Darfuris detained, tortured in White Nile State following JEM attacks
The Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT)
Human Rights Alert:
Darfuris Detained and Tortured in White Nile State Following JEM Attacks Near Khartoum
May 22, 2008 — The Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) condemns the arbitrary detention of eight Darfuris in White Nile State on 11 May and their subsequent torture in custody. The episode appears to have been directly related to the unprecedented attacks launched near the Sudanese capital Khartoum on 10 May by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur-based armed opposition group. Though most of the detainees have since been released, the whereabouts of one remain unknown.
At around 10am on 11 May members of the Sudanese Armed Forces manning a military checkpoint by a bridge in the town of Kosti, White Nile State, stopped a public bus travelling to Khartoum from el-Obeid, the capital of Northern Kordofan State, and ordered eight Darfuri passengers to disembark.
The names of two of the Darfuri passengers are unknown. The known details of the remaining six are as follows:
1) Hasan Arafat (from the Burgo tribe, from al-Geneina in West Darfur)
2) Abdullah Hasabo Adam (26 years old, Burgo, from Tendalti village near al-Geneina)
3) Khalil Abdulhalim (18, from al-Geneina)
4) Mohamed Dawood (from al-Geneina)
5) Aldoma
6) Sabir
The eight Darfuri passengers were taken to a military site and interrogated. Topics of questioning included where they had come from, their planned destinations and the whereabouts of JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim. In the course of this interrogation, all were beaten. Seven of the detainees were subsequently taken to the local military headquarters, where they were subjected to further physical abuse and were interrogated individually about whether they had links with JEM or with the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army loyal to Abdul Wahid al-Nur. Khalil Abdulhalim was not taken to the military headquarters with the other seven detainees.
The seven detainees who had been taken together to the military headquarters were transported to a highway and released on 19 May, after having their belongings and money confiscated. One of those who was freed reported that the specific kinds of abuses that he had suffered in custody included: being stripped to his underwear; being beaten and kicked with boots; having his hands tied behind his back with rope; having a rope wrapped around his neck and pulled; and being threatened with a knife, which he was told would be used to slaughter him if he did not admit to being a member of JEM. His abductors eventually forced him to swear on a copy of the Qur’an that he was not a rebel. After his release, public prosecutors in Kosti viewed the evidence backing up his allegations of abuse and agreed to open a case.
The current whereabouts of the eighth detainee, Khalil Abdulhalim, are unknown. Reports suggest that he was at the military headquarters on 13 May. Relatives who visited the military headquarters were informed that he had been released on 20 May. But as of 21 May his family had still not heard from him.
In the days following the JEM attacks on 10 May, hundreds of people were arrested in and around Khartoum and the neighbouring city of Omdurman and were held in unknown locations. The arrests appeared to be extremely arbitrary, targeting Darfuris, especially those of Zaghawa ethnicity, and individuals who simply bear a physical resemblance to people from the region. The authorities also detained members of the Popular Congress Party (PCP), which has been accused of links with JEM. Medical staff and journalists reported that individuals who were subsequently freed were visiting local hospitals to be treated for injuries sustained as a result of physical abuse in custody. It remains very unclear how many of those rounded up in these mass arrests are still in detention.[1] The Kosti incident outlined in this alert confirms that the crackdown that followed the JEM attacks was not limited to the capital.
Under Sudanese law, a person can be detained for up to nine months without charge. Existing legislation also grants many categories of state officials effective immunity from prosecution for human rights violations like arbitrary detention and abuses in custody.
For more information please contact:
Sudan Organisation Against Torture
Argo House
Kilburn Park Road
London
NW6 5LF
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7625 8055
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7372 2656
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.soatsudan.org