Amnesty says Sudan security brutally suppressing opposition, activists

July 18, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) is utilizing torture as means to suppress opposition figures and independent human right campaigners, rights group Amnesty International said in a report on Friday.

“Sudanese authorities are brutally silencing political opposition and human rights defenders in Sudan through violence and intimidation. NISS agents benefit from total impunity for the human rights violations they continue to commit.”

“The NISS rules Sudan by fear. The extensive, multi-pronged assault on the Sudanese people by the security services has left critics of the government in constant fear of arrest, harassment or worse” the group said.

In a report entitled “Agents of Fear,” Amnesty said that NISS uses a variety of torture methods are used by Sudan’s Security Service, including beating detainees who are being held upside down against a wall, whipping, sleep deprivation, electric shocks, kicking and stamping on detainees and beating them with water pipes.

One Sudanese doctor named Ahmed Sardop detailed account of his torture over an article he wrote speaking about rape in Darfur and criticizing the government’s decision to expel humanitarian organisations from Sudan following the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

“They leaned me over a chair and held me by my arms and feet while others hit me on the back, legs and arms with something similar to an electrical cable. They kicked me in the testicles repeatedly while they talked about the report on rape in Darfur” Sardop said.

Sardop filed a complaint with the police and was examined by a doctor who confirmed his allegations of torture. A few days later, he started receiving telephone death threats: “We will soon find you and we will kill you.” He now lives in exile.

“The period from May 2008 to early 2010 saw extensive and renewed human rights violations throughout the country. Most were perpetrated by the NISS, whose agents are responsible for most cases of arbitrary and incommunicado detention, torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.

The Africa programme director at Amnesty Erwin van der Borght said that the National Security Act must be reformed to address immunities bestowed upon NISS agents.

“All immunities should be removed. Allegations of human rights violations must be promptly and effectively investigated and those responsible prosecuted for the crimes they commit. Victims must be given reparations. he said.

An African Union panel established last year and headed by former South African president Thabo Mbeki said that the government must remove “all legal and de facto immunities and other legal impediments to prosecutions, such as periods of limitation”.

However, so far the Sudanese government has made no amendments to the laws governing immunities of security officers.

The NISS has renewed crackdown on dissenting voices, closing down newspapers and arresting journalists despite the country emerging from the first multi-party elections in 24 years.

This week three Sudanese journalists working at a paper belonging to the Popular Congress Party (PCP) were sentenced to jail on charges of attempting to destabilise the constitutional system.

While in jail, it was alleged that the journalists were being tortured and a photo was circulated showing one of the journalists Abuzar Al-Amin back, was sentenced to five years, with a large bruise. Al-Amin was arrested after authoring an analysis alleging that Iran had constructed a weapon factory in Sudan aiming to supply Islamists insurgents in Somalia and Yemeni Shiite rebels as well as Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas.

“The use of torture by the NISS is systematic. In a report to the UN Security Council, the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan stated that “Interlocutors interviewed by the Panel informed it that while ill-treatment or torture are not introduced as part of the curriculum prepared for officers undergoing NISS training, everyone in NISS is left with the impression that some physical violence is acceptable in the process of extracting information from suspects. According to a middle-level NISS officer the dilemma is obvious: “how else can I extract information from a criminal when I know that he’s got it inside of him”.

Amnesty said that women have also been harassed and intimidated by law enforcement agents and the NISS, and sexually assaulted while in their custody.
(ST)