Is Lui of military significance and hence a legitimate military target? 

Except for the short duration when GOS had stationed its military units in Lui from 1995/96 - 1997, I know and categorically state herein that this place (Lui) has al ways been, and still is, a civil population centre best known for its religious and education life. It also hosts a church hospital of repute. By repeatededly bombing this civilian settlement, what objective is GOS pursuing?  Is it the manifestation of calous disregard for the life of people whom GOS does not regard as 'quite human'? Or is this simply an act of senseless terrorism?

These acts of senseless violence and reign of terror against civilian populations must be treated with the contempt they deserve and their perpetrators condemned in the strongest possible terms.

I again appeal to the international community, especially the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations Security Council to restrain the Government of the Sudan from committing attrocities of genocidal proportions against the people of Southern Sudan and other war affected areas. It would a be shame on humanity in general and OAU, UN Security Council in particular, to watch, hands folded, while genocide is committed before their eyes. With the recent events in Rwanda, Indonesia and central Europe still fresh in mind, the international community cannot afford to stand by and allow a repetition of genocide.

I appeal to the universal Church to pray for the people of the Sudan in their time of need. I believe it is within your power and means to help bring a just and lasting peace to the Sudan.

I appeal to the World Council of Churches and the All Africa Conference of Churches to use their good offices to raise the profile of the Sudan situation and vigorously advocate for a quick, just and peaceful resolution of the longest war on the African continent

Rt. Rev. Bullen A. Dolli
Bishop of the Diocese of Lui
Episcopal Church of the Sudan
Lui, January 2, 2001
 

Office of Social Development & World Peace
National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3000

Sudan’s Interior Ministry communicated to Father John Binnette, Canadian Catholic missionary of the Pontificial Foreign Missions (PIME), that his permit to stay in the country was revoked and that he had to leave the country for “security reasons”. A P. Binnette, head of the national office of the Pontificial Missionary Society within the Sudanese Bishops Conference (SCBC), was given one week to leave Sudan. It is in fact the second Canadian missionary to be expelled in one year by the Islamic Government of Khartoum, after Father Gilles Poirier, expelled in 1999. Well informed MISNA sources referred that there are other missionaries on Khartoum’s list of undesired guests, strongly contradicting the campaign of distension the government pledged to launch in order to regain international credibility. 

A female student was killed and another 19 people, including 5 policemen, were injured in clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators in the Western Sudanese town of al-Fasher (750km from the capital, Khartoum). The demonstrators took the streets of the town, damaging several public buildings, in protest against water and electricity shortages and delays in the payment of teachers salaries. The protestors were demanding the resignation of Northern Darfur State Governor Abdallah Safi al-Nur. 

Three women were injured and 26 arrested on Monday in Khartoum, when police used tear gas and batons to break up a demonstration against a recent decree issued by the Governor. Dozens of women had been demonstrating peacefully against the decree, which bans women from working in many public places, such as restaurants, hotels, cafeterias and petrol stations, when they were attacked by the police. Twenty-six of the women, representing women and civil society groups, were arrested and later released thanks to the intervention of the lawyer Ghazi Suleiman, leader of the National Coalition for the Restoration of Democracy. The decree banning women from working in public places was widely criticised by Sudanese human rights and women groups, that filed petitions condemning the ban as unconstitutional. On Saturday the Constitutional Court in fact suspended the Governor’s decree. 

The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) announced that it has seized three oil zones in the Banjio region in south-central Sudan. The news has however not been confirmed by independent sources. According to a statement released by a rebel spokesman in Asmara(Eritrea), the SPLA has taken control of three areas near Heglig, base camp of the oil pipeline that supplies Port Sudan. For the moment there are no ulterior details in regard. .

There is an immediate need for military No-fly-Zones and land corridors to facilitate humanitarian activities in South Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile. This was the appeal launched by the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference (SCBRC) in an official document, in which they express deep and unanimous concern for the continued bombardment of civilian targets by the Government of Sudan. The SCBRC underlined that the Sudanese government should also recognise the legitimacy of humanitarian operations of non-OLS (Operation Lifeline Sudan) and the Churches. The document emphasises that, above all the government should not disrupt the Churches spiritual and humanitarian operations by making them military targets in any way. Another fundamental point underlined by the Bishops was the need for all nations and multinational corporations to terminate immediately their involvement in production of oil in Sudan, particularly because the revenues generate the continuation of the war that will inevitably annihilate the people of the South, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile. 

