Rights group calls for government anti-slavery campaign

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for a “proactive government campaign” to stamp out slavery and reunite captives with their families. In a background paper on slavery in the Sudan received by IRIN today, the US human rights group urged the government to set up an effective tracing agency - or permit experienced organisations such as ICRC or UNICEF - to enable families to find their relatives. “Even if the government of Sudan suddenly began to enforce its criminal laws, that would not address the problem of the people - possibly numbering in the thousands - who still live in captivity,” the paper notes. HRW points out that Dinka elders have been working to redeem captives from their Arab militia abductors. Since 1995 these efforts have been augmented by non-Sudanese Christian groups. The background paper, while noting that the families of the abductees “without doubt” welcome the assistance, stresses the wider risks involved. “These concerns argue for an effective Sudanese and international programme to stop abductions and return abductees to their families,” the paper says. Meanwhile, in a statement on Friday, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said that privately-funded, well-intentioned efforts of charitable groups to buy the release of slaves in the Sudan are not an adequate response to a grotesque practice. According to a press briefing by UN spokesman Fred Eckhard, she instead proposed specific steps in any joint effort by the UN and other agencies to help bring an end to the slave trade, including freedom of movement for international verifiers; and full support for retrieval, tracing and reunification programmes.