afrecs@afrecs.org

American Friends of Sudan who care about the future peace of this country should contact their representatives about steps needed to ensure that the referendum determining the future of Sudan is carried out in a fair and secure manner.

Members of Congress will recess on or about August 9th and be in their home districts/states for a brief time. Please raise with them the following issues, which need to be addressed actively by the U.S. Government in the 150 days remaining before the January 9th referendum occurs.

The U.S. played a key role in brokering the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which sets forth the provisions for Sudan's future. Ask representatives to make known their concern that the USG, as a guarantor of the peace agreement, hold the parties to the agreement accountable for its faithful implementation. The January 2011 referendum is a key element of that agreement. The following actions are required if the referendum is to have a peaceful and just outcome:

-- Ensure that all eligible Sudanese, including those outside Sudan (overseas Sudanese) and internally displaced within Sudan, have access to safe  polling locations in order to participate in the referendum,

-- Ensure that consultations impacting the regions of  South Kordofan and Blue Nile State take place openly and fairly and that the wishes of residents of these states be respected,

-- Take steps to ensure peace and stability in the country and to actively assist the development and stability of South Sudan in the event that secession becomes the choice of South Sudanese,

-- Provide for the fair and just treatment of all religious groups, particularly in regions where their presence is that of a religious minority.

Contact information:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

You may be able to catch your representatives in their home offices during the break.

Advocacy on behalf of the implementation of the CPA and referendum is all the more important in the wake of this week's political news. Al-Jazeera English has a story on the likely contention in the Abyei region as border issues and the referendum continue to dominate events in Sudan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67s8zY2IbcE.

The specifics on Abyei reflect what seems to be the NCP?s emerging position: The border disputes between northern and southern Sudan can't be resolved before the January 9, 2011, referendum date, and that resolution of borders has to occur before the referendum: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10806490

At the same time, the government in Khartoum seems to have undertaken a new campaign for unity: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Egypt-to-Mediate-Sudan-Unity-Talks--99734199.html.

And, to underline the need for unity, Second Vice President Ali Osman Taha spoke to an NCP youth gathering in Khartoum about the disastrous consequences of a Southern vote to secede: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article35827

Advocacy will get a boost from the church in October:

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, has extended an invitation to Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul, the primate of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, to come to the United States from October 9th to 23rd, along with other Sudanese and African church leaders, to call the attention of the Church and, most particularly, the U.S. Government to the urgent need to support a peaceful conclusion to the January 2011 referendum. AFRECS, in close collaboration with the Office of the Presiding Bishop, will work with U.S. church partners to carry out this major initiative to give prominence to the need for a more robust U.S. policy in holding partners to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement accountable for its faithful implementation as well as the carrying out the referendum in a peaceful and fair manner.

TEACH:

In a webcast Wednesday, July 28th, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori spoke about The Episcopal Church's concerns for and involvement with Sudan and ECS. The whole webcast is well worth watching, but the Sudan part starts at about 25:50 into the 35-minute webcast: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/live/cwc/

PRAY:

Please join the Salisbury-Sudan Link in its prayers for August: http://www.salisburyanglican.org.uk/new/showpage.asp?page=435

Pray for the GoSS Ministry of Agriculture, whose Minister, Samson Kwaje, died Sunday, August 1, and for the repose of Samson?s soul: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article35825