“A firm political stand is even more important than an international military intervention for the future of Sudan”. This was the comment released to the MISNA by Father John Antonini, spokesman for the Comboni Fathers in Rome (Italy). In the last few days, the Bishop of the Catholic diocese of Rumbek (South Sudan), Monsignor Cesare Mazzolari, on various occasions pronounced himself in favour of the intervention of a UN peacekeeping force in South Sudan. According to Father Antonini, the Bishop’s request was “ a logical and justifiable reaction to the latest, deliberate and intentional air raids against civilian targets”, adding however that “a significant deployment of men and means, for an extended period of time, would be unavoidable given the vastness of the Sudanese territory the peacekeepers would need to patrol”. According to Monsignor Mazzolari the bombings may continue indeterminately. The air raids conducted by the Khartoum air force are not occasional, but respond to a specific government strategy aimed at regaining control of South Sudan’s rich oil deposits. Until now the United Nations has invested significant efforts on a humanitarian level, without however taking a firm political stand. The deployment of a peace-enforcement to the territory, between the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) and government troops, would be a very difficult task given the high costs and the impossibility to find one mediator among the anti-government forces to negotiate a cease fire. among the anti-government forces. 

“The bombing will never stop, unless the United Nations intervenes with a military task force between the government troops and rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army). It is the only solution”. This was the declaration released to the MISNA by Monsignor Cesare Mazzolari, Bishop of the Catholic diocese of Rumbek (South Sudan), following ulterior air raids on civilian targets in South Sudan. At least two people were killed and numerous others injured on Saturday, in an air attack by a government Antonov on Narus, in eastern Equatoria. The Sudanese airforce conducted another raid on Sunday on Maiwut, in the Upper Nile, though fortunately there were no reports of casualties. “I appeal to the international community to condemn this war against civilians”, continued the prelate, originally from Brescia (Italy). Meanwhile, UN humanitarian flights resumed in South Sudan, after being suspended for a few days following the August 7th government air raids on Mapel and Tonj, both situated in Bahr el Ghazal, also striking a UN displaced centre and a Catholic mission. Over two-million people, for the most part civilians, have died in the war between the government forces and SPLA rebels since 1983. 

Two people were killed and an unconfirmed number injured in an air raid conducted by the Sudanese air force on Narus, in eastern Equatoria. As referred by our MISNA sources, the bombing took place last Saturday at 11:30 local time, causing widespread panic among the civil population. “The Government Antonov dropped six bombs”, declared an eyewitness. The Sudanese air force conducted another air raid yesterday on Maiwut, in the Upper Nile region, dropping 14 bombs. Though there were no reports of casualties, one of the bombs landed 200 metres from the compound of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The SCIO (Sudan Catholic Information Office), aside from confirming the reports, expressed the strong disapproval of the Sudanese Christian communities for the two incursions against civilian targets. 

The Youths Jubilee was celebrated with great enthusiasm and participation in Sudan. While 75 Sudanese youths were in Rome, from the 15th to the 20th of August, to participate in the XV World Youth Day, another ten-thousand youths participated in the celebrations from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The demonstration began in the afternoon of the solemnity of Our Lady of Assumption, with a mass celebrated in the sports field of the Catholic Comboni College, in the centre of the city. On Friday the 18th of August they celebrated Penitential Day, with catechises, reflection and prayer from ten in the morning until eight o’clock at night. The procession took place on Saturday, starting from the Comboni College and ending at the Cathedral. Ten-thousand youths marched hand in hand, praying, singing and observing moments of silence. People were hanging out of their windows and crowding onto the streets to witness something that has never happened before in Khartoum. In an Islamic country it is in fact forbidden to hold religious demonstrations in public. The celebrations concluded on Sunday, the 20th of August. The event was so successful that the Comboni College sports field was not large enough to accommodate all the youths, so many were even left out. 

"Persecution isn't something that we can read about in the bible or a book - it is in our lives," Bishop Peter Munde of Yambio, Sudan, told reporters at the 73rd General Conference of the Episcopalian Church meeting here. 

"They arrest the Christians, they rape the girls," Munde said. 

More than 2 million people are estimated to have died through war, famine and disease in south Sudan in 17 years of conflict between the Islamist government of Khartoum and rebels seeking greater autonomy for the mainlyChristian and animist south of the country. The Episcopalian Church is part of the Anglican Communion -- 38 self-governing churches in about 160 countries -- with a membership of about 75 million people. 

