Diverse News 2007®

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Black Slaves Freed: Were forced to Practice Islam
                Deng and McGuinness Available for Interviews

    SOUTH SUDAN, May 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This week, Simon Deng, a
former slave now activist living in the U.S., and Heidi McGuinness of
Christian Solidarity International (CSI) returned to the U.S. from Sudan
after freeing 250 slaves. Despite the signing of the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, Deng and McGuinness found that tens of
thousands of Black slaves, mainly women and children, remain in bondage in
Darfur and neighboring Kordofan.
        Lual Akon Diing is a 10-year-old boy who was recently freed and
reunited with his father through Deng and McGuiness' efforts. Lual says
that while enslaved he was beaten and raped by master, forced to practice
Islam and look after cows and goats.

    "I felt that my son was dead. Now he is alive," his father said.
    John Marieu Nyak Agout
    John Marieu Nyak Agout, 15 is Christian. He says that while in
captivity, he was renamed Mohammed and forced to practice Islam. He became
lame and suffered hair loss because of the numerous and severe beatings by
his master.
    "I was forced to call my master father," Agout said.
    Garang Kwac Dhieu
    Garang Kwac Dhieu says he was enslaved as a 10 year-old boy. He says
slave raiders shot his father dead and forced him to memorize Koran.
    His cheek bone was crushed when his master, Sayeed Fajella Nur, beat
him with a club. He says his master also stabbed him in the hand and denied
him food for days.
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