Sudan enters a new era

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For the first time in 20 years, Southern Sudan stands on the threshold of peace. The guns are silent. Slave raiding is suspended. Humanitarian aid is flowing. Plans for reconstruction are on the drawing board. Secretary of State Colin Powell expects a comprehensive peace agreement before the end of the year.

This is a ray of hope in a long, dark night of despair: More than 2 million have perished; more than 4 million have been displaced; and tens of thousands of women and children have been enslaved in Khartoum's declared jihad against the non-Muslims of Southern Sudan.

The current prospect of peace arose out of the deft diplomacy of the Bush administration. Two years ago, President Bush responded to a growing multiracial, multireligious, left-right coalition urging American diplomatic involvement to stop the slaughter and enslavement. He appointed former Sen. John Danforth as his special envoy, and has not allowed his attention to be diverted by September 11 or the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Success is within reach. The United States has already pressured and cajoled the belligerents -- the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (PLA)-- into accepting a settlement based on sound principles: autonomous, Shariah-free self-government for Southern Sudan; and a referendum on independence for Southern Sudan at the end of a six-year interim period.

There are still, however, several unresolved items on the negotiators' agenda that could torpedo the peace process. These are the questions of power and wealth sharing during the interim period, and the status of several disputed areas adjacent to Southern Sudan. Sudan's President Gen. Omar hassan al-Bashir, and the leader of the SPLA, Col. John Garang, have expressed confidence that these outstanding matters can soon be resolved.

Another crucial issue is taboo at the peace talks, and appears not to be on the agenda. It is slavery -- an internationally recognized "crime against humanity." Failure to address it may end any hope of achieving real peace.

One of the conditions for peace that Mr. Danforth enunciated at the start of his diplomatic mission was that slavery must be eradicated. In 2002, the State Department established an Eminent Persons Group to investigate reports of slavery. This U.S.-led international team confirmed that the Sudanese government has long used troops to enslave black African women and children. Once in captivity, slaves are subjected to "acculturation to the dominant [Arab/Muslim] culture in the north" -- (i.e., Islamization and Arabization.)

The day-to-day treatment of slaves in Sudan is in many ways reminiscent of antebellum slavery in the United States. Rape, murder, beatings, forced labor, racial insults, and the separation of husbands from wives and children from parents, are integral components of the Sudanese variant of this evil institution. In addition, Sudanese masters routinely subject females to ritual genital mutilation. Three hundred and forty three out of 1,025 recently freed female slaves over the age of 11 interviewed by CSI researchers reported having been subjected to this grisly rite.

In his newly released and widely acclaimed autobiography, "Escape from Slavery," former Sudanese slave Francis Bok recounts how he was brutally beaten and threatened with death by his master for trying to run away to freedom. Mr. Bok had seen slaves whose limbs were severed for attempting escape. Undeterred, Mr. Bok persisted and escaped to freedom. But he left behind many who lacked his courage, craft or luck.