Over 83 protesters are still detained without charge in South Darfur

May 6, 2011 (KHARTOUM) — Over 83 people arrested by the Sudanese security services in South Darfur last month are still in prison since protests in April against president Bashir’s government organized by the supporters of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel Wahid Al-Nur.

The SLM supporters organized a series of demonstrations in different Sudanese states including the Darfur region chanting for regime change and to asking to hand president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir accused of genocide and war crimes over to the international justice system.

“77 persons are being detained at the Korea prison in the south of Nyala, three persons are at Nyala North prison and other three are still in police custody,” said Hussein Abu Sharati the spokesperson of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in a statement posted on the website of the rebel SLM-AW.

Amnesty International, said last week, that family members or lawyers of the detainees are denied access to five students arrested at Nyala prison since 20 April. The rights group further added that the activists remain at risk of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Abu Sharati called on the international community, UN and human rights groups to put pressures on the Khartoum government for their release. He stressed that despite pledges made by the South Darfur governor, the protesters are still in prison without charges.

Sudanese youth organized, mostly small, demonstrations against the Sudanese government in January and March inspired by the waves of protest that started in Tunisia and Egypt to voice their demands for more freedom, and discontent for the rise in food prices.

In Darfur where a state of emergency is enforced, the arbitrary detention of Darfurians has been rife in the restive region where right groups have documented hundreds of cases of prolonged detention without trial.

(ST)