WE MUST END SLAVERY, SAYS WORLD ADVOCATE FOR DISPOSSESSED
By David W. Virtue
Virtue Online, PA
Nov 9 2006
WEST CHESTER, PA (11/6/2006)–She’s a Baroness, a 69-year old British
blue-blood, a grandmother, who lives and travels like someone half
her age, who has access to the highest levels of Government with
a phone call. But for Baroness Cox of Queensbury, who likes simply
to be known as Caroline, she is a lady whose heart really lies with
the poor and downtrodden of the earth, specifically the 27 million
peoples of the world who are enslaved by powerful forces beyond their
control. Cox is founder and CEO of HART – Humanitarian Aid Relief
Trust. She resides in London, when she is not traveling to distant
corners of the earth working for the release of enslaved millions.
She is the former deputy speaker of the House of Lords She is also
an Evangelical/Charismatic Anglican.
VirtueOnline sat down with Baroness Cox when she spoke at the Episcopal
Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli, Pennsylvania recently.
VOL: You have been called a voice for the voiceless. You have made
secret expeditions to buy freedom for slaves captured by Arab traders
in Sudan’s war against black Africans. But you are best known for
your humanitarian work in securing medicine and supplies for war-torn
regions, and campaigning for justice for victims of the Armenian
genocide. Some consider you a menace, others consider you a saint.
How do you see yourself?
COX: To be a "Voice for the Voiceless" one must first meet them,
touch them, look into their eyes and hear them say their name and
speak on their own behalf.
VOL: The UN calls the crisis in Darfur, Sudan the world’s greatest
humanitarian crisis? Do you agree with that assessment?
COX: Yes. And that’s in the face of a lot of competition.
VOL: You founded and head as CEO something called HART – Humanitarian
Aid Relief Trust – what is this organization all about? The website for
HART says you support the forgotten people of Europe, Africa and Asia:
the oppressed and the persecuted individuals who are often neglected
by other organizations and are out of sight of the international media.
COX: Our aim is to help communities become self-sufficient by enabling
them to redevelop in ways that are sensitive to both their cultural
and religious values. HART’s aid is designed to relieve suffering and
sow the seeds of longer-term solutions; it’s advocacy is designed to
raise awareness of problems – and solutions – at home and abroad.
VOL: Can you be more specific? What projects are you engaged in?
COX: HART’S distinctive niche is its focus on forgotten peoples
in forgotten lands. For example we endeavor to work predominantly
in those areas where major aid organizations cannot operate. That
situation occurs because big and famous organizations like the
UN, UNICEF and ICRC can only go to places with the permission of
a sovereign government. If the Soviet Government is victimizing a
minority in its own borders and does not get permission for the big
boys to access those victims then they cannot go, and those who suffer
are left unreached and unheard. It is therefore one of our primary
aspects mission and made to reach such people where a relatively
small organization can make a difference. We are always amazed and
humbled how people in such circumstances add value with relatively
small amounts and amplify anything we can give beyond what we imagine
through resourcefulness and resilience and deductions.
Other area locations where risks are so great, and other aid
organizations have pulled out or refused to work there, and or posed
conflict situations where aid organizations have ceased to operate
but where needs are still very great.
VOL: According to a website some 4000,000 people
are dead and 2.5 million have been displaced in the Sudan. Untold
thousands have been raped, tortured and terrorized. Men. Women.
Children. 2500 die each week. Ending the horror will take a strong UN
peacekeeping force and a no-fly zone. And that will take leadership
from world leaders, including President Bush. Do you agree with
that assessment?
COX: Yes, 100 per cent. I raised those very issues in the House
of Lords.
VOL: Do you think the U.S. should get involved militarily in the
Sudan? If so how?
COX: I think there is an obligation from the international community,
a duty to protect the poor, downtrodden and oppressed. If the Soviet
Government is failing to provide adequate protection for its citizens,
the international community has a duty to intervene over the concept
of national sovereignty. The time is long past when the international
community should have either put so much pressure on the regime in
Khartoum (I refer to it as a legitimate government) the National
Islamic Front main ruling party. It will allow adequate provision for
its people or, in the face of continuing intransigence from Khartoum,
take the necessary intervention to stop the killing in Darfur which
has reached the proportions of genocide.
VOL: Has the U.S. failed in its moral obligations to act in Darfur?
COX: The U.S. administration along with the rest of the international
community have failed the people of Darfur. Most have failed to
respond adequately to the continuing genocide in Darfur. However,
the U.S. administration has a more honorable record, together with
Canada than, say, the British Government, in that it has recognized
that situation in Darfur as genocide, whereas the British government
has consistently refused to use that word.
VOL: Are Christians being singled out for persecution in Darfur or
is it more widespread than that?
COX: More widespread. The history of Sudan since 1989 the regime in
Khartoum has been manifestly culpable in inflicting death on a vast
scale on its own people, before Darfur hit the headlines, the regime
was responsible for military jihad in which over two million perished
and four million were displaced. Having visited Khartoum and met the
leadership in 1993/1994 it was very clear that the objectives of that
Jihad were the forced Islamization of those not already Muslims and
the forced Arabization of African peoples. Since the signing of the
comprehensive peace agreement, the theater of operation moved to Darfur
where the majority population is Muslim and African. Therefore we must
infer that this part of the agenda relates more to arabization than
to religious persecution. However, of course, the very significant
factor of oil, which has doubtless been another part of the NBIF’s
agenda throughout all these horrendous conflicts.
