MSF says charges against two aid workers not yet dropped
By ARTHUR MAX
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, June 15, 2005 (AP) — Two European aid workers arrested in Sudan were waiting for word Wednesday that charges against them have been dropped, according to their organization, Medecins Sans Frontieres.
The two were arrested after the international medical aid organization, also known as Doctors Without Borders, released a report alleging widespread rape in the troubled western province of Darfur, where an estimated 180,000 people have been killed in two years of conflict.
The Sudanese government denied the allegations, and charged the two workers with spreading false information.
“We have been waiting for news that the charges have been dropped, but we haven’t received it,” said MSF Operations Director Kenny Gluck, reached by telephone in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. “Our phones are open,” he said.
Gluck said the Dutch and British embassies also had no confirmation the charges were being set aside.
Jan Pronk, a U.N. special representative, told reporters earlier he expected a development on Tuesday, but the day passed without word. Gluck said Pronk had been passing on messages but had not been negotiating for the aid workers’ freedom.
The two workers, regional director Paul Foreman and Vincent Hoedt, have been free on assurances they would appear in court. Hoedt, who was in Darfur when the arrest warrant was issued on May 31, was due to return home to the Netherlands but was unable to leave until the court issue is settled.
Gluck said MSF had exchanged letters with the government in the past few days, with both sides reiterating their positions. “Our letters explain the gravity of rape in Darfur and the seriousness of the medical consequences and why we needed to make this public,” he said. The government explained its objections to the report, he said.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said more than a week ago that an outline for resolving the issue had been reached. There has been no explanation for the delay, however.
The arrests came after the Dutch branch of MSF released a report in March saying its doctors collected evidence of 500 rapes over 4 1/2 months, with more than 80 percent of the victims identifying their attackers as soldiers or members of government-allied militia.
The aid workers were charged after Foreman refused to release the names of the women interviewed.
Human rights organizations have said the action against the MSF employees fits a pattern of attempted intimidation by the Sudanese against aid workers in Darfur.
Gluck said the government had not demanded that MSF retract the report, and it would not do so if asked. “We wouldn’t be able to do that, because this is based on what we were hearing and seeing in our clinics and have a responsibility to report it,” he said.