EU delegation welcomes amnesty for political prisoners
April 3, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The delegation of the European Union to Sudan has welcomed Monday’s announcement by president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir ordering the release all political detainees and calling for dialogue with opposition groups.
Speaking at the at the opening session of parliament, Bashir said his government was willing to engage with all political bodies and civil society groups without exception, including those that have taken up arms against his regime.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the EU delegation said the release of an initial group of detainees was the “first step”, adding that it encouraged “the government of Sudan to release all the political prisoners as announced, paving the way for the national dialogue”.
The delegation also confirmed “its conviction that a national reconciliation process will strengthen Sudan’s democratic credentials and its prospects for a sustainable development”.
The US has also praised Bashir’s announcement, saying calls for dialogue were particularly pleasing.
Bashir has not said when and how many prisoners would be released and it remains unclear whether the decree would include rebel fighters and high-level officials currently on trial for plotting a coup to overthrow the government.
Seven political prisoners were released overnight on Monday following the announcement, including six prominent members of opposition political parties that participated in signing the New Dawn charter earlier this year in Uganda, which called for military action to topple the existing government.
However, rights groups and opposition members have questioned the credibility of Bashir’s pledge, saying it dodged the issue of law reform, needed to end conditions allowing for arbitrary detention.
“Freeing seven political prisoners does not indicate the government is truly serious about ending arbitrary detention and releasing prisoners of conscience,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Africa programme director, in a statement on Tuesday.
Opposition groups have largely dismissed Bashir’s comments as a political stunt.
Spokesman for the National Consensus Forces (NCF), Kamal Omer Abdel Salam, was quoted by Radio Dabanga as saying Bashir’s statements are “worthless and a waste of time”.
He told the station that past experiences had shown that Khartoum’s motivation for dialogue with other political forces was solely “for gaining time and acquiring legitimacy which ended in the regime’s betrayal … and brought Sudan to what it is now”.
Abdel Wahid, who heads a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLA), described the president’s calls to release prisoners as “false and futile”, adding that the solution to ongoing issues affecting Sudan lies not in dialogue with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), but in changing the entire regime.
He told Radio Dabanga that if Bashir was sincere then he would disarm militias operating in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, which has forced thousands of refugees and internally displaced people to flee their homes and cram into “prisons called camps”.
According to Yasser Arman, secretary-general of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N), there are currently more than 600 prisoners in detention whose whereabouts remain unknown, including at least 240 from the Nuba Mountains, as well as an unspecified number from Darfur and other places.
Meanwhile, Amnesty says more than 118 people are reportedly in arbitrary detention in relation to the conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, including women detained without charges and being held in custody with their infant children.
Rights groups say political prisoners in Sudan are routinely held in detention for indeterminate periods without trial and are often denied access to their families, legal representation and medical care.
(ST)