FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

American Anti-Slavery Group http://www.iAbolish.com Contact: Joyce Koo, 617-426-8161 June 13, 2003

Three Abductees Reportedly Killed by Government-backed Militia in Sudan, AASG Urges Bush Administration to Act

(Boston, MA) - The American Anti-Slavery Group strongly urges the Bush Administration to call for the release of 13 surviving South Sudanese civilians who were abducted three weeks ago -- this just after three additional abductees were reportedly killed in captivity.

In violation of a U.S.- brokered ceasefire, the Government of Sudan-backed military forces attacked ten villages in the Eastern Upper Nile, killing 59 unarmed villagers and abducting 16 women and children into slavery on May 22, 2003. (Names and ages of the kidnapped villagers and the three killed in captivity can be found at http://www.iAbolish.com.)

According to Servant's Heart, a humanitarian NGO operating in the area, three of the young boys were murdered. All 13 surviving young girls and woman abductees are now reportedly held at the Government of Sudan regional headquarters in the Eastern Upper Nile, and will likely be sold as slaves.

American Anti-Slavery Group President Charles Jacobs says: "Three weeks have already passed without a response from the Bush Administration. Colin Powell, who yesterday released the 2003 Annual Report on Trafficking in Persons, failed to mention the abductions and murders of these South Sudanese. The ongoing genocide and enslavement of civilians brazenly violates the U.S.-sponsored ceasefire with Khartoum not to attack non-combatants. The Bush Administration's silence on broken agreements sends the wrong signal - a green light to continue attacks and slave raids on civilians."

Since 1983 an extremist Islamic Government of Sudan (GOS) has killed over two million people and displaced over four million in a self-declared jihad against Christian and Animist Black Africans in southern Sudan.

This latest attack occurred on May 22, 2003 -- the very day when U.S. Secretary of State Powell met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail and discussed ways that Sudan could be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. GOS-backed military forces attacked the village of Longochok and nine nearby villages in a night assault. Many of those killed were burned alive in their homes as they hid from the GOS-backed forces, including the only Christian pastor in the region.

Jacobs says, "There are two repeating patterns here: the GOS-backed militias kill males and take females into bondage, and Western democracies fail to act decisively against terrorism when it does not directly affect them."

The American Anti-Slavery Group has helped free over 80,000 slaves, spotlighted and defended the work of local abolitionist activists worldwide, brought modern-day slavery into the foreign policy agenda, and launched an anti-slavery web portal that informs and mobilizes 40,000 people each month.

To schedule an interview with Charles Jacobs, contact Joyce Koo at 617-426-8161. Francis Bok also witnessed massacres in his own village in Southern Sudan and was, himself, abducted into slavery at age seven.

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