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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Save Yar Campaign

Ajak Mading and her sister Yar were abducted on October 3, 2007, from a village in southeastern Sudan. Ajak will turn two years old on Monday, January 14, but her parents still do not know where she and her sister are. The two girls are among hundreds of young children who have been abducted by armed groups in southeastern Sudan in the last two years because of their future value as brides. That the local government has taken no steps to find Yar and Ajak reflects how children's rights have been overshadowed by power struggles between ethnic groups in southeastern Sudan.

The University of Minnesota Human Rights Program and its Save Yar Campaign invite you to gather at noon Monday, January 14, in the Rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol to commemorate Ajak's second birthday. Moreover we will issue an appeal to Sultan Ismail Konyi, the leading public official from the Murle ethnic group. (Yar and Ajak are believed to have been abducted by one of several remotely located armed groups of Murle ethnicity.) Sultan Konyi has publicly condemned child abduction, but we will call upon Sultan Konyi to take a personal role in working with local Murle leaders to find Yar, Ajak, and other young abductees, and to negotiate for their release.

The University of Minnesota Human Rights Program and student groups have taken up this cause in solidarity with Minnesota's growing African population including Gabriel Kou Solomon of St. Paul, the uncle of Yar and Ajak. U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum and U.S. Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar have issued official statements on this crisis: Visit www.save-yar.org for details. Monday's event will be attended by state and federal legislators and their aides. For more information on the event, contact Daniel Lynx Bernard, coordinator, Save Yar Campaign, dbernard@umn.edu.