Letter From Farouk Abueissa to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Mr. Ban Ki-moon
UN Secretary-General
New York, United States

October 20, 2013

Massive Atrocities are being committed in Sudan

Dear Mr. Ban Ki-moon,

The last few weeks have become some of the darkest in Sudan’s recent history. General Omar AlBeshir, who has been indicted for war crimes in Darfur, is not only using his regime to pursue conflicts on multiple fronts through-out the country, but is also now using indiscriminate force to attack peaceful protesters in many of the major cities throughout Sudan.

The latest of wave of protests has been a long time in the making. Recent austerity measures have triggered massive demonstrations in all corners of Sudan, from Nyala in Darfur, to Port Sudan in the furthest East. The capital, Khartoum and its surrounding areas have been engulfed in continuous demonstrations. Unarmed civilians, peacefully exercising their rights which are clearly stipulated in Sudan’s Transitional Constitution of 2005, have borne the brunt of the crackdown by security forces.

Faced with an upsurge of discontent, the government of General Albeshir has resorted to unprecedented violent means to suppress non-violent demonstrations. Security personnel, militias and legions of vigilantes have been allowed to roam the streets, terrorizing the population and shooting demonstrators at will. As a result, over two hundred unarmed civilians have been killed; thousands of people have disappeared and are languishing incommunicado in undisclosed locations, without due process of the law or access to their families. Among the detainees are elderly citizens who are in dire need of urgent medical care.

Time is of the essence for your immediate intervention. The regime of General Albeshir is well versed in extrajudicial methods for extracting intelligence and confessions by torture. Hence, we are gravely concerned and respectfully ask for the following:

1. Thorough and comprehensive investigation by a UN commission into the wanton killing of well over 200 civilians. Their families and the general public demand to receive reports of the coroner and medical doctors who conducted the autopsy.

2. We call on the UN Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the detention conditions of over 1000 detainees and to demand their immediate and unconditional release;

3. Disclosure of burial sites where scores of martyrs were secretly buried;

4. Immediate restoration of fundamental freedoms as stipulated by Sudan’s 2005 Transitional Constitution and UN instruments on human rights.

The people of the Sudan are immensely grateful for your continuous attention and concern in their quest for peace, democracy and justice. We respectfully appeal to you to use your good offices to keep the regime of General Albeshir in check.

With my very best wishes for a good health,

I remain

Yours sincerely,

Farouk Abueissa
Chairman of the Alliance of National Consensus
(Sudan main opposition alliance)

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