|PIC1|A bishop in Sudan has given a damning indictment of progress for Christians more than four years on from an historic peace agreement which promised the country a fresh start after decades of war.

In a message underlining the need to step up help for displaced Christians in the north of the country, Bishop Daniel Adwok Kur, Auxiliary Bishop of Khartoum, says the national government’s treatment of non-Muslims remains unchanged.

In an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, the bishop said that with the continuing outbreak of conflict in many parts of the south, initiatives to move the refugees back to the south of the country have so far been sporadic.

Bishop Adwok said that, despite conciliatory gestures, the government in Khartoum remained wedded to the spread of Islam and the promotion of one religious and cultural identity.

His comments represent a damning indictment of progress since January 2005 when the Khartoum government and southern-based rebels the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) put a formal end to 20 years of civil war by signing the landmark Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

And with only two years remaining until the all-important referendum on possible independence for the south, as agreed in the CPA, the bishop’s bleak assessment bodes ill for the resolution of political issues left undecided in the 2005 deal – not least land disputes in areas where mineral resources have been discovered.

For Bishop Adwok, who is based in Kosti, 200 miles south of Khartoum, the key issue is that the Khartoum government has not honoured its commitment to address the grievances of non-Muslims in Khartoum.

A commission ‘for the rights of non-Muslims’ was envisaged by the CPA but as yet has not been established.

The bishop said: “The government has always focused on the Islamisation process. I do not see any change on the part of the authorities.”

The bishop highlighted his frustration at efforts to enable the displaced people to return to their original homelands in the south, saying that security problems remained acute.

He bemoaned the lack of adequate infrastructure for displaced people returning to the south.

He said: “It is yet more insecurity that is deterring people from moving down to the south. There are on-going conflicts involving forces linked to the SPLA and the government in Khartoum.

“It gives a picture of a land where people can only exist if they have a gun.”

Stressing the lack of effective infrastructure developed in the war-savaged south, he asked: “What would attract people to leave the displacement camps and settle in a place of acute suffering and without infrastructure?”

Bishop Adwok said that some Khartoum Christians who had left for the south returned north after finding no opportunities for work and a lack of proper housing, roads and other communications.

Bishop Adwok gave the interview in Germany while attending a top-level ACN conference at the charity’s international headquarters in Königstein, at which he gave an assessment of priorities for the Church in the Sudan.

ACN is backing the Khartoum Archdiocese’s Save the Saveable schools projects for up to 15,000 children denied proper education and training.

Bishop Adwok said: “We do not know what we would do without the help of ACN and other donor agencies which over the years stood with the Archdiocese in support of the disadvantaged children.

“The displaced people in the north need schools and hope.

“We would have a sad future if we have no qualified individuals who have had a Christian education and hope to live in an Islamic society, making a positive contribution to the greater good.”