Rights groups call for release of all remaining political prisoners
April 23, 2013 (NAIROBI) – Human rights groups have called on the Sudanese government to honour its pledge to free all political prisoners and release at least 100 still in detention.
The remaining political prisoners come mostly from the country’s conflict-hit peripheries, including South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where the government has been fighting armed rebels since 2011.
Sudan has released 24 civilian political prisoners following an amnesty extended by Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir on 1 April to free all political detainees.
In a joint statement issued on Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) and the Human Rights and Development Organisation (HUDO) urged the government to allow independent monitors into prisons and detention facilities to account for all remaining political prisoners.
Research by the organisations suggests that at least 100 more people are still being detained by national security or military authorities on the basis of their presumed political affiliations and have not been afforded due process or charged with any legally recognisable offence.
Due to government restrictions, researchers were unable to verify the number of detentions on the basis of presumed political affiliation in Darfur.
According to research compiled by HUDO, some 38 civilians from South Kordofan remain in national security detention, while 51 are being held in military detention. None have been charged with a crime.
“Sudanese military should under no circumstances hold civilians, even in times of conflict,” said Osman Hummaida, executive director of the ACJPS.
“Authorities should charge or release all the detainees and provide them access to lawyers and family visits, as required under Sudanese law”, he added.
Those in arbitrary detention include a group of 32 ethnic Nuba women from South Kordofan who have been held without charge and without access to lawyers or family visits since November 2012 because of their suspected affiliation with the rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which is active in South Kordofan.
“The length of these detentions without charge or trial violates even Sudan’s own repressive national security laws,” said Bushra Gamar, director of HUDO. “These women should be immediately released or charged with a recognisable offence under international law”.
DETAINEES RELEASED
Following Bashir’s pledge during his opening speech to parliament, security authorities freed six high-profile opposition members and youth activist Hatim Ali from detention in Khartoum’s Kober prison.
Those released included retired General Abdelaziz Khalid, chairman of the National Sudanese Alliance party; Mohammed Zain al-Abdeen and Abdelrahim Abdullah, from the Unionist Movement; Entisar al-Agali, a representative of the Alliance of Women Politicians; Husham al-Mufti, a member of the United Democratic Unionist party; and Youssef al-Kauda, the leader of the Moderate Islamic party.
They were detained between 7 January 7 and 14 February as part of a crackdown on political parties that held talks with armed rebel groups in January. All were held without access to lawyers or adequate medical care.
The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) agents arrested 24-year-old Ali on 23 March after he participated in a protest in Khartoum against government moves to privatise public hospitals.
Meanwhile, on 4 April, authorities in Khartoum released three detainees of Nuba ethnicity who had been detained without charge or access to their lawyers or families on suspicion of affiliation with the SPLM-N.
In Darfur, where fighting between government and armed rebels has entered its 10th year, NISS authorities released a group of six students on 1 April and three more on 6 April. NISS agents had arrested the students on 23 March following a meeting at Nyala University held by the United Popular Front (UPF), a student group affiliated to a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur (SLM-AW).
The students told researchers that they were beaten with sticks and electric wires and held together in one cell without access to family, lawyers or medical care until their release without charge.
On 11 April, authorities in Khartoum also released four members of the Islamist opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) held in Kober prison for eight years over their role in an alleged attempt to overthrow the government in 2002, their lawyer, Kamal Omar, told HRW over the telephone.
Authorities also freed 27-year-old Mohammed Osman Musa, a Darfuri student detained without charge for more than three months following his arrest on 17 December by NISS officials on a public bus in Omdurman.
REFORMS NEEDED
Sudan’s 2010 National Security and Intelligence Act gives the NISS sweeping powers of arrest and detention for up to four-and-a-half months without charge or judicial review, as well as search and seizure powers. The act also gives NISS members immunity from prosecution.
HRW has urged Sudan to urgently reform its repressive national laws in line with international standards, with scores of former detainees released from NISS detention reporting ill-treatment and torture.
In recent months the Sudanese government has also increased repression of political and civil society groups.
However, Bashir promised a new atmosphere of freedom in line with his decision to release all political prisoners.
The announcement followed positive political rhetoric from his deputy, vice-president Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, in the days prior to Bashir’s speech, inviting leaders of the SPLM-N to participate in dialogue for the creation of a new constitution for the country.
Public debate over the constitution comes amid increasing polarisation over the role of religion, with some Islamist groups lobbying for a stricter version of Sharia law, while opposition forces advocate a secular constitution that recognises the country’s diversity following the secession of South Sudan in July 2011.
(ST)