PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 54/055/2005
31 May 2005

UA 145/05 Fear of Torture/Incommunicado Detention

SUDAN Hassaballah Hassab al-Nabi Issa (m)
Ibrahim Mohammed Jadallah (m)
Mustafa Abdallah al-Jamil (m)
Mohammed Al-Jazuli Adam (m)
Yassin Yusuf Abdallah (m)
Jalal Shaib (m)
Isam Mohammed Yusuf (m)

The seven men named above were arrested on 22 May at
around 8pm, at a private house in Nyala, state capital
of South Darfur, in western Sudan. They are held
incommunicado by National Security at an unknown
location, and they are at grave risk of torture or
other ill-treatment.

The seven are members of Arab nomad groups. Most are
linked to community leaders opposed to the attacks,
killings and forced displacement of settled farming
communities which have taken place in Darfur over the
past two years. They were reportedly discussing ways
of reconciling different ethnic groups when they were
arrested. They appear to be prisoners of conscience,
arrested solely for this peaceful attempt to reconcile
the parties to the conflict in Darfur.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Darfur has been the scene of internal armed conflict
since February 2003, when the Sudan Liberation Army
(SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) took
up arms against the government because of what they
perceived as the lack of government protection for
their people and the marginalisation and
underdevelopment of the region. After that, the
government gave free rein to the Janjawid militias,
mostly drawn from nomad groups and armed by the
government, to kill and abduct civilians, mainly from
the agricultural ethnic groups, and destroy their
property. More than 1.6 million people have been
driven from their homes in rural areas, and now live
in camps around the towns and villages of Darfur; some
200,000 have fled to Chad. Some 3,000 African Union
troops and personnel are in the region to monitor
ceasefire violations, but forced displacement,
killings, rape and plundering of property by militias
aided by government troops are continuing. The SLA and
JEM have also attacked civilians.

The government has held reconciliation ceremonies
between opposing ethnic groups, but it is unclear how
far these are merely for publicity or are real
reconciliations. The arrest of the seven members of
Arab groups is part of a pattern in Sudan where the
government has arrested those who seek reconciliation
or who publicise human rights violations, rather than
arresting the perpetrators of the violations. The
government has consistently failed to bring members of
the Janjawid militias to justice for killings or
rape. However, on 30 May it charged the director of
Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), Netherlands, with
crimes against the state for publishing false
information because of a report made public in March
on the large numbers displaced people being raped in
Darfur.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as
quickly as possible, in Arabic or English or your own
language:
- expressing concern at the detention of the men
(naming them), and saying that they appear to be
prisoners of conscience, detained solely for their
peaceful attempts to reconcile the opposing groups in
Darfur, and calling on the authorities to release them
immediately and unconditionally;
- asking for assurances that they are being humanely
treated, and calling for them to be given immediate
access to their families, lawyers and independent
doctors;
- calling on the authorities to give them access to
international monitors, including the African Union
force in Darfur, the International Committee of the
Red Cross and UN human rights monitors.

APPEALS TO: (note that some fax numbers will first
give an answering machine: please wait, and a fax tone
will follow)
Mr Ali Osman Mohamed Taha
First Vice-President
People's Palace , PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 249 183 779977
Salutation: Your Excellency

Major-General Abdul-Rahim Muhammed Hussein
Minister of Internal Affairs and Presidential Advisor
on Darfur
Ministry of Interior
PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: +249 183 773974
+249 183 773046
Salutation: Your Excellency

Al-Hajj Atta al-Manan
Governor of South Darfur State
Presidential Palace, PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax : + 249 183 779977
Salutation: Dear Governor

COPIES TO:
Mr Hamadtu Mukhtar
Chair of the Human Rights Committee
National Assembly
Omdurman, Sudan
Fax: + 249 187 560 950

and to diplomatic representatives of Sudan accredited
to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the
International Secretariat, or your section office, if
sending appeals after 12 July 2005.