U.S. Embassy criticizes lack of press freedoms in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Sep 15, 2003 (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Sudan criticized this African country’s government Monday for failing to lift press restrictions despite past pledges to do so.

The embassy issued a statement drawing attention to the continued closure and suspension of several papers, including the English-language Khartoum Monitor and the Arabic-language Alwan.

“We had welcomed the government’s declarations that censorship on newspapers would be lifted, but the repeated closure of the Khartoum Monitor and the recent suspension of the paper Alwan is not compatible with the government’s declared policies,” the statement said

“We ask that these two newspaper be allowed to publish again and that press censorship becomes truly a relic of Sudan’s past.”

Sudanese officials were unavailable for comment on the embassy claims. No official reaction from Khartoum has been released yet.

Sudan’s President Omar el-Bashir declared in mid August that state censorship on the country’s newspapers would be lifted.

The Monitor has been suspended several times in relation to human rights, slavery and freedom of expression issues. The paper focuses on conditions in southern Sudan, where a civil war pitting Christian and animist rebels on one side and government forces on the other has left more than 2 million people dead, mainly through famine, since 1983.

Alwan was suspended last week after publishing a lengthy interview with prominent opposition leader Hassan Turabi that was critical of government policies.

Turabi had been el-Bashir’s staunchest ally before they fell out in 1999. El-Bashir accused Turabi of trying to grab power and dissolved the parliament, stripping Turabi of his position as speaker

Sudan’s government has a record of cracking down on political demonstrations and closing opposition newspapers.