A candlelight vigil was held Wednesday night to focus attention on Sudan and to prompt a greater U.S. government response. Leaders of the church's "Sudan Campaign" argue that the U.S. government's response has been "largely rhetorical." 

Munde said the Sudanese government in Khartoum does not allow food to be shipped to southern Sudan where most of the Christian community lives. 

"We are asking the Anglican community not to forget us, to pray for us, to speak on our behalf," the bishop said, adding that he believed the United Nations or the United States could help stop the hostilities if they wanted to. But he said forces in the north have more resources. "They are very rich. We have nothing." 

Despite persecution, the Anglican Church in Sudan is growing rapidly, Munde said. "Persecution is the seed of the gospel." Sudan's relations with the United States have been strained by U.S. accusations that Khartoum supportsinternational terrorism and abuses human rights. In 1998 the United States launched a missile strike on a Khartoum medicine factory in saying it was making poison gas ingredients. Sudan denied the charge.

Washington, DC (CWNews.com) - A Sudanese Catholic bishop told a meeting on US foreign policy last week that the Islamic government of Sudan was engaging in a campaign of attacks on civilians as part of the African country's 17-year-long civil war between the mainly Muslim government and mainly Christian southern separatists. 
Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid released new details of an attack that took place in early June. The bishop said government air and ground forces attacked a Catholic mission near the city of Gumriak, killing 32 men, women, and children. He said the attack came despite Sudan President Omar el-Bashir's "peace overtures" and claims that the attacks on civilians had ceased. 
Gumriak is part of the so-called "no-go" areas of Sudan, in which the government forbids international relief agencies access to war-threatened populations in areas held by the insurgent Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The incident marks the third time this year that Bishop Gassis' relief projects have been targeted by government forces. Last February 8, 20 students and their teacher were killed in a Khartoum-sponsored bombing raid on a Catholic bush school established by the bishop in the Nuba Mountains. And in mid-April, government militias raided Bishop Gassis' mission in Lumun, displacing more than 5,000 Nuba, and kidnapping two of the bishop's catechists along with more than 1,000 others. 
International agencies estimate that 2.5 million Sudanese have been killed either directly or indirectly by the decades-long war. 

Tell us about your arrest.

Mine was not an individual case. We were a group of 26, two of us priests. Five of the group died of torture in prison. For us who survived, the case had a happy ending. We were granted a reprieve by the President on December 6, 1999. But for me, as a priest, my release did not end the suffering.

Why do you say this?

Because the Church in Sudan continues to suffer: she is abandoned by the world, she is not included in the plans of great international movements. The interests of the great nations seem to be more important than our suffering. Our life is the continuation of the Cross. In some cases the result of this suffering is extreme and ends with death; sometimes, as in my case, there is providential intervention, and release from prison. But the suffering remains. For 20 years, as the Church's representative for dialogue with Muslims and contact person between the Catholic Church and the government, I lived the terrible situation of a people which suffers and is abandoned.

Your release did not come with the recognition of your innocence.

Yes that it correct: there was no statement of not guilty. They simply came and took us from the prison, we were called to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir who told us: "We will forget the past. In this climate of peace and lessening of political and religious tension, I give you your freedom."

By dissolving parliament and striking Turabi, the President would seem to want to eliminate fundamentalism. Is this positive?

It is not good for Sudan and her peoples. It may be good for the powerful in their struggle for power. But their battles are not concerned with the good of the people or of believers. This has gone on for forty years now. Khartoum's political battles are not for the people they are for power. And then, Turabi still has great influence and can move his followers as before.

Has there been some improvement in recent months?

The situation will never improve it we wait for things to happen on the inside. In forty years the Sudanese have been unable to reach peace and I doubt if they will for the next 10. As long as Khartoum continues to look towards the Middle East and not at Africa, and consider itself first Arab and then Africa, it will be against Christianity and its problems will never be solved. Perhaps the government, now a military one, can begin to address some of the problems, but what is needed is help from outside the nation.

What sort of help?

First of all no arms must be given to Sudan. What is needed is a United Nations or Organization for African Unity force. The force must be armed because when I see two people fighting each other they must be stopped. Unfortunately many Western countries think of their own interests and they are not interested in Sudan's problems which the Sudanese government cannot solve.

Do you plan to return to Sudan?

It is difficult at the moment. But as I priest I am longing to return.   (Fides 25/5/2000)

The Christians made the appeal in a statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the New Sudan Council of Churches NSCC, Dr Harrun Ruun and Fr Damian Adugu, who is the secretary-general of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Conference SCBRC. 

