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- "Battling Baroness" or "Blundering" Newspaper?: 'The Vancouver Sun', Baroness Cox and Sudan
by David Hoile/ESPAC
"Cox means well but looks ever so slightly
unhinged."
The Times', 30 January 2001, p.27
On 26 January 2002, the Canadian newspaper, 'The Vancouver Sun',
published an article about Baroness Cox entitled "'Battling Baroness'
appeals to missionaries: Caroline Cox has both fans and critics after
buying slaves in order to free them". Written by Douglas Todd, the
article was both unprofessional and deeply misleading. The article, for
example, unquestioningly accepted claims made by Baroness Cox that she
was engaged in "buying" the freedom of "slaves" in Sudan. The article
also voiced claims which potentially fuel undeserved prejudice against
Arabs and Muslims.
Civil war has raged in Sudan off and on since 1955 between the Sudanese
government and rebels in southern Sudan. Since 1983 the war in the south
has been fought by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). (1) The
essence of the claims made by Baroness Cox is that as a consequence of
this war there is a flourishing "slave trade" in Sudan. She claims that
the southern Sudanese people are enslaved by the northern government.
Closely associated with Christian Solidarity International, and then
with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Baroness Cox further claims that on
visits to parts of southern Sudan she has bought back or "redeemed"
thousands of slaves, often several hundred at a time. Leaving aside the
deeply controversial issue of whether she is actually buying "slaves" or
people kidnapped for ransom, the Canadian government's special envoy to
Sudan also revealed fraudulent "redemptions" which provided rebel forces
with money with which to purchase arms and ammunition.
"Slavery" and "Slave Redemption" versus Kidnapping, Abduction or Fraud?
The unchallenged claims of large-scale "slave redemption" made by
Baroness Cox, and echoed in 'The Vancouver Sun', can be clearly assessed
against more objective sources. One of these is the report by the
Canadian government's special envoy to Sudan, John Harker, into human
rights abuses in Sudan. The Harker report, 'Human Security in Sudan: The
Report of a Canadian Assessment Mission', was published in February
2000. One of the two missions with which John Harker was tasked was to:
"independently investigate human rights violations, specifically in
reference to allegations of slavery and slavery-like practices in
Sudan." (2)
While Harker was critical of many human rights abuses in Sudan, he
clearly questioned claims of large scale "slave redemption" such as
those made by Baroness Cox. He specifically touched on the credibility
of such allegations:
"[R]eports, especially from CSI, about very large numbers were
questioned, and frankly not accepted. Mention was also made to us of
evidence that the SPLA were involved in 'recycling' abductees...Serious
anti-abduction activists...cannot relate the claimed redemptions to what
they know of the reality. For example we were told that it would be hard
not to notice how passive these 'slave' children are when they are
liberated or to realize how implausible it is to gather together so many
people from so many locations so quickly - and there were always just
the right number to match redemption funds available!"
The Harker Report also detailed how fraudulent "slave redemptions" were
being used to raise money for the SPLA, money which he stated is used to
purchase arms and ammunition:
"Several informants reported various scenarios involving staged
redemptions. In some cases, SPLM officials are allegedly involved in
arranging these exchanges, dressing up as Arab slave traders, with
profits being used to support the SPLM/A, buy weapons and ammunition..."
The Harker Report documented the deliberately fraudulent nature of many
"slave redemptions":
"Sometimes a 'redeeming group' may be innocently misled, but other
groups may be actively committed to fundraising for the SPLM/A &
deliberately use 'slave redemption' as a successful tactic for
attracting Western donors.
We did speak with an eyewitness who can confirm observing a staged
redemption and this testimony conformed with other reports we had from a
variety of credible sources. The "redeeming group" knew they were buying
back children who had not been abducted or enslaved. The exchange was
conducted in the presence of armed SPLA guards. The "Arab" middle
man/trader delivering the children for "redemption" was recognized as a
member of the local community even though he was dressed up in
traditional Arab costume for the event." (3)
It is not just the Canadian government that has questioned the sort of
process to which Baroness Cox was an all too willing party, and which
was so unquestioningly reported by 'The Vancouver Sun'.
