March 11, 2008, Talkers Magazine and Christian Solidarity International co-sponsored a trip to Southern Sudan and Southern Darfur. Radio Hosts included Joe Madison (XM Satellite Radio and WOL-AM), Thom Hartmann (Syndicated), Jack Rice (WCCO), Rusty Humphries (Syndicated), Ellen Ratner (Talk Radio News Service), and Dr. John Eibner of Christian Solidarity International. The group brought with them “Sacks of Hope” which are sponsored by donations.

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Ellen Ratner, calling in from Dubai after leaving Southern Darfur, says the whole issue is slavery. The government of Sudan refuses to call it slavery, and instead calls the “abductees.” Slavery is illegal in Sudan, Ellen says, as there is a law passed by the British. However, there is no punishment for slavery and no mechanism to punish slave-holders. There’s been a group that brings back these “abductees,” she says, but they are being sent back with nothing- no food, supplies, or financial support. They just rely on the kindness of villagers, and the government of Khartoum has done nothing, Ellen says, to make sure that the people from the south can recovery from slavery. This may make war in the south inevitable when the vote comes in 2011 or after for independence. (1:19)

 

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Ellen Ratner, calling in from Dubai after leaving Southern Darfur, says they met with refugees and some slaves on Monday. The slaves, she says, left Northern Sudan and were returning to their homes. One refugee who had been a slave, she says, was recognized by another former slave who had the same tribal markings. This slave had been converted to Islam and had children, and the slave’s master was very upset that the children were going. Apparently the Islamic way, Ellen says, is that the woman is still held in slavery but her children are considered children of the master. The master was very upset, she says, that the government of Sudan was allowing his children to go with their mother. (1:18)

 

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One recently freed South Darfur slave boy helps another open his sack of hope - these sacks will provide for the former slaves for months

Click “Read more” to see more photos. Note: some photos are graphic depictions of injuries.

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Ellen Ratner tells the pain of a freed slave’s life, and the hope of returning to her family. (1:15)

 

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Ellen Ratner describes the freeing of slaves on the border of Darfur. Some slaves are simply killed rather than sold, and even those that are freed often do not understand their freedom, not having known any other life. (1:52)

 

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Jack Rice speaks of the horrors facing a twenty year old slave girl living in Sudan after speaking with a freed slave. (1:29)

 

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Dan Patterson reports live in the sweltering heat of Sudan. Minutes after witnessing hundreds of slaves being freed, Patterson describes a world where people have lived in captivity for years, where freedom is “purchased”, and where murder and torture is a part of every day life. (2:03)

 

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On location in the South Sudan, in a very isolated place called Majom Kor, Ellen Ratner says she is is a village where people from Darfur and other areas have come back to their villages, courtesy of the United Nations. They were told stories of how the people were able to escape to the north or were taken as slaves, although there has been little international recognition that there was slavery at all. One man told them, she says, that the slaves were kept in a pen for seven days without food and water. At this point after all these years away, she says that man told her, the village needs food, clean water, and a health facility. As they were meeting with the villagers today, Ellen said, an unclothed woman came through. The villagers quickly surrounded her, Ellen said, and told her that the woman had been traumatized by rape and that she had seen so many of her relatives killed, that this was her way of coping. The villagers told her the needs that they hoped Americans would give: they had no school, no clinics, no books, no pencils, no paper, and no clean water. That is the need, Ellen says, that is so strong in Southern Sudan.
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On location in the South Sudan, in a very isolated place called Majom Kor, Ellen Ratner says it is an amazing scene. The people that left their villages and went to Darfur, Ellen says, are being dropped off to their home villages without food or much at all. They talked about their needs, she says, and how their houses were burned down, and their cattle were taken, and how they had no food and had to leave. They are being repatriated in their home communities. They talked to refugees that were coming back from Darfur, she said, and when she asked them how many of them had a relative that had been killed or had been enslaved, every one of them raised their hand. (1:24)

 

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