The statement said: "Christian communities of Southern Sudan are deeply concerned about the NGOs regarding their signing of a Memorandum of Understanding MOU". 

It said the suspension of funding by ECHO (European Union's humanitarian aid wing) to agencies who have signed the MOU and continue to serve in the SPLM/A- controlled areas only adds to the suffering of innocent civilians and does not contribute to solving the problem. 

"We therefore call upon the European Union member states to direct ECHO (European Union's humanitarian aid wing) to resume immediately funding to those agencies which continue their humanitarian programmes serving the needy people," the Christians said. 

"We therefore call upon the European Union member states to direct ECHO to resume immediately funding to those agencies which continue their humanitarian programmes serving the needy people," the Christians said. 

A controversy over the MOU saw 12 NGOs withdraw from Southern Sudan following the expiry of the March 1 ultimatum issued by the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association, the SPLA's humanitarian wing. 

The Christian community further appealed to the SPLM/A and the international NGOs to resolve the issue of the MOU urgently. 

The 12 international NGOs which declined to sign the SRAA MOU and left SPLM- controlled areas include World Vision International, Care International, Oxfam and MSF-Holland. 

It is estimated that their withdrawal has deprived Sudan of programmes worth US$ 32 million serving 1.6 million people. ECHO on the other hand provides the African state with 20-25 million Euros in funds each year, of which about 2/3 is for southern Sudan. 

ECHO estimates that about 50 percent of its programmes to southern Sudan have been lost as a result of the withdrawal of the international NGOs. Of the 18 ECHO contracts for southern Sudan, five remain unaffected, seven are partially affected and six have been cancelled. 

The 49 NGOs remaining in Sudan, along with UN agencies and ICRC, are now under pressure to cover the shortfall. Some programmes belonging to the NGOs which withdrew are already being implemented by the remaining NGOs, thus reducing the impact of the withdrawal. 

However, this may not be sustained in the long run, a situation further compounded by the suspension of ECHO funding. Equally under increased pressure are the Churches, which now have to put additional efforts and resources on humanitarian activities. 

As well as the direct effect of suspension of programmes, there is a significant indirect effect on the local economy as Sudanese staff are laid and cash ceases to circulate. 

In Western Equatoria alone, over 300 Sudanese have been rendered jobless, leading to a remarkable decline in the local people's purchasing power. Observers believe that the famine in the Horn of Africa will not affect Sudan as badly as some other countries. 

But there will be pockets of serious famine in Upper Nile, Bahr el-Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria, exacerbated by displacement of people from Upper Nile due to the conflict around the oilfields. 

A famine alert for the Horn has been issued by some UN agencies, humanitarian organisations and NGOs operating or having links with agencies operating in that region. Funding from major donors, including ECHO will be needed to cope with this famine. 

Pope receives two priests tortured in Sudan - Last Saturday, John Paul II received Fr. Hilary Boma and Fr. Lino Sabit, two Sudanese priests released from jail last December in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, after being tortured for months. 
John Paul II himself appealed for their release. 
The two priests, who will attend a press conference on peace in Africa, organized by the Combonian missionaries, were accused without evidence by the Sudanese authorities of participating in a series of attacks, which took place in Khartoum. 
At present, Sudanese Christians are suffering harsh repression, caused by the government's determined policy of Islamization of the country.

Catholic Bishop Macram Max Gassis has endangered his own life by continuing to travel to a country where he is a wanted by the government because of his efforts in the fight against religious persecution and human rights violations in Sudan. 

Bishop Gassis served as a liaison between the Sudanese government and the National Bishop's conference, but was given a criminal indictment by the Sudanese when he testified before the U.S. Congress about the atrocities committed by that government against its own people. He left Sudan in April of 1990 for cancer treatment in Germany and the United States, but continues to make dangerous trips back to Sudan in order to aid and minister to his people. 

``Bishop Gassis had led a courageous effort to bring to the world awareness of the persecuted Church in Sudan,'' said Chuck Colson, chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries. ``That persecution includes daily bombing of Christian villages, the enslavement of children, rape, starvation, and murder. Millions of lives are at risk.'' 

The Bishop's diocese is presently split in two, with the northern half controlled by the fundamentalist Islamic government of Sudan. Though he cannot return to the north, the Bishop continues to minister to the southern portion of the diocese. He travels there at great personal risk to deliver aid and perform his pastoral duties. 