The claims made by Cox to have "redeemed slaves" have also clearly been
directly challenged by the veteran southern Sudanese politician Bona
Malwal. In a letter to her Malwal stated that:
"On at least three different occasions, you have come into Twic County
without the permission of the local leadership, using Messrs Stephen
Wondu and Martin Okeruk [SPLA officials] as your license to do so. You
then say each time that your mission was to redeem slaves and that
indeed you have done so, when in each instance this had not been the
case. The latest episode was in October [1999] when you landed at Mayen
Abun without even the courtesy of informing the local area
representative....I know that you have put out for propaganda, and maybe
for fundraising purposes as well, that you redeemed slaves at Mayen Abun
in October when nothing of the sort happened. I sincerely hope that this
type of game stops...I sincerely hope that you do see the harm that
could be caused and that you will refrain from this activity in the
future." (4)
Malwal's standing within the southern Sudanese community is
unassailable. He is the publisher of the 'Sudan Democratic Gazette'. He
is a former Minister of Information and Culture and was the editor of
the 'Sudan Times', the largest English-language newspaper in Sudan
before 1989. Malwal went into exile when the present government in Sudan
came to power a decade ago and teaches international affairs at Oxford
University. Baroness Cox has herself previously described him as "one of
the well-respected elders of the Dinka tribe". (5) The implications of
Bona Malwal's letter to Baroness Cox are serious and it is for the
reader to draw his or her own conclusions.
'The Vancouver Sun' quotes Cox as stating: "The Islamic government is
waging systematic slavery." Sir Robert Ffolkes, director of the Save the
Children (UK) programme in Sudan, an organisation at the forefront of
the abductions issue, contradicts Cox somewhat. Speaking in 2001 he
stated: "I have seen no evidence at all of slave trading. And believe
me, we have looked". (6) Sir Robert has also said: "I do not believe the
government in involved in slave-taking." (7) The respected human rights
expert, and Sudan specialist, Alex de Waal, while co-director of the
human rights group African Rights, stated with regard to claims made by
Baroness Cox that:
"(O)vereager or misinformed human rights advocates in Europe and the US
have played upon lazy assumptions to raise public outrage. Christian
Solidarity International, for instance, claims that "Government troops
and Government-backed Arab militias regularly raid black African
communities for slaves and other forms of booty". The organization
repeatedly uses the term "slave raids", implying that taking captives is
the aim of government policy. This despite the fact that there is no
evidence for centrally-organized, government-directed slave raiding or
slave trade." (8)
Anti-Slavery International has also stated with regard to allegations of
government involvement in slavery that: "[T]he charge that government
troops engage in raids for the purpose of seizing slaves is not backed
by the evidence." (9)
In a July 1999 article entitled 'The False Promise of Slave Redemption',
published by 'The Atlantic Monthly', American journalist Richard Miniter
provided unambiguous first hand evidence that there was fraud and
corruption in the process of "slave redemption" in Sudan, whereby
southern Sudanese tribesmen, women and children were supposedly "bought
back" from northern Sudanese tribesmen said to have abducted them during
raids on southern villages. (10)
Miniter documented that SPLA officials are involved in fraud with regard
to "slave redemption":
"[They] set themselves up as bankers and insist that redeemers exchange
their dollars for Sudanese pounds, a nearly worthless currency...The
officials arrange by radio to have some villages play slaves and some
play slave-sellers, and when the redeemers arrive, the Sudanese pounds
are used to free the slaves. When the redeemers are gone, the pounds are
turned back over to the corrupt officials, who hand out a few dollars in
return. Most of the dollars stay with the officials, who now also have
the Sudanese pounds with which to play banker again."
