Finding themselves (The Lost Boys of Sudan - Refugees from Islamic Slavers and Killers: my title)

As young boys under the age of 10, they trekked almost 1,000 miles from Sudan to Ethiopia, back to Sudan and into a refugee camp in Kenya.

They saw other boys fall victim to lions and crocodiles, drown in rivers, die from starvation and disease and killed by soldiers.

Three of the "lost boys of Sudan" moved to Hendersonville from Atlanta a few weeks ago with their sponsor, Tricia Beall, owner of Studio B.

Laat "Abraham" Deng, Martin Deng and Victor Deng are three of the about 17,000 boys who set out in 1989 on a four-year trek to escape the civil war raging in Sudan.

After moving to Atlanta in 1999 from a refugee camp in Kenya, the cultural shock was tremendous.

They had grown up in a world of grasslands and cattle and had survived for years in dangerous situations. They were fearful of making mistakes or getting into trouble. They faced difficulties involving education, work, money, culture and prejudice.

The three quiet, tall and proud young men had lived in mud huts with no indoor plumbing or electricity and cooked over an open fire. They had to learn how to use a flush toilet, how to take a shower. They had never flown before and had never even seen mirrors. In their Dinka culture, cattle is the currency of life. It is a status symbol, used as a bride price and in barter. Milk is considered the best food.

Civil war

Sudan is Africa's largest nation, about the size of the United States east of the Mississippi River. The northern part of the nation consists mostly of Arabic-speaking, Islamic people. Black Africans from various ethnic groups live in the southern section of the country, where traditional African religions and Christianity prevail.

In 1989 Omar al-Bashir, an army officer, seized power in a coup. Government forces from the north and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army and other groups in the south are still fighting today.

An estimated 2 million people in the south of Sudan have died and 4 million have been driven from their homes by government forces from the north, according to numerous humanitarian agencies, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department.

Government forces torch villages in the south, loot food supplies and property, rape and murder and enslave thousands of women and children, according to U.N. and U.S. reports.

Dangerous journey

Hendersonville's new residents are each from a different village and though they share the same surname, are not related.

When their villages were attacked, Laat, Martin and Victor were away from their homes herding cattle.

"When you are a boy you have to look after the cattle," Laat said.

Jobs among the Dinka are divided by age and gender. The youngest boys herd the goats, the oldest herd the cows and the boys from about 7 to 10 herd the calves.

"That's how I was separated from my brother," Victor said. "I was tending the baby cows. I saw a cloud of smoke. The whole village was set on fire. I slept in the bush for one and a half days and then found other people."

"The sound of bullets and the sound of drums can tell you what's going on," Martin said.

Each boy began walking the long path into Ethiopia.

The government forces "came from the west side, so we run to where the sun is coming," Laat said.

The U.N. had set up camps in Ethiopia for the refugees fleeing Sudan. In 1991, there was a change of government in Ethiopia. The new Ethiopian government bombed the refugee camp and ordered soldiers to herd the refugees out of the country.

The boys crossed the Gilo River, which was swollen by rain, back into Sudan.

"They started shooting at us," Victor said. "Thousands of us died in that river. People can't swim and they were shooting at us."

"I was hugging plastic with a bag inside as a float," said Martin, who can't swim.

All the boys said they saw others dragged beneath the water by crocodiles.

After making it across the river, the boys began walking across Sudan.

"If you fell on the wrong side, lions eat you," Laat said. "You might be tired. Others say, `please, let's go,' so then I go. When you get tired, you had to sit down. If you're too tired, nobody will carry you."

They arrived at a Red Cross camp inside Sudan set up for displaced persons. Arabs from the north then began attacking the Red Cross camps.

"They attacked a town next to us, so we left before they arrived," Laat said.

The boys walked across the border into a refugee camp in Kenya. About 10,000 of the 17,000 boys who began the journey four years previously had survived to make it to the Kenyan camp.