By meeting with the national bishop's conferences in Europe and the United States, non-governmental organizations, national governments, and the media, Bishop Gassis strives to spread awareness of the persecution in Sudan and to obtain relief for the Sudanese people. 

While in Washington, Bishop Gassis will be attending the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Feb. 3. ``The Bishop is an example of prayer's powerful impact on society,'' says Colson. ``A few years ago, few people even knew that Christians were being persecuted, but through the diligent work and prayers of people like Bishop Gassis, we now see the Congress and the State Department condemning abuses in Sudan and China, we see college students taking up the cause, and we've educated millions of Americans about what is going on overseas.'' 

Since 1987, Prison Fellowship Ministries annually has bestowed the William Wilberforce award on an individual who has made a difference in the face of formidable societal problems and injustices. The award is given in honor of William Wilberforce, an eighteenth-century British parliamentarian who stood against his party and fellow Parliamentarians in his campaign to abolish the slave trade 

Previous recipients of the Wilberforce Award include Senator Sam Nunn, Senator  Bill Armstrong, Rev. John Perkins, Michael Horowitz, Father John Neuhaus, Congressman Frank Wolf, Kay Coles James, Lady Caroline Cox of Great Britain, Dr. Jorge Crespo of Ecuador, and the late Benigno Aquino of the Philippines. All recipients were chosen for emulating Wilberforce in their willingness to ``epitomize Christian social action.'' 

Prison Fellowship Ministries, founded by Charles Colson in 1976, is the world's foremost prison outreach program, reaching inmates in 83 countries worldwide with the help of nearly 50,000 volunteers. Currently working inside 90 percent of U.S. prisons, Prison Fellowship Ministries provides outreach services to prisoners, their families, and victims of crime. 

MISNA, 7 December 1999

 They will in fact only leave the prison with a total acquittal. All members of Sudan’s Church, including the Archbishop Gabriel Zubeir Wako - continued our MISNA sources – share and approve the courageous stand taken by the two priests. Approval expressed also by the Protestants, which demonstrated great solidarity throughout the episode that began in the summer of 1998. ‘The relentless persecution of the baptised in Sudan - continued our religious sources (who will remain anonymous) - has contributed to consolidating relations among different Christian denominations, keeping the ecumenical spirit alive’. Father Boma, 57-year old Archdiocesan Chancellor of Khartoum, and Father Lino Sabit, 30-year old deputy parish priest of Hilla Mayo, were arrested on the 28th of July and the 1st of August 1998 for their alleged involvement in a series of bomb attacks. Almost all the devices were found and defused in plenty of time by the security forces.

A fax message from the Secretariat to the Sudan Council Information Office here last week indicated that among the items taken away from the Church office were two computers, one of them an IBM donated recently to the office by the Vatican for the year 2000 Jubilee. 

On the fateful morning, the message added, a man who identified himself only as Charles knocked at the gate of the Secretariat but when the guard on duty opened, 10 other men forced their way in. They beat the guard, tied him up then drove their Toyota pick-up inside the Church institution. 

Though the motive behind the raid is yet to be established, a Secretariat official said here last week that it was not an isolated incident but part of Khartoum's grand plan to intimidate Christians and frustrate the growth of the Church. 

Last May, the Secretariat suffered a similar misfortune when government agents stormed its trans-receiver radio and took away the aerial. The radical Muslim government for unexplained reasons expelled last August, a Canadian priest who had worked in Sudan for seven years. Father Gilles Poirier, 57, was escorted by police of Khartoum airport and put on a plane bound for Canada by unidentified persons. 

The expulsion came after Poirier had been summoned to the Department of Immigration on July 15 and told he had two weeks to leave the country. Poirier worked in the slums outside Khartoum where he administered development loans for the poor to open businesses. 

The Canadian clergyman lived in the same parish where Father Lino Sebit, a Sudanese, was arrested last year and charged with 25 others with a series of bomb attacks in Khartoum. He is still on trial in a military court. 

Other incidents that have been viewed as persecution directed against the Church in Sudan include the confiscation of the Catholic Club in central Khartoum by the government. The Catholic institution has since been made the headquarters of the ruling National Congress Party. 

