Sudan: Ministry 'should expect to be bombed'

The Sudanese government says a leading missionary working in the southern part of the country should expect to be bombed and shot when he is in the country.

Dr. Peter Hammond, director of Frontline Fellowship, has been a leading figure in bringing international attention to Khartoum's war on its own non-Muslim people – primarily in the southern region of Sudan. Christian churches, hospitals and schools have all been targeted by the Sudanese air force.

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What is unusual about the rhetorical attack on Hammond is its bluntness. The Sudan regime makes no excuses about its desire to eliminate Hammond, a world-renowned human-rights crusader.

"Peter Hammond … was recently photographed standing in an alleged bomb crater supposedly near his church," the statement on the official website reads. "Hammond should expect to be bombed when he is in Sudan, because he has declared himself to be an enemy of the Sudanese government many times in his own writings. … He should expect to be shot on sight."

Though the inflammatory statement was actually written by an American detractor of Hammond, republication of the statement on the official website of the Sudanese government suggests Khartoum agrees with its threats.

Hammond's mission base has been bombed 10 times in the last 18 months. Two church services have been bombed in the last year, he says.

The attacks are part of an ongoing, bloody civil war that has plagued Sudan – Africa's largest country – for decades and is linked to the nation's oil industry. The fundamentalist group National Islamic Front has controlled Khartoum, the capital, since 1989. Since that time, the group has funded slave trade of the Dinkas, a cattle-herding, Christian tribe in south Sudan, some dissident Muslims and other resisters of the Islamic regime.

The government obtains its funding largely due to investments in the nation's oil resources. The primary interest-holding nation in Sudan's oil industry is China. Human rights groups have vigorously protested such investments by China and other countries, including the United States.

Several human-rights groups and activists formed a coalition in 2000 to coordinate efforts encouraging U.S. companies and governmental entities to divest their Sudanese oil interests. The Sudan Campaign includes various organizations, such as Christian Solidarity International, Congress on Modern Pan-African Slavery, African American Women's Clergy Association, the American Anti-Slavery Group, the Washington, D.C., branch of the American Jewish Committee as well as members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Christian Solidarity International has been at the forefront of slave "redemption" activities. As reported in WorldNetDaily, the group purchases freedom for captured Sudanese people – a controversial practice opposed by the United Nations' Children's Fund, or UNICEF.

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To learn more about the Sudanese civil war, see the video documentary "Sudan: The Hidden Holocaust."

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