Click Here For Defending the Sudan Government

"One western observer who takes a pro-Sudan government line is right-wing libertarian David Hoile, who formerly promoted the public images of Renamo in Mozambique and Inkatha in apartheid-era South Africa.

"In an 'Open letter to Baroness Cox and Christian Solidarity International' David Hoile emphasises instead the abuses - including abductions and forced labour - carried out by the SPLA. He lays the blame for slavery on the former civilian government of Sadiq al-Mahdi, and overlooks the mass of evidence of complicity by the National Islamic Front. He attacks Christian Solidarity International, whose evidence does not seem to prove its claim that the government actually organises raids for the purpose of enslavement, using this premise to conclude that the government is working hard to free slaves and is entirely innocent.

Although his personal view was published by the London-based Sudan Foundation, which is independent but sympathetic to the government, Mr Hoile also worked for Westminster Associates, contracted in 1996 to improve Sudan's international public image."