Miniter was accompanied during a visit to southern Sudan by James
Jacobson, the president of Christian Freedom International. Jacobson, a
former Reagan Administration official, had previously served as
Christian Solidarity International's Washington representative. In 1998,
the American branch of Christian Solidarity International USA went its
own way as Christian Freedom International, with Jacobson at its head.
He was an enthusiastic supporter of "slave redemption" until he actually
visited southern Sudan to see the "slave redemption" situation for
himself. Jacobson subsequently publicly disowned "slave redemption"
because the financial incentives involved encouraged both the taking of
captives as well as fraud and corruption. Reuters has confirmed the
"massive corruption" reported by Jacobson:
"Local aid workers...say that they have seen children who they have
known for months passed off as slaves...And Reuters interviewed one boy
in Yargot who told a completely implausible story of life in the north,
a story which he changed in every respect when translators were
swapped." (11)
In May 1999, 'The Christian Science Monitor' also clearly stated: "There
are increasingly numerous reports that significant numbers of those
'redeemed' were never slaves in the first place. Rather, they were
simply elements of the local populations, often children, available to
be herded together when cash-bearing redeemers appeared." (12)
'The Vancouver Sun' article did not adequately deal with the issue of
whether the people said to have been "slaves" were "slaves" or rather
people kidnapped or abducted for ransoming to Westerners with large
amounts of cash. Nor did the article even touch upon let alone discuss
the well-documented issue of simple misrepresentation or fraud within
the "slave redemption" issue. The article's inability to adequately
question the serious allegations it voiced is clear. It is clear that
"overeager and misinformed" also applies to 'The Vancouver Sun' in its
acceptance of terms such as "slavery" in the Sudan.
Has 'The Vancouver Sun' Encouraged Racial Prejudice?
What is perhaps equally disturbing about the article published in 'The
Vancouver Sun' is that it may have encouraged prejudice against Arabs
and Muslims. The sort of claims articulated in the 'The Vancouver Sun'
have disturbed groups such as Anti-Slavery International, the world's
oldest human rights organisation. In a submission to the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Anti-Slavery International stated:
"There is a danger that wrangling over slavery can distract us from
abuses which are actually part of government policy - which we do not
believe slavery to be. Unless accurately reported, the issue can become
a tool for indiscriminate and wholly undeserved prejudice against Arabs
and Muslims. [We] are worried that some media reports of "slave
markets", stocked by Arab slave traders - which [we] consider distort
reality - fuel such prejudice." (13)
Anti-Slavery International would seem to believe that talk of "Islamic"
"slavery" as echoed in Todd's article distorts reality and fuels
prejudice against Arabs and Muslims.
Baroness Cox, Sudan and Credibility
'The Vancouver Sun' appears to have taken a somewhat unprofessional
approach to checking Baroness Cox's credibility regarding Sudanese
affairs. On issue after issue her accuracy has previously been found to
be wanting, and her claims have been contradicted by the British and
American governments, UNSCOM and human rights groups such as African
Rights and Anti-Slavery International. Even 'The Times' of London has
described her as "ever so slightly unhinged". (14) Why then did 'The
Vancouver Sun' allow her to make controversial and deeply questionable
claims, referring to her as the "Battling Baroness"? Surely a more apt
headline would have been the "Blundering Baroness"?
Leaving aside the clear criticisms of Baroness Cox regarding "slavery"
in Sudan, her track record of making other unreliable claims concerning
Sudan is a clear one.
On 17 February 1998, in the British Parliament, for example, Baroness
Cox claimed that four hundred Scud missiles (including support vehicles,
well over one thousand vehicles) had been secretly transferred to Sudan
from Iraq since the Gulf War. This supposedly in the face of
unprecedented satellite, electronic and physical surveillance of that
country by the United States, the United Nations and other concerned
members of the international community. It is a matter of record that,
on the same day that Baroness Cox made this claim, Reuters reported the
statement by the White House that: "We have no credible evidence that
Iraq has exported weapons of mass destruction technology to other
countries since the (1991) Gulf War."
