Minnesota team’s brainstorming first day in Washington D.C., saw significant victories.

By Dan Bernard

Perhaps most importantly, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., (left) raised the case of Yar and Ajak directly to South Sudan President Salva Kiir in an official meeting on Thursday. President Kiir appeared taken aback and said he would look into it.

With that single action, Rep. McCollum has moved this campaign into the public spotlight and has held the Government of South Sudan accountable for protecting children. Furthermore, her office pledged to be a champion for this case going forward. For elevating this campaign to a higher level, we are deeply indebted to Congresswoman McCollum.

This occurred while our team in D.C. (Kou, Amanda Lyons, Robyn Skrebes and James Collins) was already riding high from having received a strong commitment of support from both of Minnesota’s senators. U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman’s office agreed to quickly send a letter to the Government of South Sudan mission in D.C. to jointly inquire about Yar and Ajak and rampant child abductions in South Sudan in general. The group met with Senator Klobuchar Thursday morning (photo below).

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., met with President Kiir on Wednesday and raised the general issue of child abduction in Sudan.

The group also expected to meet with Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and a key official in the State Department’s Sudan Programs Group.

They met Roger Winter, U.S. envoy to Sudan — he praised their work but did not offer to help them meet President Kiir as we were hoping he would.

Nevertheless, pressure is mounting upon the Government of South Sudan to take constructive action to deal with child abduction. That is because of YOU GUYS:

We understand that the staff of the GOSS Mission delivered to President Kiir some samples of the many postcards that you folks have sent to him via the Mission. (Amanda estimates that her group, Amnesty International Legal Support Network, including fellow organizers Alisha Hilde and Mike Schmidt, have gotten signatures on perhaps 600 postcards that were later mailed.)
On Thursday afternoon, Amanda hand-delivered a printout of the e-petition bearing well more than 1,000 of your signatures.
Thanks also to the reader of this blog who called the GOSS Mission and expressed displeasure at their failure to schedule a meeting

— so far — between Kou and Kiir. We’re still waiting for that. Or rather pushing hard for it.
Barbara Frey of the U. of M. Human Rights Program is still in Minnesota but continues to arrange crucial contacts long-distance.  All of the persuasive material that the D.C. team presents to officials rests on the solid research by Frey’s human rights advocacy class including Amelia Corl, Madeline Thaden, Mariana Ferreiro, Jessica Davis, Lolyann Stoffel, Tracy Baumgardt and others.

Honestly the team has done such great work in one day of getting the message through to Kiir (via Betty McCollum and our senators) that we have to move to the next step: Getting President Kiir to spell out what he will do to free Yar and Ajak and all children held by the Murle. And to be fair, South Sudan cannot do it alone. The underlying problems of economic scarcity and insecurity require, in our opinion, investments of aid from the United States and other international donor bodies. They are already active in South Sudan, and we’re still learning about the extent of their activities. But clearly the aid work needs to target these root problems in Jonglei state and other areas where child abduction continues.

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*** At this time , there is a meeting underway between the Minnesota Team & the South Sudan President, African News Journal will update the public on developments as they unfold.

source: Save Yar Campaign 
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