral in Khartoum.
'Worst humanitarian disaster'
The embassy demonstration addressed that situation as well as the continued humanitarian crisis in Darfur where, for the past 15 months, government-sponsored militias have carried out a systematic pattern of ethic cleansing against its people. The U.N. has described the situation in Darfur as the worst humanitarian disaster in the world today.
Assistant Bishop of Virginia Francis Campbell Gray led this week's march at the Sudanese embassy, urging officials of the Government of Sudan to restore the ECS property and cease involvement in the atrocities in Darfur. Marchers prayed, sang hymns, and listened to speeches from Gray and others who addressed the rally. Among those marching were Episcopalians from Northern Virginia and the Washington metro area, U.S. congressional staffers, representatives of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and staff members of the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations.
"I am deeply gratified for the strong support and the spirit of passion and compassion exhibited by the protestors," said Gray. "I believe we were heard and that our presence will make a difference to our Sudanese sisters and brothers. Their courage and fortitude in the midst of danger and oppression inspires us."
The sentiments of the marchers echoed those of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, who last week addressed the events in Sudan in a statement delivered to the U.S. State Department, members of Congress, and the Government of Sudan. "These events only add to the historic tragedy of Sudan, where--throughout 20 years of civil conflict--the ruling power relentlessly has carried out acts of violence against its own people," Griswold wrote.
At the conclusion of this week's demonstration, Sudanese embassy officials emerged and distributed a statement denying that the seizure of ECS property was motivated by religion or politics. According to the statement, the property had been legally seized as the result of a court-ordered eviction arising from an ownership dispute. Gray--who met with embassy officials following distribution of the statement--disputed the Sudanese government's characterization of the events. "I believe that there are serious discrepancies in the printed statement which was handed out by the Sudan embassy," said Gray. "These discrepancies are being investigated."
The property-seizure by the Sudanese government is the latest in a long pattern of its aggression toward the ECS and interference with Church properties. This has included the confiscation of the old Khartoum Cathedral, attempts to confiscate the headquarters of the Diocese of Khartoum in Omduran, and efforts to demolish Church-run schools in the Diocese of Renk.
One step closer
Last week's events have the tragic irony of coming at a time when the peace process in Sudan--where residents have lived through a 20-year civil conflict that has taken the lives of more than two million people--finally has made progress. On the same day as the march on the Sudanese embassy, the Government of Sudan and Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed three major peace protocols in the Kenyan town of Niavasha, bringing the two sides in the north-south civil conflict one step closer to a comprehensive peace accord. Moreover, just last week, the U.S. State Department removed Sudan from the list of countries not cooperating with the war on terrorism.
"Like the ongoing Government-sponsored ethnic cleansing in Darfur in western Sudan, [the seizure of Church property] serve[s] as a somber reminder that, even at a time when many had hoped and prayed that peace was on the horizon for the Sudan, violence remains a tragic reality," Bishop Griswold wrote last week.
