This might be interesting reading for some. Courtesy of the BBC homepage.
At a time when Africa is talking about reparations for the Slave Trave, this
shameless practice should not be allowed to happen.

________________________


"Freedom for thousands of Sudanese slaves


Women and children are most likely to be enslaved


A Swiss-based Christian group says it has bought the freedom of more than
5,000 slaves in southern Sudan.
Christian Solidarity International (CSI) says it paid Arab middlemen $50 for
each slave. It says the slaves, mostly Christian and animist women and
children from the Dinka tribe of southern Sudan, have now been returned to
their homeland.

CSI says the slaves were captured in raids by militia groups backed by the
Islamic-led government as it fights a civil war with rebels from the mainly
Christian south of the country.

But there is increasing disquiet about CSI's methods - the United Nations
says the payments encourage more trafficking.

The BBC's East Africa correspondent, Martin Dawes, says that although there
has always been slavery in Sudan, there is no doubt that Arab militias, as
they go on their brutal raids, regard Africans as a crop to be harvested.

21,000 redeemed

Since CSI started buying back slaves in 1995 the organisation says it has
redeemed nearly 21,000 people.

About $50 per person hs been paid in the past

Last year, our correspondent witnessed what was then a record figure of 410
people, mainly women, being exchanged for huge piles of Sudanese currency.
Now the organisation is said to have freed 5,500.

Because of the sensitivities of working in rebel-held southern Sudan, aid
organisations will not talk openly of their concerns, but it is a common
accusation that the figures are now too big to be credible.

There are allegations that senior figures within the rebel movement are
rounding up villagers to falsely present to CSI in order to make money.

The head of the UN Children's Fund, Carol Bellamy, has said that buying back
encourages more trafficking.

John Eibner of CSI admits that one can never rule out the possibility of
fraud, but says he is convinced that the overwhelming majority have been
enslaved and would be still in bondage or dead but for the work of his
organisation.

Mr Eibner says the increase in numbers is because they are using more
traders and it is a reflection of the large numbers of slaves still held in
captivity. "
















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