The British government also refuted Cox's claims, stating that: "We are
monitoring the evidence closely, but to date we have no evidence to
substantiate these claims....Moreover, we know that some of the claims
are untrue...". (15) The British Government Minister also cited UNSCOM,
stating that: "Nor has the United Nations Special Commission reported
any evidence of such transfers since the Gulf War conflict and the
imposition of sanctions in 1991." (16)
Similarly, in October 1999, Baroness Cox claimed that Sudanese
Government forces had used chemical weapons in locations in southern
Sudan in July 1999. On 17 October 1999 the United Nations revealed that
tests conducted by the laboratories of the Center for Disease Control in
Atlanta on medical samples taken by Operation Lifeline Sudan members in
the areas cited by Baroness Cox "indicated no evidence of exposure to
chemicals". (17) Baroness Cox supplied further samples which she claimed
proved her case. In June 2000, the British government revealed the
results of the "very careful analysis" of the samples provided by
Baroness Cox and all other evidence. The samples had been tested by the
British Defence Ministry's world-renowned chemical and biological
weapons establishment at Porton Down. The results showed that the
samples provided "bore no evidence of the CW [Chemical Weapons] agents
for which they had been tested". The British government also pointed out
that in addition to the American tests, further samples had been tested
by the Finnish institute responsible for chemical weapons verification.
These too had been negative. The Government commented on the
"consistency of results from these three independent sets of analysis".
(18)
As a general view on Baroness Cox's reliability, it is worth nothing
that in Andrew Boyd's very sympathetic biography of her, 'Baroness Cox:
A Voice for the Voiceless', Dr Christopher Besse of Medical Emergency
Relief International, a humanitarian aid organisation with which Cox is
closely associated (Dr Besse and Baroness Cox are both trustees of
Merlin), is quoted as saying:
"She's not the most popular person in Sudan among the humanitarian aid
people. She has her enemies, and some of them feel she is not well-
enough informed. She recognizes a bit of the picture, but not all that's
going on." (19)
It must be emphasised that Dr Besse was referring specifically to
"humanitarian aid people". That 'The Vancouver Sun' chose to accept at
face value claims made by Baroness Cox, of whom even her friends say
that she only "recognizes a bit of the picture" with regard to Sudan is
simply unprofessional.
Baroness Cox and Canadian Business Involvement in Sudan
Cox was also very critical of Canadian business involvement in Sudan,
claiming that such involvement props up the Sudanese government. She is
once again characteristically ill-informed and out of touch even with
opposition opinion within Sudan itself. In June 2001, for example, 'The
Washington Post' reported in an article entitled 'Activists in Sudan
Fear Loss of Western Oil Firms' Influence' that human rights activists
within Sudan "emphasize that as long as the companies involved are
Western, their concerns about corporate citizenship provide valuable
leverage to ...many critics. Talisman Energy, the Canadian firm...has
quietly pressed human rights concerns on a Sudanese government over
which the West has little other influence, the opposition figures say."
The paper quoted key Sudanese human rights and opposition activist Ghazi
Suleiman: "If Talisman were to pull out of Sudan, this doesn't mean the
oil business will come to an end. Talisman will be replaced by some
company." Suleiman said that any replacement company will be less
interested than Talisman in the Sudanese people. 'The Washington Post'
also reported that Suleiman credited Talisman's presence with some of
the freedoms now enjoyed by opposition parties in Sudan. Another voice
on the issue has been that of Alfred Taban, himself from southern Sudan.
Taban, the publisher of Sudan's only independent English language
newspaper, stated that Talisman has acknowledged some of the
difficulties the oil project has brought with it: "The way forward is
not to take away companies that admit some of this is going on and have
been working to try to end some of that abuse." (20) It should be noted
that both Suleiman and Taban have been detained by the government for
periods of time, and are infinitely closer to the reality of events
within Sudan than Cox.
