Press Release - Sudan security forces are implicated in a new series of violations

Press Release
09/23/2014
Sudan government forces are implicated in a new series of violations, while here it is a year later with the victims of September 2013 still waiting for justice
(Washington, DC) –
U.Sudan Peace and Development Foundation should call on the Sudanese government to account immediately for the escalating arrest campaign of Sudanese journalists, academics and political activists. The government should answer for these unjustified arrests without charge or access to lawyers or family visits. This new campaign occurred in a wider context of political repression and pervasive human rights abuses, as well as ongoing conflicts in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile states. The Sudan government should act immediately to stop all forms of human rights violations, release detainees and conduct comprehensive investigations on their occurrences. Sudan Authorities continued to take deliberate measures to suppress independent reporting about these new violations, censoring media and arresting and detaining journalists to create a media blackout. U.Sudan Peace and Development Foundation managed to obtain a list of names of known detainees, which includes:
1 –Mirghani Atta Elmannan
2 – Dr. Ahmed Hamid
3- Igbal Abdalla
4- Nisrin Oleysh
5- Widdad Darwish
6- Ashraf Meheisi
7- Akram Meheisi
8- Amna Osman
9- Abdelrahman Elagib
10- Rashid Abdelwahab
11- Kamoun Adam
12- Eissa Zein
13- Ibrahim Salih
14- Faiza Nugud
15- Fatma Elsheikh
16- Khalid Eltoum
17- Ibrahim Elmatbaagi
18- Mohamed Elghali
19- Professor Ahmed Mahmoud
20- Khalid Hamza
21- Omer Badawi
22- Waleed Elhaddia
23- Nabiel Osman
24- Ragaa Khalil
25- Itidal Hussein
26- Fatin Eltoum
27- Alaa Elsamani
28-Mohamed Abbadi
29- Ezad Hamid
30- Atif Yousif
31- Mutaz Eltigani
32- Ahmed Abdelrahman
33- Elhag Sheikhidris
34- Mohamed Abdelmoneim
35- Amjad Omerin
This new wide human and civil rights violations comes in connection with the first anniversary of the government’s crackdown that resulted in the death, injury and detention of hundreds of largely peaceful protesters at the hands of government security forces in September 2013, including children and women. Security forces opened fire on protesters in a wave of protests that began on September 23, 2013, following a speech by President Omar El-Bashir announcing an end to fuel subsidies. Authorities have repeatedly contested the death toll and played down the government’s role in the violence. Promises to carry out an independent investigation and make the results public have apparently not been kept. No report from the government-formed committees has been made public or has apparently resulted in prosecutions of members of the security forces for killings, injuries, or other abuses during the protests.
Instead, witnesses told U.Sudan Peace and Development Foundation, authorities blocked families from pursuing justice on behalf of their lost ones. Hospital officials refused to provide medical evidence, and police and prosecutors refused to open investigations. U.Sudan Peace and development Foundation, which will be watching the situation on the ground, will also be in contact with agencies worldwide to ensure the safety of those detainees. Those agencies should condemn the killing of protesters and other abuses in Sudan, and press the government to support an independent, public investigation into the 2013 violence against protesters, with a view to prosecuting those responsible. If Sudan continues to arrest and torture those activists or delay on the investigation, U.Sudan Peace and development Foundation should encourage international and regional agencies to step in. The UN, African Union and other international entities should make clear to Sudan that unless it acts immediately stop this campaign, release detainees and bring justice for the 2013 killings; regional or international investigators need to take over the job. In view of the high number of lives lost during the demonstrations and the need for accountability, it is both morally and legally imperative that there should be an independent judicial inquiry in the killings and other human rights violations that occurred during the September 2013 demonstrations. Hundreds of Sudanese families who lost loved ones or suffered abuse at the hands of the government should not be forgotten. Sudan has for years made no improvement on human and civil rights and no progress on bringing to justice those responsible for serious human rights abuses in Darfur. President El-Bashir is among four people who are fugitives from the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes in Darfur, and faces charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

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