Seeking Liberty For Sudan, Leader Of The Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army Coming To The United States For First Time In Five Years

Samaritan's Purse
Thursday, 7 March 2002

Dr. John Garang Arrives in Washington, D.C. March 10 to Meet with Government Officials, Religious Leaders, and the U.S. Sudanese Community

Since his last visit to the United States five years ago, hundreds of thousands of his fellow countrymen have died as a result of the war and famine, brought on by the actions of their own terrorist government. Following meetings with officials in Norway, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, Dr. John Garang is seeking support in the United States for individual freedoms in Sudan. He is an official guest of the U.S. State Department.

In the past 20 years, an estimated 2 million southern Sudanese have been killed and some 4 million displaced due to war-related causes. The Islamic terrorist regime continues to intentionally attack civilian sites and relief projects, allow slave trade, and deny its southern citizens basic human rights.

Heading the fight for political and religious freedom for the people of southern Sudan, Garang leads the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The people of southern Sudan are suffering from a scorched earth policy of oppression, slavery, and denial of religious and civil liberties. The Government of Sudan funds this war with the exploitation of oil fields located in the south of Sudan and at the expense of the lives and liberty of black Africans in the region.

Following meetings in Washington, Garang will travel to Boone, N. C. to meet with Franklin Graham, an active champion for the oppressed people of Sudan and president of international relief organization Samaritan's Purse. Samaritan's Purse operates a hospital in southern Sudan (the hospital was bombed seven times in 2000 by the Khartoum government), and conducts other programs throughout the country including medical relief, food distribution, and agricultural development. From North Carolina, Garang will visit Iowa to meet with the U.S. southern Sudanese community in the state.

Over the years, Garang has traveled the world pleading the cause of freedom for his people, meeting with prominent leaders including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, South African Presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, and many senior government officials in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In 2001, Garang hosted President Bush's Special Envoy, former Sen. John Danforth, as they traveled to Sudan to assess the peace process and humanitarian conditions.

Garang, born into a Christian family, studied at Grinnell College, Iowa, and later returned to the United States to take a company commanders' course at Fort Benning, Georgia, and again to earn his Doctorate from Iowa State University.

For more information, or to contact Samaritan's Purse, see their website at: www.samaritanspurse.org