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 SudanA Brief Respite From Civil WarSince 1999 international attention has been focused on evidence that
slavery is widespread throughout Sudan. Arab raiders from the north of the
country have enslaved thousands of southerners, who are black. The Dinka
people have been the hardest-hit. Some sources point out that the raids
intensified in the 1980s along with the civil war between north and
south.
Ever since Lt. Gen. Omar Bashir's military coup in 1989, the de facto
ruler of Sudan had been Hassan el-Turabi, a cleric and political leader
who is a major figure in the pan-Arabic Islamic fundamentalist resurgence.
In 1999, however, Bashir ousted Turabi and placed him under house arrest.
(He was freed in Oct. 2003.) Since then Bashir has made overtures to the
West, and in Sept. 2001, the UN lifted its six-year-old sanctions. The
U.S., however, still officially considers Sudan a terrorist state.
A cease-fire was declared between the Sudanese government and the Sudan
People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in July 2002. During peace talks, which
continued through 2003, the government agreed to a power-sharing
government for six years, to be followed by a referendum on
self-determination for the south. Fighting on both sides continued
throughout the peace negotiations. In May 2004, a deal between the
government and the SPLA was signed, ending 20 years of brutal civil war
that resulted in the deaths of 2 million people.
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