The boys spent nine years in the camp, living in mud huts, drinking dirty water and eating one meal a day of a porridge of lentils and grain. This was still better than before, when the boys had no food or water and were eating red mud.

Schools were organized by aid groups in the camp, where the boys learned to read and write English.

The boys said they still lived in fear because the camp was not protected well by the Kenyan police.

"A small number of police can't protect the camp," Martin said. "People running the camp have no power."

All three boys are Christians. They said their villages were mostly Christian and missionaries helped them in Ethiopia and in Sudan.

"We have to be careful when we come together to worship," Victor said.

The boys were in fear of the Islamic fundamentalist groups of northern Sudan.

Help arrives

In the mid- to late 1990s, church and humanitarian groups in the United States began pushing government officials to help these boys who had grown into young men.

In 1999, the United States began admitting them into the country under the sponsorship of various aid groups in the largest resettlement of its kind in American history, according to the National Council of Churches.

"If there were ever a case of tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, it was these boys," said a church report.

Interviews were held and Laat, Martin and Victor were three of several thousand chosen to enter the United States. They had three days to prepare for a cultural leap of a thousand years.

The boys were given three months to find jobs and housing in Atlanta and pay back the cost of the airline ticket, Beall, their sponsor, said.

"This is so many more thousands might be brought," Martin said.

They don't even know their exact ages. They were assigned arbitrary birthdays when they entered the United States. In the Dinka culture, there is no word for time. Time is structured by seasons, births and deaths. There are no calendars or clocks.

When they first arrived in Atlanta, the adjustment was difficult.

"I feel lonely," Martin said. "I just remain inside and feel isolated. Then it's time to find a job."

"People were eating hot dogs," Victor said. "This might be dog. We don't want to eat dog, so I don't take the food."

For the first three months, they each received $200 a month from the humanitarian agency which sponsored them.

Martin found two jobs. He cleaned offices at George Tech and at the CNN center. He worked up to 15 hours a day.

Laat took a job at a meat processing plant and Victor at a distribution center placing labels on clothes.

"In America we don't understand the slang," Laat said. "What was taught in the camp was British English. But nothing was harder than what I got in Sudan."

All the young men agreed the best thing about America was not having to live in fear. They all want to obtain an education and have begun classes at Blue Ridge Community College in English as a second language and hope to earn their high school equivalency diplomas.

The young men are also trying to find jobs here. One began work at Van Wingerden in Mills River.

Beall is selling clay cows made by the young men at her studio. The young men are amazed anyone would buy their cows.

"When we were small boys, it was something you played with," Laat said.

Hopeful future

Martin said he is interested in anthropology, Victor wants to enter the health field and Laat has dreams of studying political science.

"If God wills, I can go on with my education even through college," said Martin.

"If I succeed, I can go back and help my people," Laat said. "Our country needs many things."

"Our people are really suffering," Victor said. "I want to learn how to treat people, help the old people. With nursing I can know what will kill a disease and what will prevent it."

Recent government agencies report that about 300 Sudanese are dying each day from war-related causes, and human rights abuses are still occurring in the nation, government and humanitarian groups report.

In July, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution specifically geared toward condemning slavery and other human rights violations in Sudan.

Peace talks are ongoing between the various groups fighting within Sudan, but most officials do not hold much hope for a peaceful resolution.

If there was peace in Sudan and conditions improved, all three young men want to return.

"If peace, I might be able to find one of my relatives," said Victor. "My brother was taken as a slave. I found him through someone in Nairobi. He was enslaved in Khartoum."

"I would go back to see if my brother is alive," Laat said.

They all want to return to see if they can find any members of their families. Victor had three brothers and a sister; Martin had four brothers and four sisters; and Laat had two brothers and three sisters.

"It is my country," Martin said. "I would go back and help my people. Many people are still suffering. I will get my education and help."

