SUDAN: MORE THAN 100,000 FLEE ABYEI CLASH

HUNGRY AND SCARED:
SUDAN VILLAGERS FLEE ABYEI

Mayen Abom, Sudan (AP) - The number of people displaced from Sudan's disputed Abyei region after its seizure by northern troops has reached more than 100,000, a southern minister says.  Days before, the first group of women and children crept out of the bush just as Sunday Mass was finishing at the small brick church.  Feet were swollen from days of walking. Some collapsed from hunger and thirst.  Over the next four days, many other displaced people have followed their footsteps to the grass-hut town of Mayen Abom, a two-day walk from the outer edge of the contested Abyei region.  Abyei, a zone about the size of Connecticut that lies between north and south Sudan, ignited in conflict a week ago and many fear it could escalate into a new civil war.  Some families were split up while fleeing and some were killed in the north’s attack.

Abyei, which has pockets of oil and abundant grass for northern tribesmen’s cattle, has long been the major source of friction between north and south.  Most of those fleeing Abyei were from the Dinka Ngok, a southern ethnic group who are the permanent residents of the region.  They were travelling off the main roads and hiding in surrounding bushes for fear of attack by northern aircraft.  The small church in Mayen Abom is now a shelter bursting full of people, many of them women and children, who have abandoned their homes and fear for their futures.  Abyei is sometimes referred to as the country’s Jerusalem because of its symbolic status and the deeply emotional debate over its control. Both Sudan’s north and south claim it as their own. 

 Highly over than 100,000 people have fled violence ravaging Sudan's contested Abyei border region and surrounding areas.  Large numbers of people continue to move on bush paths.  Women, children and elderly are fleeing in fear from brutal violence, without shelter.   Whatever happens next in Abyei and in north and South Sudan, there is no doubt the clash between the two armed forces has brought the spectre of a devastating new war considerably closer, which will not respect the most weak and vulnerable: the elderly, women and children. 

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?  

“A person who knows the principles of religion does not kill an enemy who is careless, ... Nor does he kill a boy, a woman, ... .”  An enemy who does not resist is never killed by a warrior who knows the principles of religion. Formerly battles were fought on the principles of religion and not for the sake of sense gratification. If the enemy happened to be intoxicated, asleep, etc., as above mentioned, he was never to be killed. These are some of the codes of religious war. Formerly war was never declared by the whims of selfish political leaders; it was carried out on religious principles free from all vices. Violence carried out on religious principles is far superior to so-called nonviolence.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam - Canto 1: “Creation”.
Chapter 7: “The Son of Drona Punished” - Verse 36.
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase