ARAB MUSLIMS ON SLAUGHTER SPREE OF SOUTH SUDANESE CHRISTIANS
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

KHARTOUM, SUDAN (ANS) -- As news reports on retaliatory killings and violence against South Sudanese Christians in Khartoum surface, armed Arab Muslim gangs continue to roam the streets of the city and suburbs, despite the dawn-to-dusk curfew.

?I am extremely worried about these recent grave developments in Sudan, especially since the Sudanese government is not willing to take immediate and stern action to stop the killings,? said Sabit Alley, a leader in the South Sudanese Community in America and an Associate Representative of the Sudan People?s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), in an SPLA/M news release. ?Members of the South Sudanese Community fear that the world will witness a repeat of the Rwandan Genocide in Khartoum if the killing does not stop.?

According to the news release, the ?racially and religiously motivated attacks? were instigated by ?fanatic Muslim clerics? in retaliation for demonstrations and riots carried out by South Sudanese youth in the capital of Khartoum to protest the weekend death of their leader Dr. John Garang.

Garang was recently sworn in as First Vice President of Sudan, following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Sudanese Islamic Fundamentalist government and the SPLA/M.

Southern Sudanese are concerned, SPLA/M reported, that the government, a perpetrator of the 22-year genocidal war against them, is responsible for the death of Garang, and therefore they are calling for an international investigation of the crash.

Though media reports place the number killed since Saturday at about 130, the SPLA/M news release reported that other accounts from the city and the outskirts of Khartoum, where much of the violence is now occurring, indicate that the number killed may be as high as 400.

According to the news release, eyewitnesses said over 100 dead bodies have been thrown into the River Nile, and many of the homes and churches of Sudanese Christians have been destroyed in the suburbs.

?Despite the government?s call for calm, the killing is escalating,? Alley said in the news release. ?South Sudanese residents in Khartoum report that Muslim religious leaders have declared a jihad (religious holy war), and are mobilizing their followers to carry out revenge killings on Christians living in the city and its suburbs.?

According to the SPLA/M release, members of the South Sudanese Community in the Diaspora are calling on the U.S. and the International Community for intervention to help stop the killing of South Sudanese Christian civilians in Khartoum and its suburbs, preserve the CPA and ensure that peace is established.

And in a recently issued news release, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) extended its condolences to the people of Sudan following Garang?s death.

The news release read in part, ?Dr. Garang was a voice for fair treatment for all of Sudan's marginalized peoples, including most recently the Muslim Africans of Darfur who have been subjected to genocide by the ruling elite in Khartoum.

?In light of the loss of Dr. Garang, the Commission believes more than ever that U.S. leadership is crucial for peace for Sudan. In order to ensure that peace, stability, and reconciliation are achieved in Sudan, the Commission continues to recommend that the U.S. government remains engaged at the highest levels in bringing about a just and lasting peace for all of Sudan.?

To learn more about the USCIRF go to www.uscirf.gov.

Additional information is available about the violence at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4744109.stm  and www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=247248&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/