Sudan slams US human rights report
March 12, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government responded angrily to the annual report on human rights which called the record of the east African nation “horrific”.
“Sudan’s human rights record remained horrific, with continued reports of extrajudicial killings, torture, beatings, and rape by government security forces and their proxy militia in Darfur,” the report said.
Sudan was added by the US State Department to its list of world’s top 10 offenders of human rights.
The State Department said in the report that “countries in which power was concentrated in the hands of unaccountable rulers remained the world’s most systematic human rights violators.”
Al-Sadig accused the US of being “the biggest violator of human rights in the world”.
The Sudanese official said that “Guantanamo Bay detention camp and secret prisons around the world” are examples of US abuse of human rights.
He also said that Sudan is committed to human rights which are part of national legislation based on Islamic Shari’a law.
Washington has been the world most outspoken critic on the Darfur crisis and called it genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in the conflict. The Sudanese government says 9,000 people have been killed.
(ST)