Sudan says Radio Dabanga working with ICC
November 6, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese authorities on Saturday acknowledged its closure of an office that was acting as a base for the Netherlands-based Radio Dabanga in the country.
On Tuesday, the authorities raided the office in the Sudanese capital and arrested more than a dozen people in the process.
Radio Dabanga, registered in Holland, is one of few media outlets still reporting on the Darfur conflict. Activists say that Khartoum wrote several times to the Dutch government demanding that they stop it from broadcasting.
The United States this week expressed concern over the arrests and said it would press Sudan for their release.
Today the Sudanese media Center (SMC) website which is widely believed to be run by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) quoted a source as saying that its agents retrieved documents during the raid showing details of a plan to embarrass the government of Sudan and weaken its position within the international community aided by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The source added that the radio receives support from a Dutch organization called PressNow headed by a Leon Williams which has trained its journalists under the supervision of the Director General of Radio Dabanga Hilde Brand, who has provided $75,000 to establish the Sudan office.
The website accused Radio Dabanga of inciting hatred among the citizens and broadcasting fabricated reports through its journalists who are members of the Darfur rebel groups and working for the ICC.
It revealed that those detained will stand trial for opening an office without permission and smuggling hardware and communication equipment into Sudan.
The United Nations estimates some 300,000 people have died in Darfur, a conflict separate to the north-south war. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and genocide there, the first time it has indicted a sitting head of state.
Sudan says the Western media has exaggerated the conflict, saying only 10,000 died. It says the ICC has no jurisdiction in Darfur.
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DASODIKO
Sudan says Radio Dabanga working with ICC
Radio Dabanga is being working in Khartoum since three years ago with agreement between Sudan government and Holland and everybody including Bashir know that. Whats is news to accuse the radio as working with ICC! Very Naive and cynical excuse!! NCP when Rdio Dabanga started working in Sudan was expecting to broadcast false news as they always do; but when Dabanga became important sources of facts on the ground in Darfur, then they started to disrespect the agreement they have signed to allow Dabanga to operate in Sudan. Warrant of arrest for Criminal Bashir was not investigated by Dabanaga but by other means that included some governemnt offecials who leak the documents for the Court of ICC.