Archbishop condemns 'ethnic cleansing' in Southern Kordofan

From ENS-

Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Episcopal Church of Sudan has condemned what he calls a "policy of ethnic cleansing" by the northern government in the border state of Southern Kordofan, where more than 53,000 people have fled the violence and bombardment of civilian settlements since June 5.

Deng said in his June 14 statement that "the most worrying aspect of this conflict" is that fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces from the north and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army from the south "has now transformed into what can only be described as a deliberate strategy to rid Kadugli of its indigenous African and Christian population."

He noted that it is not the first time a policy of ethnic cleansing has been applied in Sudan, referring to Darfur, a remote region of western Sudan where government-backed militias have for the past eight years attacked and killed tens of thousands of civilians.

At the opening of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church's Executive Council meeting in Baltimore on June 15, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori called on members to keep the church in Sudan in their prayers.

"The church is being specifically targeted," she said. "Pastors and priests have been captured and tortured. Buildings that the church owns have been destroyed. It is a very terrible situation."

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_128691_ENG_HTM.htm