A parcel of land belonging to the Episcopal Church of Sudan at Omdurman has also suffered similar fate. Reported by Special Correspondent in Nairobi 

All Africa News Agency November 12, 1999 
by Tim Chigodo in Harare 

Khartoum (Deutsche Presse Agentur) - No churches will be built in any part of the Sudanese capital without the approval of the government if the decree being drafted by the Ministry of Social Planning comes into force in a few days' time, al-Rai al-Aam daily reported Wednesday. ·

The director of church administration at the Ministry of Social Planning, Abdal-Jabar Osman, told the daily that a number of makeshift churches had mushroomed in shanty townships in the Sudanese capital without approval from the government. ·

"Shanty churches have sprung up in locations without any Christian presence," Osman told the paper. ·

He said the expected decree would put an end to the churches that had developed in the outskirts of the capital without getting permission from the government. ·

Osman made the statement following the attack on a shanty church by a Moslem sect last Sunday in a northern suburb of Khartoum. ·

The police said both sides suffered slight injuries and that 13 of the Moslem attackers and seven Christians were arrested. ·

The shanty churches are constructed by war-displaced Christians from southern and western Sudan who have settled on the periphery of the Sudanese capital. ·

They use the churches also as schools and sometimes as health centres as well. ·

A number of the churches had been set on fire by Moslem fanatics. Some of the churches have been destroyed by government town planners, causing serious distress among the displaced persons. ·

The Catholic church has been complaining about difficulty in securing permission to build a church in any part of northern Sudan. ·

The government has been arguing that it does not prevent the construction of the churches but in order for a church to be built in a particular area the people of the area must give their consent.

SOURCES from the Catholic Church in Khartoum have announced the expulsion this morning of Fr Gilles Poirier (57), a Canadian national.  Poirier, who worked for 7 years in the slum parish of Hilla Mayo, 10km from Khartoum, was summoned on 15th July to the Department of Immigration where he was told that he had two weeks to leave the country. No reason was given for his expulsion.  On the same day, Fr Emil Saad Suleiman, representing the archbishop of Khartoum, requested to meet the competent authorities. Fr Suleiman wrote four times to the minister for Social Planning, Mr. Hassan Dahoui, but never received a reply. 

Likewise, it is reported that the Apostolic Nuncio to the Sudan tried to meet with senior government officials. A meeting had been fixed for today (Saturday) with an official in charge of church affairs. It is too late, however, to defer the expulsion of Fr Poirier who, in the early hours of this morning, was escorted by police to Khartoum Airport and put on a plane bound for Canada. 

"This is another sign that the regime is once again trying to cripple the Church" one senior church official, who did not wish to be named, was quoted as saying.  "The government is claiming it wants to dialogue with the churches, but is doing everything in its power to make us disappear." 

For many in Khartoum this is seen as yet another blow to the Catholic Church in Sudan which has, for the past year, been campaigning for the release of Sudanese priests, Fr Hillary Boma, Fr Lino Sebit and 24 others, accused by the regime of being behind a series of bombs which exploded in Khartoum on June 30th last year. 

According to a report by the Special Rapporteur from the UN High Commission for Human Rights, all of the detained were systematically tortured while in prison and three of the defendants who are "missing" are presumed to have died under torture. 

One senior church official is quoted as saying "Despite claims by the government that it is open to dialogue, recent events such as the bulldozing of church schools and the continual efforts by the authorities to confiscate our schools, together with the regular harassment and detention of priests and religious, prove that they would prefer if we didn't exist". While another senior Sudanese clergyman is quoted as saying  "We, in Sudan, are being persecuted from all sides and not many in the outside world seem to care". 
 

Sudan expels Canadian Catholic priest 
By Alfred Taban 
Khartoum, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A Canadian Catholic priest who had worked in Sudan for seven years was expelled by the Islamist government on Saturday, a church official said. 

``In the early hours of this morning, Father Gilles Poirier, aged 57, was escorted by police to Khartoum airport and put on a plane bound for Canada,'' the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. 

He said the priest was summoned to the Department of Immigration on July 15, where he was told that he had two weeks to leave the country. 

``No reasons were given for his expulsion,'' the official said, adding that ``this is another sign that the regime is once again trying to cripple the church.''   Father Poirier worked in the slum parish of Hillat Mayo, about 10 km (six miles) south of Khartoum, where he set up a scheme for sustainable development, granting loans to the poor to open businesses.   It is the second time the parish has lost a priest. 

Last year, Father Lino Sebit, a 32-year-old Sudanese priest was arrested and charged, along with 25 other southerners, in connection with a series of bomb blasts which rocked Khartoum on June 30. They are still being tried by a military court. 

The Sudanese authorities have declined to confirm the expulsion of Poirier.