U.S. Olympian, Lopez Lomong, Brings Hope and Reconciliation to Sudan, says Darfur Doctor

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

BEIJING, CHINA / PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA (ANS) -- According to one media estimate a television audience of 4 billion people around the world watched the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics this weekend.

Among the 115,000 people in the now-famous Bird's Nest Olympic stadium were 91,000 spectators, including dignatories and foreign heads of state from 81 nations, 15,000 opening ceremony performers, and 10,000 athletes from more than 200 countries.

Olympic athlete Lopez Lomong

Proudly carrying the flag of the United States was Lopez Lomong, from Darfur, southern Sudan, who will run the 1,500 meters on Aug.15.

But there is a deeper aspect to the story of Lopez Lomong, Sudanese Lost Boy and flag-bearer for the US Olympic team.

Because when he stands up for the people of Darfur he is standing up for his former enemies, says a Darfurian medical doctor.

Dr. Abdelgabar Adam, a resident of Philadelphia, and founder and President of the Darfur Human Rights Organization, says Darfurians were used by the Government of Sudan against Southern Sudanese.

But the forgiving attitude of Southerners like Lopez Lomong is blurring the lines of division between Sudanese Muslims in the North, and the largely non-Muslim population in Southern Sudan.

"The Government of Sudan tried to convince the people of Darfur that the non-Muslims in the South were our enemies, and used us to oppress the Southerners" Dr. Adam says.

"But now that we Darfurians are the victims, Lopez and other Southern Sudanese are doing what they can to stand up for our people, despite the fact that their family members were killed by soldiers from Darfur."

Dr. Abdelgabar Adam

According to Dr. Adam, by standing up for Darfur, Lopez is forever changing the mindset of Darfurians, and other Sudanese Northerners, revealing that Southern Sudanese and Darfurians should not be enemies, but brothers.

"Lopez's example is giving hope to Sudan," Dr. Adam says.

The 22-year war between the extremist Islamist regime in Khartoum, and the largely Christian and animist Southern Sudan was ended in January 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord.

The Government of Southern Sudan is semi-autonomous, and in 2011 a referendum will give the Southern Sudanese the opportunity to choose to remain as a region of a united Sudan, or secede.

In 2003-2004 conflict broke out in Darfur, as Khartoum's violent response to demands from Darfurian rebels who demanded roads, schools and clinics for the impoverished region of Darfur. The North -- South war had a religious aspect to it, however the killing in Darfur is not religious but racial in its character.

Border clashes between North and South Sudan, particularly in the oil-rich and contested Abyei region, have led some experts to predict a renewed North - South war, that would be far bloodier than the current crisis in Darfur ("A Genocide Foretold," by Nicholas D. Kristof, NY Times, February 28, 2008).

Dr. Abdelgabar Adam has been one of the leading Darfurian activists, in the U.S., seeking to deepen reconciliation between Darfurians and Southern Sudanese, and among all of the marginalized people of Sudan.

In July 2007 he was the spokesperson at a meeting of Lost Boys, Darfurians and Sudanese Northerners who met to deepen reconciliation among marginalized Sudanese

Dr. Adam is working to organize Lost Boys and young Darfurians to work together to build a school in former slave Francis Bok's home town of Gourion, Sudan.

The school, a joint project between Sudan Sunrise and the Darfur Human Rights Organization will be a sign of reconciliation: "Darfurians will help build the school for Southerners, and Southerners will welcome Darfurian Muslims into the community and school, not as enemies by as their brothers," says Dr. Adam.

"As a Muslim and a Darfurian, it grieves me that Darfurians were sent to Southern Sudan to fight in the name of Islam. I know much of Lopez Lomong's suffering as a Lost Boy was caused by soldiers from Darfur. That he would stand up for Darfurians, is an example to all of Sudan that Darfurians and Southern Sudanese are brothers, and we should not ever again be used as enemies of one another," says Dr. Adam.

Sudan Sunrise, a largely Christian organization of Southern Sudanese, and the Darfur Human Rights organization led by Dr. Adam, are working together in Sudanese reconciliation, and are working to call attention to this key aspect of the story of Lopez Lomong, which can be easily overlooked by those unfamiliar with Sudan.

Dr. Adam is available for interviews.

For more information, contact: Dr. Abdelgabar Adam 267-784-7073, darfurhumanrightsorg@verizon.net or Tom Prichard, Sudan Sunrise, 913-481-1459, tomprichard@sudansunrise.org 

** Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent of ANS, is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station. Michael's involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- Michael Ireland Media Missionary (MIMM) -- of ACT International at: Artists in Christian Testimony (ACT) International.