Sudanese police violate political rights and civil freedoms

AUGUST 30, 2006 — Monday August 28th, 2006, an organization defending the rights of unlawfully dismissed citizens held a seminar at the Umma House in Omdurman. The seminar was attended by a large audience with speakers representing many opposition parties, including the Umma leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, Democratic Unionist leader Ali Mahmoud Hasanain, and the Communists’ leader Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud.

The seminar ended with a Memo addressed to the Government of National Unity (GONU) approved by all opposition parties and the participant organizations that condemned the government’s failure to fulfill the national agenda of the transitional rule.

The next day, Tuesday August 29th, another seminar at the Midan Aqrab of the Khartoum North City criticized the price-rises recently announced by the Ministry of Finance on the key commodities of sugar and petrol.

In gross violation of the Constitution, the State Security Department launched arbitrary arrests, interrogations, and unlawful detentions on the participants of the seminar that included speakers Sati of the Nasserist Party, Ibrahim al-Shaikh of the al-Mutamar Party, and the Leader of the legitimate Sudan Workers’ Federation, Mahgoub al-Zubair.

Today, August the 30th, 2006, the opposition parties called on a demonstration protesting the unlawful intrusions of the State Security Department in the public life and the unprecedented deterioration of living standards by the financial policies of the government.

The Security Department pre-emptied the demonstration with a terrorizing show of power that covered the demonstration space at the al-Saha al-Khadra in the downtown area of Khartoum with a great number of heavily armed troops, and then disassembled the gathering groups using unknown hurtful gases.

This same day, the government’s NIF-Congress Party staged a “Retaliation Demonstration” with schoolboys from all parts of Khartoum to denounce the most recent UN Security Council’s draft resolution on Sudan. The demonstration, however, adopted slogans condemning the price rises of sugar and gas.

As a consequence of this change, the security forces assaulted the demonstrating children, forcing many of them to seek asylum at the neighboring residences and the University of Khartoum closed campus. The Jazeera Channel photographers and office personnel who had been covering the reported events were arbitrarily arrested and severely tortured.

The GONU retaliating forces exercised subsequent arrests, tortures, and detentions of which Dr. Babiker, the Chairperson of the University of Khartoum Professors’ Union, and Dr. Elfatif al-Sayed of the Sudan Doctors’ Union (which are not yet recognized by the government) were immediately detained.

Following these confrontations, more than 67 citizens have been arrested and detained in one of the Khartoum police stations in appalling conditions.

The Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office condemns in the strongest terms possible the GONU unlawful inhibition of democratic demonstrations and the freedoms of expression and the Press, the unrelenting intrusions by the State Security Department upon the civil rights of people, and the unlawful arrests, tortures, and detentions of protesting activists by the authorities.

SHRO-Cairo is gravely concerned for the outlawing activities of the GONU security troops that aim to curtail the human rights and public liberties of people.

The Organization expects, with grave concerns, an imposition of the notorious Emergency Law to curtail the mounting activities of the civil society and opposition groups, as well as a house detention of al-Mahdi, Hasanain, and Nugud, as well as the other opposition leaders.

– SHRO-Cairo asks the GONU to release immediately all persons who have been arbitrarily arrested and/or detained by the authorities;
– The GONU is required by the Constitution to perform its legal obligations towards the people’s freedoms and human rights by democratic, consistent, and firm law-abiding procedures;
– The government must observe, with vigilance, the full enjoyment of citizens to exercise the freedoms of expression and the Press, in addition to the right to free organization and peaceful assembly, without any discrimination; and
– GONU must re-establish the State Security Department, in accordance with the Constitution, to guarantee the full realization of human rights and civil freedoms for whose purpose the authority to arrest, interrogate, or detain should be strictly confined to the constitutional powers conferred upon the Ministries of Interior and Justice under independent control of the Judiciary.