Standing Up for Peace

One of the heroes of South Sudan is a quiet man named Paride Taban. He happens to be the Catholic Bishop through whose diocese trekked hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and refugees during the long civil war.  After being on BBC speaking out for reconciliation and peace, his home was bombed by Khartoum.  He was imprisoned underground for 100 days by the rebels. He stayed with the people throughout the conflict.  When the war finally ended, he "retired" in order to found a Peace Village in the remote Kuron Valley, not far from the Sudan-Ethiopia border.
Bishop Taban is the person who first invited me to Sudan in 1992, during the war. "Come and see," he said.  I did, and it changed my life.