War in the South Sudan may be inevitable, Ellen Ratner says

Ellen Ratner, calling in from Dubai after leaving Southern Darfur, says the whole issue is slavery. The government of Sudan refuses to call it slavery, and instead calls the "abductees." Slavery is illegal in Sudan, Ellen says, as there is a law passed by the British. However, there is no punishment for slavery and no mechanism to punish slave-holders. There's been a group that brings back these "abductees," she says, but they are being sent back with nothing- no food, supplies, or financial support. They just rely on the kindness of villagers, and the government of Khartoum has done nothing, Ellen says, to make sure that the people from the south can recovery from slavery. This may make war in the south inevitable when the vote comes in 2011 or after for independence. (1:19)
Listen

A slave's children are considered children of the master, Ellen says

Ellen Ratner, calling in from Dubai after leaving Southern Darfur, says they met with refugees and some slaves on Monday. The slaves, she says, left Northern Sudan and were returning to their homes. One refugee who had been a slave, she says, was recognized by another former slave who had the same tribal markings. This slave had been converted to Islam and had children, and the slave's master was very upset that the children were going. Apparently the Islamic way, Ellen says, is that the woman is still held in slavery but her children are considered children of the master. The master was very upset, she says, that the government of Sudan was allowing his children to go with their mother. (1:18)
Listen

Villagers in Darfur told Ellen Ratner the needs they hoped Americans would give

On location in the South Sudan, in a very isolated place called Majom Kor, Ellen Ratner says she is is a village where people from Darfur and other areas have come back to their villages, courtesy of the United Nations. They were told stories of how the people were able to escape to the north or were taken as slaves, although there has been little international recognition that there was slavery at all. One man told them, she says, that the slaves were kept in a pen for seven days without food and water. At this point after all these years away, she says that man told her, the village needs food, clean water, and a health facility. As they were meeting with the villagers today, Ellen said, an unclothed woman came through. The villagers quickly surrounded her, Ellen said, and told her that the woman had been traumatized by rape and that she had seen so many of her relatives killed, that this was her way of coping. The villagers told her the needs that they hoped Americans would give: they had no school, no clinics, no books, no pencils, no paper, and no clean water. That is the need, Ellen says, that is so strong in Southern Sudan.
(1:40)
Listen