Sudan says to probe torture death allegations
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Sudan said on Monday it was investigating allegations by an Islamist opposition party that one of its members was tortured to death in detention.
Sudanese authorities have arrested dozens from Islamist Hassan al-Turabi’s Popular Congress (PC) party in the past week after discovering two arms caches in Khartoum, to be used in what officials described as a plot to sabotage the government.
PC officials said their members had been tortured and one young official had died after being severely beaten. The party sent Reuters what it said was a copy of his death certificate, showing the official had suffered fatal brain injuries.
“An investigation has begun … Under these kinds of circumstances, where there are battles … some incidents may occur,” First Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha told reporters in Khartoum.
“But the law rules, and there is no organ or apparatus in this state that is above the law … including the state security services.”
He accused elements of the PC of supporting African rebel groups which launched an uprising in Darfur in February 2003, and of trying to move the struggle to Khartoum.
Sudan’s interior minister, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, told Reuters the government would take the party to court for violating the Political Parties law, which prohibits parties from committing acts of violence.
“Yes, this is going to happen. We are going to wait until we collect all the information and then we will take them straight to court,” Hussein said.
Sudanese legal experts said it was “highly likely” the party would then be banned from political activity.
Turabi himself is under house arrest, but the party denies all links to the arms caches and says it does not support the Darfur rebels.
The humanitarian crisis in Darfur in the west has stalled peace talks to end a civil war in the south, with Khartoum accusing the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) of arming the Darfur rebels.
The talks were due to resume in the Kenyan town of Naivasha almost a month ago.
“We will return to Naivasha probably at the end of this month or at the beginning of the next month,” Taha said. “But for sure the role, announced or unannounced, that the SPLM has played in supporting events in Darfur will have negative effects.
“This will really affect the … speed of realising a final signing in Naivasha.”
The southern conflict broadly pits the mainly Christian, animist south against the Islamist government. The war, which is complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology, has claimed 2 million lives.