Giles can be reached at 694-7867 or by e-mail at jennie.giles@hendersonvillenews.com.

On Chinese oil investment in Sudan
Sudan-China, Politics, 3/17/2001

The Sudanese government has denied was has been rumored in news that China
has set a precondition to obtain investment in the area of oil in Sudan for installing
long-range missiles on the coasts of the Red Sea off the Sudanese coasts.

In a statement to the Sudanese daily al-Rai al-Am issued in al-Khartoum on Friday,
Lt. Gen. Muhammad Othman Yassin described these news as groundless lies and
part of the campaigns aiming at distorting the image of Sudan through
concentration on its misuse of its oil wealth.

He added that getting the name of China involved in this case is intended to also
distort its image. He stressed that such news on installing long-range missiles are
but null and void.

Earlier, the London- based al-Zamaan Arabic daily said that China has set a
precondition on Sudan to install long-range missiles on the coasts of the red sea
against its coasts for investing oil in Sudan.

China's deputy premier visits Sudan
Sudan-China, Politics, 11/16/2000

China's deputy prime minister has stressed his country's care to develop
friendship and cooperation relations with Sudan and praised of common relations
existed between Beijing and al-Khartoum.

The Chinese official on Tuesday evening started an official visit to Sudan which
lasts for two days during which he will discuss with the Sudanese President Omar
Hassan al-Bashir and other Sudanese officials bilateral relations and means of
developing them for the interests of the two friendly peoples and countries.

Chinese engineers to Sudan for oil pipeline erection
Sudan-China, Business, 4/16/1998

China said today that it will dispatch by the end of the current month some
2,000 engineers to Sudan to start work on a 1540 km-long oil pipeline. Xinhua
quoted an official at the Chinese "China National Petroleum Corp." company as
saying that China won the contract in 1997.

The official said the pipeline will link oil fields in the southern part of the country
with Port Sudan in the northeast where 15 million tons of oil is transported
annually.

Chinese and Germans to provide Sudan oil pipeline

Oct. 30, 1997

An international consortium developing oilfields in Sudan has signed two contracts worth about $ 300 mm with German and Chinese firms to
provide equipment for a new oil pipeline.

Hassan Mohammad Ali, under-secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Mining, said the Sudan consortium signed one contract with the German
company Mannesmann Handel for 500 km pipeline and another with the China Petroleum Technology Corp. for 1110 km The two companies
would provide equipment for a new pipeline from fields south of the capital to the Red Sea, transporting 250,000 bpd of oil from the Heglig and Unity
fields starting in mid-1999.

The partners in the consortium include the Khartoum government, Malaysian Petronas Dagang Bhd , the China National Petroleum Corp., and a
subsidiary of Canadian Arakis Energy Corp. Arakis has a 25 % interest in the Sudan concession through its participation in the Sudan Project
Consortium comprised of State Petroleum Corporation (25 %), China National Petroleum Company (40 %), Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd
(30 %) and Sudapet Limited (5 %).

Arakis last year had received threats of attacks from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) on its oil operations in Heglig and Unity fields. The
SPLA, who recently started peace talks in Kenya with the Khartoum government, had said that if Arakis succeeded in extracting oil from the fields
the government would succeed in funding the civil war of more than 14 years. The SPLA is the main rebel group fighting the government for greater
autonomy in the south.

The pipeline deal is part of the consortium's oil project worth $ 1 bn in Sudan, which is a small oil producer in need of investment to fully develop its
potential.

Ali said production from the Heglig field was only about 10,000 bpd, and gathering centres, refineries, and the infrastructure for transportation of the
oil were currently insufficient for higher production. "The field can produce much more," said Ali. The fields reserves are estimated at 600 mm
barrels.

The proposed pipeline would connect the fields, located about 800 km (480 miles) south-west of the capital Khartoum, to the Red Sea. It calls for a
1,600 km (960 miles) pipeline with a 28-inch diameter. The bids for the construction of the pipeline were being technically and commercially
assessed and the winner would be announced in December, Ali said.

