Head of doctors’ union taken into custody by Sudanese security

October 5, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s security forces have briefly detained the head of Sudan Doctors’ Union (SDU) Ahmed Al-Sheikh, from his office in down town Khartoum on Saturday.

Al-Sheikh had earlier told several news agencies that the number of victims in the recent protests amounted to 210 deaths, pointing that those who were shot were pockmarked with bullet holes to head and chest.

He added that they are keen to be present in the hospitals to treat the injured, saying that they are planning to set up two clinics in Omdurman and Khartoum north to assist the wounded.

Al-Sheikh’s wife later told Al-Arabiya TV that her husband was released on Saturday night, saying that he was questioned about statements issued by the SDU calling for a general strike.

Last week, violent clashes erupted between the demonstrators and security forces in different parts of the Sudan following the government’s decision to remove fuel subsidies leading to at least 34 deaths according to official figures and more than a 200 according to activists, opposition, and human rights organizations.

Sudanese authorities say they have arrested 700 people in connection with the riots, but denied using live ammunition against protesters, accusing outside elements of firing at demonstrators.

This week a journalist has infuriated the interior minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, the governor of Khartoum state Abdel-Rahman Al-Khidir and the information minister Ahmed Bilal Osman when he accused them of insisting on “lying” with regard to the killing of protestors.

The journalist, Buhram Abdel-Moniem, who works for Al-Youm Al-Tali daily newspaper, snatched a question in the lively broadcasted press conference held by the government officials on Monday and addressed the podium saying “Why do you insist on lying?”, and continued “All evidence prove that protestors were killed by bullets fired by the militias of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP)”.

Abdel-Moniem said he was arrested afterwards and taken for questioning by National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) agents and later released.

Furthermore, more than two dozen said in a memo addressed to president Omer Hassan al-Bashir appeared to accuse government of deliberately targeting protestors by shooting them.

(ST)