wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Sudanese Christians expect more freedom after peace

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Note #8813 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05385
July 19, 2005

Sudanese Christians expect more freedom  
      
Church leaders cautiously hopeful that peacetime government will be less
abusive

by Fredrick Nzwili
Ecumenical News International  
      
NAIROBI - Sudanese church leaders have welcomed the introduction of
power-sharing arrangements in the national administration, but some have been
more guarded about the development, which paves the way for a government of
national unity after decades of war.  
       
      "The politicians' move is encouraging," the Rev. Santino Maurino of the
Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Conference told Ecumenical News
International in Nairobi on July 13. "Our country has been at war for a long
time. The people have yearned for peace for many years."  
       
      The civil war between Sudan's mainly Islamic north and Christian and
animist south was Africa's longest-running conflict before a peace deal was
clinched in January. An estimated two million people have been killed and
more than four million displaced.

      In the new era, Christians expect more freedom to worship and to build
additional churches, especially in the north, where the imposition of Sharia
(Islamic) law) had frustrated such efforts.  
       
      "Christian groups in the north have in the past found it difficult to
get places to build churches, schools or health centers. We hope now we will
be able to get such places," said Santino. He said churches in the north hope
tensions that often erupt over the display of crosses will end, as well as
annexation of church property. Santino noted that the government has promised
to compensate churches for past losses.  
       
      On July 10, Christians in Sudan celebrated the swearing in of the Sudan
People's Liberation Movement/Army leader John Garang as first vice president.
This paved the way for the formation of a government of national unity.
Before that, President Omar Bashir signed a new power-sharing constitution
and lifted the state of emergency he imposed in 1999. It will, however,
remain in effect in Darfur and eastern states.	
       
      "Sudan has now entered a new era," an Anglican priest, the Rev. Luzai
Lemi said in All Saints Cathedral in Khartoum, the Associated Press reported.
"The government of lies and oppression ended on the 8th of July."

	However, the Rev. Peter Tibi, the New Sudan Council of Churches'
deputy executive secretary, said in Nairobi that, although the churches are
optimistic that the changes will benefit Christians, they are still wary. "We
want to see what our role is in the transition," Tibi said. "We had not been
invited to events like this." He said the churches felt excluded when the
peace agreement was being implemented.

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