Sudan's Chinese-built oil refinery goes on line amid export plans

[ Latest News From Sudan At Sudan.Net ]

News Article by AFP posted on July 01, 2000 at 10:42:14: EST (-5 GMT)

Sudan's Chinese-built oil refinery goes on line amid export plans

By Mohamed Ali Saeed

KHARTOUM, June 30 (AFP) - Sudan inaugurated Friday a
Chinese-built petroleum refinery to produce oil derivatives for both
export and local consumption.

Speaking at the televised ceremony, President Omar al-Beshir
thumbed his nose at the United States for pulling its oil companies
out of Sudan and said his government had "accepted the challenges"
of working without them.

The refinery, built by China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) in
19 months, can handle 50,000 barrels per day and is capable of
producing five times Sudan's butane gas needs, three times its
benzine needs and meeting local gasoline requirements.

The government is planning to export butane gas produced at the
refinery 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Khartoum, which was
inaugurated to celebrate the 11th anniversray of Beshir's seizure of
power.

Beshir boasted that the refinery was the latest in a string of
oil industry achievements made after "the American oil companies
pulled out saying that Sudanese oil would be produced only by
themselves."

Sudan began exporting crude oil in August 1999 from the
specially-built Beshair terminal near Port Sudan which is linked to
oilfields in southern Sudan by a 1,610 kilometre (1,000 mile)
pipeline.

"We are now in possession of expertise in field operations,
transport, refining and exportation," Beshir said, adding that
Khartoum was entitled to 80 percent of the refinery's production
under its deal with the Chinese firm.

CNPC is also part of a consortium of oil firms including
Malaysia's Petronas and Talisman of Canada operating in the Higleig
and Unity oilfields in southern Sudan.

Energy and Mining Minister Awad Ahmed Eljaz said he had invited
companies "from all over the world" to invest in Sudan's oil
industry, saying that his ministry is contemplating petrochemical
projects.

Beshir also announced tha the government had cut butane gas
prices by 50 percent, though price cuts on benzine, gasoline and
kerosene were lower than expected at around seven percent.

"We have now got rid of petroleum scarcity and bidden farewell
to the long queues at gas stations," he said. "Trees will no longer
be chopped, as there is no need for firewood or charcoal."

Beshir added that proceeds from Sudanese petroleum sales would
finance electricity, agriculture, road and railway development
projects, as well as education and health services.

He also said a fund would be established to develop areas
affected by the civil war in south and east Sudan and in the Nuba
Mountains, in central Sudan.

The Energy and mining ministry secretary general, Hassan Mohamed
Ali al-Toam, said a power station attached to the refinery would
meet its energy needs and add a surplus 20 megawatts to the national
grid to help ease the country's electricity shortage.

China's 'shell game' in Sudan
Beijing still involved in 'genocidally destructive
oil project'

By Charles Smith
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

Although officials at China's second-largest
state-owned oil company have publicly announced it
is giving up its stake in a controversial oil project in
Sudan, human rights organizations say the move is
just a cynical "shell game" designed to avoid
widespread condemnation and to facilitate access to
the U.S. stock market.

Officials at Sinopec recently admitted that a subsidiary
of the state-owned oil giant, Zhongyuan Petroleum
Exploration Administration, had sold its 80 percent
share in a small exploration block named Sudan 6 to
China National Petroleum for an undisclosed amount.
The announcement came ahead of a $3.5 billion global
stock offer by the Chinese government-owned oil
company scheduled for late October.

"Neither Sinopec or its listed vehicle has investment in
Sudan now," the Sinopec spokesman stated in a
Reuters report Wednesday. "We transferred the oil
exploration and development project in Sudan to
CNPC in June."

