Sudan Refugees

It was with great distress that I read Scott Kraft’s article on the plight of Sudanese refugees arriving in Ethiopia (“Starving Boys Walk for Months to Relief Camps,” Part I, June 3). Kraft correctly points out that some 2 million Sudanese are on the move, caught in a seemingly hopeless struggle against war and famine. Reports of the wanton massacre of thousands of Dinka tribes people regularly reach relief agency executives and the media.

My distress is most acute when I consider the life-saving work once performed in the south by ACROSS (Assn. of Christian Resource Organizations Serving Sudan), Lutheran World Federation, Swedish Free Mission and World Vision. On Feb. 19, all of us were told by the government to cease our work. No official explanation was ever given and we have tried numerous times to receive an answer. The only answer given was that we had accomplished our relief missions, a hollow answer when one considers the magnitude of need that now exists throughout both southern and northern Sudan. For our part, we had to cease a 1,000 mile-long truck caravan that took food through bandit-infested countryside in Uganda and Sudan to the city of Wau. Prior to the arrival of that food, some people in the city were eating dog meat for dinner.

Perhaps a barrage of stories like those from Kraft will hasten a solution to Sudan’s civil conflict, so millions of innocent people can live in peace.

ROBERT A. SEIPLE

President

World Vision

Monrovia