By Jill Hawkey

"One day the army came and took away our boys. So we took all of our suckling children to the barracks and left them there for the military to take care of. We told them 'you suckle them if you are going to have them for fighting'. All our children were returned".

These were the words of Mrs Anna Hoth, women's peace mobiliser for the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) during a recent visit to New Zealand. Anna, a Sudanese Presbyterian, was part of a four person delegation brought out by Christian World Service to raise awareness of the ongoing war in Southern Sudan. While here, they met with politicians, church leaders, oil companies and also spoke at public meetings and to the media. 2.8 million people have been killed in the war between the north and the south of Sudan since independence in 1956. Within the south, there has also been internal conflict between different tribal groups with the abduction of children, rape of women and stealing of cattle. Anna Hoth works here, bringing together women from both sides of the conflict and mediating peace between them. The women who were previously enemies then plan together how they can get the wider community to make peace. Anna explained some of their methods:

"The men were refusing to make peace - so the women discussed how they could persuade them. They talked about no food and no drink - but then decided 'let us deny them sex for 15 days'. The women met together when they were collecting firewood - some felt it was too hard - some were being beaten - but they stuck to it. After ten days, the men said 'this is too much' and agreed to meet to work for peace".

Anna is herself a refugee who fled southern Sudan in the early 1980's and went to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church sent her for teacher training and she taught refugee children for five years. However, a new Ethiopian government in 1991 expelled all Sudanese refugees including Anna and her young children. They attempted to return to southern Sudan but when the Government of Sudan saw the influx of refugees, they bombed them. Anna and her infants then walked for four months to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Anna is now based in Kenya and has four children aged 13, 11, 9 and 7.

Christian World Service is continuing its work for peace in Sudan, requesting the New Zealand Government to table the issue at the United Nations as well as seeking funding for humanitarian aid.