VOL: You have written several books, your latest is "Cox’s Book of
Modern Saints and Martyrs." What is this about?
COX: It is about slavery. There are 27 million men, women and children
still enslaved in the world. I wrote this book because next year is the
bicentenary of William Wilberforce and his parliamentary achievement
in the British parliament and his endeavor to end the slave trade. It
is our conviction that this time of commemoration should not be used
primarily to look back to historical eras of slavery, but to challenge
us to a commitment to complete Wilberforce’s unfinished mission and
to eradicate slavery from the face of the earth. It is to our shame
that there are still 27 million people in the world today suffering
from some form of slavery. In this book, we offer not only a brief
overview of Wilberforce’s endeavors but the scale of different forms
of enslavement in our time. We also wish to put a human face on to
the concept of slavery.
At the heart of the book are three chapters in which modern day
slaves are given a voice and describe their own experiences of
the horror and humiliation of contemporary slavery. These chapters
contain first hand accounts from men women and children who have
endured the horrors of enslavement in the Sudan, the hell of being
abducted as children by the LRA in Uganda, and the various forms of
anguish experienced by the peoples of Burma subjected to forced labor,
sexual slavery and the nightmares of 70,000 child soldiers. It is our
passionate hope in writing this book that the year of celebration
of Wilberforce’s magnificent parliamentary achievement will not be
a year of condemnation of our failures.
VOL: Do you see and militant Islam on the rise and what happened in
England recently as significant in the war on terror.
COX: What happened in England was a smaller version of your 9/11. On
July 7 that was undertaken by home grown British suicide bombers. The
seeds of militant Islam have taken root and produced a harvest of
terrorism and the continuation of that trend is seen in the recent
alleged attempts to blow up a significant number of civilian aircraft
which would have cause the deaths of many hundreds of people.
VOL: Your new book "Modern Saints" includes as number of Anglican
figures. Why?
COX: Yes it does. It includes Anglican martyrs who have died or been
tortured for their faith in Uganda and Nigeria.
VOL: Is the blood of the martyrs still the seed of the church, in
your mind?
COX : Absolutely. I have authored two other books on this subject and
last year I enlarged on Islam as a religion hostile to Christianity.
Nigeria, for example has a number of Shari’a states, making it a
hostile place for Christians to live. The Anglican Bishop of Jos, the
Rt. Revd. Benjamin Kwashi is a very dear friend. He once said to me,
‘if they kill us, in two years time there will be 200 new Christians
because the blood of the martyrs is still the seed of the church.
VOL: It has been said the 20th century was the century of martyrs,
how do you see the 21st century?
COX: It may exceed that. In general terms it is because there are so
many modern martyrs, and we must not let these stories be consigned
to the dustbin of history; instead we musty remember, affirm and
celebrate the price they have paid for our faith.
VOL: Your definition of ‘saints’ might be questioned in some quarters?
COX: Being inherently "unorthodox", I wanted to include the concept
of saints as defined in an unorthodox way, that is, those people
living on the front line of faith that could endure martyrdom
any time, any day for which our faith is the pearl of such great
price that they are willing to sacrifice everything for it. I
particularly wanted to include these men and women as role models
for our young Christians in the West for whom our churches seem
too often to fail to provide adequate, vibrant compelling role
models and thereby fail to inspire our young people with a deep
commitment to our Faith. As the bible says, ‘if the trumpet gives
an uncertain sound’ it is not compelling. The churches in the West,
too often are distracted and divided, and too often giving uncertain
sounds. Therefore young people are not convinced and many are turning
to other faith traditions including Islam which is the fastest growing
religion in the UK. However, if our young people, who travel more
widely now than ever before, would only spend one week with one of
these modern saints, they would find it a life changing experience,
because they would experience Christianity in its most inspirational
and convincing manifestation. The book is not a morbid read, it also
contains many exciting examples of contemporary miracles. Perhaps
we should not be surprised as we have a God of miracles and there is
no reason why he should not perform these in our days as much as in
biblical times. However, perhaps there are more clearly evident on
the frontiers of faith than in the comfort zones of the West.
VOL: What is your view of Islam, and how followers of Mohammed are
functioning in the modern world?
COX. They are thinking strategically. The vast majority of the world’s
Islamic peoples are peaceful, are law abiding, and culturally very
hospitable people. And it is very important in our relationships that
we build bridges not wars. However, there is a very small proportion
but growing proportion of those who adhere to much more militant
interpretations of Islam who constitute a very serious threat to out
spiritual, cultural and political heritage. It is therefore an urgent
imperative that we wake up and look out beyond our own internal
distractions to the wide world to where our brothers and sisters
are suffering at the hands of militant Islam and also look out in
the sense of wake up, inform ourselves, educate ourselves about the
complex aspects of the nature of Islam and pray for an appropriate
Christian, spiritual and strategic response.
Baroness Cox’s website can be accessed here:
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