Sudanese community in the US condemns police brutality of refugees

‘- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sabit Alley at sabit285@… or (732) 236-3219

Jan 2, 2006 (TRENTON, NJ) — Members of the South Sudanese Community in the U.S. are outraged by the murder of their fellow country men in Cairo by the Egyptian security forces. Reports from surviving refugees in Cairo say that, contrary to most news reports, the number killed has risen to over 50 and this number may continue to rise as more bodies are discovered.

The South Sudanese Community in the U.S. condemns, in the strongest terms, the brutal use of force by the Egyptian security forces, which has resulted in the killing of innocent Sudanese in the Egyptian capital. We also condemn the actions of the UNHCR for collaborating with the Egyptian police and for its continued failure to protect these refugees.

The problem began early Friday morning when Egyptian police attacked the refugees who had been peacefully camping on the UNHCR compound for the last three months. Many of them had suffered discrimination in Egypt for several years and had made numerous complaints about their plight in Egypt to the UNHCR, but were ignored. Their complaints listed the abuses meted on them by the Egyptian authorities and the general public, the denial of basic services such as health, education, employment and, above all, the official
recognition as refugees.

The refugees first decided to camp outside of the UNHCR’s offices in Cairo last September, because of the UNHCR’s continued refusal to listen and address their grievances. The objective of their camp was to draw attention to their suffering and to plead with the U.N. to relocate them to a third country for refuge, but the UNHCR refused to do anything.

According to reports from refugees, who were eyewitnesses to the violence and managed to escape, the officers not only sprayed hot water on the refugees, but beat them with batons and fired gun shots at them. As a result, the police killed a number of refugees and injured many others. A large number of those who were not killed, were bundled up into waiting buses and driven off to undisclosed locations in the Egyptian desert.

“We are receiving numerous reports that the Egyptian security forces are now searching for and rounding up South Sudanese refugees in the city to be taken to these undisclosed locations,” said Sabit Alley, a leader in the South Sudanese Community in the U.S.

Knowing the brutality of the Egyptian security forces in the past, the Sudanese Community in the U.S.is concerned that their kinsmen in Egypt are being tortured in locations where journalists and human rights groups are denied access. We are also concerned that the Egyptian government, in concert with the UNHCR, may forcefully deport refugees to Sudan, where they had escaped religious, racial and political victimization and persecution, and where these highly oppressive conditions still exist despite Sudan’s peace agreement to end its north-south civil war.

The South Sudanese Community of the U.S. requests that the U.S.
government and the international community intervene in this crisis and:

Appoint an independent international body to investigate the circumstances surrounding the wanton and barbaric murder of innocent South Sudanese refugees in Cairo;

Compel the Egyptian government to release all of the refugees who have been taken into detention or to some secret locations outside of Cairo;

Demand that the Egyptian government and the UNHCR immediately cease their plans to forcefully deport these refugees against their will to the Sudan;

Ask international non-governmental organizations to provide emergency medical and relief services to the wounded and affected refugees;

Request that the UNHCR immediately relocate these refugees to afriendly third country where their safety can be guaranteed.

– Contact: Sabit Alley: sabit285@… or phone: (732) 236-3219

– Sabit Alley is an Associate Representative of the SPLA/M in America and a leader of the South Sudanese Community in the U.S.