It clearly ill behoves Canadians to judge fellow Canadians on the basis
of claims made by people such as Baroness Cox.
All in all, there are a number of questions that need to be answered by
Douglas Todd and 'The Vancouver Sun'.
Having simplistically raised the issue of "slavery", why was the clear
issue of exactly what constitutes "slavery" not examined?; Why were
clearly articulated international concerns about the possibly fraudulent
nature of precisely the sort of "slave redemption" not discussed?; Was
'The Vancouver Sun' not at all concerned that it was fuelling undeserved
prejudice against Arabs and Muslims in its stereotyped portrayal of
"Islamic" slave traders"?; Why was 'The Vancouver Sun' not aware that
Baroness Cox has previously repeatedly made unsubstantiated or untrue
claims with regard to Sudan, and that many of her claims have been
dismissed by sources that cannot be described as being supportive of the
Sudanese government; Is 'The Vancouver Sun' not concerned that the
unquestioning acceptance of claims described as being rooted in "lazy
assumptions" only serves to distorted an already very confusing picture
of events in Sudan?
Notes
1. The SPLA is sometimes also referred to as the SPLM/A, a
reference to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
2. John Harker, 'Human Security in Sudan: The Report of a Canadian
Assessment Mission', Prepared for the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Ottawa, January 2000, p. 1.
3. Ibid., pp.39-40.
4. Letter from Bona Malwal to Baroness Cox, 23 January 2000 posted
on South Sudan Net (http://southsudanet.net/baroness_caroline_cox_1_arnellan.htm).
5. "A Response to the Sudan Foundation' s 'Questions ' and
Criticisms of CSI's Work in Sudan", 'CSI Magazine ', Issue 90, December
1997 available at http://home.clara.co.uk/csiuk/90page4.html.
6. Sir Robert Ffolkes was quoted in "'Sudan', A Special
International Report", 'The Washington Times', 10 July 2001.
7. "Anti-Slavery Drive in War-Torn Sudan Provokes Response Critics
Say Buyback Boost Market", 'The Washington Times', 25 May 2000.
8. Alex de Waal, "Sudan: Social Engineering, Slavery and War", in
'Covert Action Quarterly' (Washington-DC), Spring 1997.
9. Peter Verney, 'Slavery in Sudan ', Sudan Update and Anti-Slavery
International, London, May 1997.
10. The article was published in two parts in 'The Atlantic Monthly'
and is also available online in two parts. Part one is available at
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99jul/9907sudanslaves.htm and part two
at http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99jul/9907sudanslaves2.htm.
Miniter's work has previously appeared in 'The New York Times', 'The
Wall Street Journal' and 'Reader's Digest'.
11. "Aid group tries to break Sudan slavery chain", News Article by
Reuters, 11 July 1999
12. "Slave 'Redemption' Won't Save Sudan", 'The Christian Science
Monitor' (Boston), 26 May 1999.
13. The reference number of this submission to the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights is TS/S/4/97, and is available to view on the
Anti-Slavery International web-site at http://www.charitynet.org/asi/submit5.htm
14. 'The Times' (London), 30 January 2001, p.27.
15. House of Lords 'Official Report', London, 19 March 1998, cols.
818-820.
16. House of Lords 'Official Report,' London, 19 March 1998, cols.
818-820.
17. Note by the Spokesman of the United Nations Secretary-General
handed to the Sudanese Ministry of External Relations by the UN Resident
Coordinator in Sudan, Philippe Borel.
18. Letter from Baroness Symons, Minister of State for Defence
Procurement, to Baroness Cox, (Reference D/MIN(DP)/ECS/13/3/3), 5 June 2000.
19. Andrew Boyd,
'Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless', Lion Publishing, Oxford, 1998,
p.324.
20. "Activists
in Sudan Fear Loss of Western Oil Firms' Influence", 'The Washington
Post', 24 June 2001.
The European-Sudanese Public Affairs
Council sent this media contribution to Media Monitors
Network (MMN)
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council
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