Chinese government investment in a pipeline and oil
refinery in Sudan raised protests from human rights
groups before a multi-billion dollar stock offering in
April by the state owned PetroChina oil Corporation.
The protests forced PetroChina to remove the
Sudanese assets from the stock listing.

Human rights groups say Sudan's Islamic government
is using the Chinese oil revenues to fund its war
against Muslim, Christian and animist rebels. The
move by Sinopec to shed its Sudanese assets brought
swift reaction from human rights advocates in the
United States.

"This offering is a new box in the Chinese shell game
of 'where's Sudan?'" stated Dr. Charles Jacobs from
the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group,
responding to the move by the Chinese state owned
oil firm.

"We know China is a partner in Khartoum's oil
development, they just need to make it hard to find
under which cup -- Sinopec, PetroChina or China
National Petroleum -- Sudan is hidden. No one should
be fooled: Investing in any one of these state-owned,
fungible entities, is an investment in Khartoum's
campaign to enslave and slaughter blacks in Sudan."

Last month, WorldNetDaily reported that Exxon
Mobil Corp. and BP Amoco were close to investing
several hundred million dollars into Sinopec.

According to an Aug. 31 Reuters report, Sinopec
sources stated that the state-owned firm planned to
raise more than the $3.1 billion PetroChina raised in
April 2000 in its stock offering. The Western
investment is part of a planned initial public offering
to raise over $3 billion for Beijing.

"The projected Sinopec IPO shows just how much
muscle American Sudan advocates have developed,"
stated Eric Reeves, a human rights advocate working
at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. "It is an
extraordinary accomplishment to be able to determine
the terms on which the Chinese attempt to enter the
American capital markets."

According to Reeves, the move by Sinopec will make
little difference in the planned protests against the
Chinese oil giant.

"But make no mistake about it. Despite Sinopec's
claims to have transferred their Sudan assets
elsewhere, they remain defined by that Sudan
presence, and will be treated accordingly by Sudan
advocates," stated Reeves.

"This so-called 'cut in links to Sudan' reveals nothing
more than the fungibility of tangible assets in the
Chinese economic system. In other words, one
state-owned entity simply has moved out a
controversial asset to another state-owned 'corporate
venue' for the purposes of gaining a listing on the
New York Stock Exchange and access to the
investment dollars of American citizens."

"There is a true bottom line," noted Reeves. "The
People's Republic of China is investing heavily in
Sudan's genocidally destructive oil project. And no
one should invest in any form of that Chinese
participation, including Sinopec."

There is evidence that Sinopec remains in Sudan
despite the assurances given by communist officials
that the oil giant had sold out. According to a report
in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, "Chinese Oil Firm
Cuts Sudan Links," Sinopec has done little to hide its
Sudanese Zhongyuan operations.

"Zhongyuan still maintains a Sudan office at its
headquarters in China's central Henan province,
despite the transfer of some of its assets to CNPC,"
the report stated.

"At the Henan office, a Zhongyuan executive says the
Zhongyuan continues to provide services for (the oil
site at) Sudan 6. An official at the commercial section
of the Chinese embassy in Sudan, as well as a
Zhongyuan executive on site in Sudan, both said this
week that Sinopec's work has continued on the oil
field. The Zhongyuan official declined to provide
further details, saying the operation 'isn't public
information.'"

The move by the Chinese oil giant appears to have
failed to convince human rights advocates that it is
out of Sudan. According to one prominent activist,
the Sinopec move is nothing more than financial
camouflage used by the Chinese government, which is
trying to hide the true nature of its Sudanese oil
project.

"We will fight the Chinese accomplices," vowed
Jacobs.

"Investors should take note of how our human rights
movement defeated Sudan at the U.N. this week.
Khartoum was unexpectedly trounced. Slavery, even
hidden under a Chinese cup, is a bad investment."

Related stories:

U.S. firms invest in African oil war

Protest against Sudan slavery, genocide

Freedom purchased for slaves in Sudan

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.