H.G. Gabriel Zubeir Wako
Archbishop of Khartoum  
 

…..The Archdiocese of Khartoum is host to the over two and a half million displaced persons who have taken refuge there because of the war, hunger and lack of essential services in the South, the West, and the East of the Sudan. We estimate that of the nearly five million Christian in the Sudan (of whom about three and a half million are Catholics), over a million Catholics now inhabit the Archdiocese of Khartoum.

Despite this big number, we the Christians of the Sudan feel we have been forgotten by the rest of the Christian World, or at least, that our problem has not been fully understood by most of the outside world. Yet this is a group of Christians that has come to recognize and to accept its suffering and the displacement of its people as a mission, an act of Providence. 

The Church in the Sudan is neither anti-Islam or anti-government….It is a Church that consistently witnesses to unity among the Sudanese people, to solidarity, Christian love and reconciliation. Our quest is peace for our people, justice and equality for all, respect for God-given dignity of every human being and for the rights accruing to it. Since the majority of the Christians in the Sudan are of African Stock, mainly from the South and the West of the country, their cry for respect often takes the form of defence of their own cultures, languages, lives, religion and territory which has now become a battle ground. Unfortunately anyone who upholds these values publicly is easily branded as a rebel, simply because the most conspicuous object to point accusing fingers to happens to be the Government itself, and the pointers usually belong to the tribes that have resorted to armed struggled against oppression, and the forceful denial of basic rights…..

The official organs of Government in the Sudan vigorously deny the existence of any form of religious persecution or discrimination. To back the vigorous denial instances of tolerance, equality, and peaceful coexistence are cited : e.g.
- that Christians are admitted to high Government posts;
- that Christians are totally free to practice their faith;
- that according to the Constitution equality is guaranteed for all on the basis of citizenship; that the basic human freedoms are respected and protected….…
- that Christians are not submitted to Islamic laws, (but, according to the law only in the South, and this exception is not always applied).
- that a federal system guarantees participation of all citizens to the government of the country

We hear many things like these, but the reality is different. 
- our federal system is very centralized 
- Christians have not been granted permits to build Churches since the sixties. We have the Church of Kenana Sugar factory whose construction has been suspended for six years despite the fact the constructions were began with all the necessary permits. 
- Land cannot be registered in the name of Churches. Since 1995 there has been a systematic demolition of Christian Schools and Prayer Centers under the pretext that they fell where the Town Planners intended to build roads, or that they have been illegally erected on unplanned land. (most land in Sudan is unplanned V.S) Strange enough all news roads pass where our Centers are (at least 25 have been demolished in this way). The Churches have never been compensated for the demolished structures, neither have they been given any land replacement.
- Another very disturbing factor is the Government’s consistent use of armed police security men and soldiers to harass the Church : - I was arrested by a contingent of a least fifteen armed men who got into my house climbing over the fence; Fr Hilary was arrested by about ten armed men ; Fr. Gilles was deported accompanied by armed men; the Catholic Club was confiscated by two lorry full of armed men; the same method of intimidation is used now in regards to ours schools.
- Six days ago nine armed men from the Security Council came to our Episcopal conference secretariat general at 9 pm. They bursted in the gate and went directly to the communication office. These people took away the computer and the server we received from Rome; we were to use it to link all Sudan Dioceses by E-Mail.
The Government complains that of all the Churches, the Catholic Church is the most stubborn and non-cooperative Church. By cooperation it means the Catholic Church should support  all Government policies some of which according to us are unacceptable; that it should stop sending negative reports about the Government - (in fact our means of communication are too poor to warrant such an accusation, especially when we ourselves hear of these reports from the international media); and that we should not speak against Government policies in our Pastoral Letters.

The tension between the political system and the Christians is not a new phenomenon. The present Government has however become more explicit in that it intends the Sudan to become 100% Arab and Muslim, despite the declarations in the Constitution. Since independence, the direction was always Arabisation and Islamisation. 
- The problem however is not only religion, but also the system of Government with its suppression of basic human rights and freedoms: repressive methods, including imprisonment incommunicado, summary executions, torture in detention, imprisonment without trial; security system of intimidation and organized to act above the law; misinformation on the media, with the consequent suppression of the freedom of expression and opinion (though there are signs of improvement in this area which sometimes is belied by the suppression of news papers and the arrest of outspoken journalists).- Other these aspects it is not only the Christian and the non-Arabs that suffer but the whole population of those who do not think and act the way the Government wants them to, and this includes some Muslim groups.

We must not confuse the political created by Government with the attitude of the ordinary Muslim. In Sudan, Muslim live and work side by side with Christians. It can be said with some truth that tolerance and mutual respect is part and parcel of the Sudanese culture as a whole.

The Church in the Archdiocese however struggles to continue its mission.
All the year round we 4,000 to 5,000 adult Catechumens under formation, with a corresponding number being Baptized every Easter. – In these last years many of the laity have become truly involved in the life of the Church. One of the promising areas of involvement is the Justice and Peace Committees that have become very effective in creating awareness in the faithful especially on issues of human dignity and rights, and in the effort to promote non-violent resistance to unjust system and treatment.

Our greatest desire is to see an end to the present war. Somehow the war becomes an excuse for all types of problems. We however feel that all parties to the war need to be pressured into considering carefully the irreparable harm this war is doing to the country and to the spirit of the people.