Sudanese soldiers face death after refusing to bomb Darfur
By Benjamin Joffe-Walt, The Daily Telegraph
KHARTOUM, Aug 29, 2004 — Fifteen armed men in blue uniforms guard the metal stairs leading to the Sudanese court. Among the people massed at the bottom, only those who look official and scream loud enough are let through, pushing their way past the soldiers.
Crammed inside the courtroom, which is perhaps 20ft square, are 30 lawyers in black cloaks, 70 more armed men, and sundry witnesses and observers – a total of about 150 people in all, with room for none but the judge to sit down.
There is, however, no sign of the accused. To the disquiet of the defence lawyers, they have not been brought to the court compound. “This is only a procedural session,” a government prosecutor explains.
Yet, security is extraordinarily tight at this temporary court in eastern Khartoum because this is a show trial. Few know about the hearing which started last Wednesday and resumes next month, and no other foreign journalist was present.
The men being tried in absentia, a group of 26 Darfurians, stand accused of treason: plotting a coup to overthrow the government. But away from the courtroom, their families tell a different story.
Among the defendants are 10 senior military officials who – their relations say – refused to bomb civilians during Khartoum’s long campaign of violence against black villages in Darfur.
According to the families, the men in the dock were fired from Sudan’s air force and army earlier this year. They were then arrested as civilians and accused first of espionage, and then of the coup attempt. They face the death penalty if found guilty.
Col Moheldein Salih, the most senior officer among the “refuseniks” with 20 years’ service in the air force, had been asked to lead the government forces in Darfur. “He was sent there to carry out bombings, but he said it was inhumane to bomb civilians so he came back,” said his sister, Aza Abakkir, speaking in the broken-down stone shelter where she and other Darfurians live on the outskirts of Khartoum. “He is a hero for refusing.”
Gihan Ahmad Omir, whose husband is among the defendants, said: “The government says he was planning a coup, but we know the truth. He said, ‘I’d rather be killed than help bomb my own people’, so now they are going to kill him.
“How can 10 soldiers take over the government, and why do they all happen to be Darfurian?” The men, who have not been charged, have been held in detention for six months. Their lawyers say they have been tortured and consistently denied access to legal advice.
One former inmate who witnessed their detention told the Telegraph: “We were in the prison and they brought them in in khakis, with black sacks over their heads and a long chain holding them together. Then they put them away. It was the last we saw of them.”
According to the United Nations, up to 50,000 people have died since the Darfur conflict in western Sudan started last year. Refugees have told harrowing stories about men being slaughtered, women raped, and crops and animals destroyed in attacks carried out by Janjaweed Arab militia after government air raids on villages.
The government, which has denied using the Janjaweed to quell a rebel uprising, will be embarrassed by revelations that senior military officers refused to take part in the attacks.
According to eye-witness accounts, the indiscriminate aerial bombardment included barrel bombs filled with shrapnel that were dropped from Antonov aircraft.
Last week, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, urged Khartoum to do more to solve the Darfur refugee crisis after he visited one of the camps struggling to cope with an estimated one million people who fled the pro-government Arab militia.
Tomorrow, the United Nations’ deadline for Khartoum to disarm the Janjaweed will expire. The government has identified 12 “safe areas” in Darfur where refugees will be protected by thousands of police officers, but many people believe that members of the new security forces were complicit in the violence.
Away from the refugee camps, the military government in Khartoum is accused of meting out arbitrary justice to Darfurians, and to political opponents calling for the government to negotiate.
Dr Mudowi Ibrahim was arrested and detained for more than six months after he helped found a new opposition party, the Sudanese Democratic Movement. “They say there is freedom of parties,” said Dr Ibrahim “but then they tried to say that we were leading the armed conflict in Darfur”.
Dr Ibrahim was put on trial in April after going on hunger strike. “They charged me with waging war against the state, spying and seven other death-penalty related charges,” he said.
The evidence against him collected by the government included two satellite telephone boxes and appeals for amnesty from his supporters. “Even the judge laughed,” said Dr Ibrahim. The case was withdrawn late last month.
“They want to show the international community that they know what they’re doing in this country and that no one is stronger than the security forces,” he said. “They think that they are setting red lines that you do not cross, but this doesn’t work. The resistance is only increasing.”
Back at the courtroom, the guards are armed with tear gas and stun grenades. The prosecution lawyer, whose title is translated as “the representative of the security forces”, talks when he wishes, even interrupting the judge. The defence laywers claim that the men are being held illegally in a security forces’ prison, when they should be in police custody.
The prosecutor interrupts again, pointing out that the security forces are responsible for security across Sudan and the judge, Moatasim Taj Assir, quickly rules in his favour. The defence lawyers protest amid an outcry in the packed courtroom; the judge writes a letter allowing them to visit their clients.
The Telegraph is given a similar note. At the prison however, the same message is relayed as was sent to the lawyers: the accused are not there. The men who refused to bomb their own people, they say, simply do not exist.