Press Release Arab Coalition for Sudan and the Arab Network for Media Crisis Inaugurate the (90) da

Press Release
Arab Coalition for Sudan and the Arab Network for Media Crisis
Inaugurate the (90) days
campaign to collect signatures for the release of detainees... under the slogan "Freedom is a right not a gift"

The Arab Coalition for Sudan (ACS) and the Arab Network for Media Crisis (ANMC) launched the (90) days campaign to collect signatures for the release of all political detainees, to drop charges against convicted on political issues in Sudan, under the slogan "Freedom is a right, not a gift," which starts from the beginning of September until the end of November. They called on all human rights activists, regional and international organizations to join this campaign, as well as they called on all Sudanese citizens at home and abroad to join that campaign to put pressure on the Sudanese government so as to release detainees.
ACS and ANMC, in a joint statement, expressed their deep concerns over the fate of detainees and those convicted on political basis in all prisons of Sudan, particularly, their being subject to harsh physical and psychological torture by the elements of the security apparatus. ACS and ANMC also demand their immediate release and drop of charges (on political basis) from all detainees. The statement disclosed existence of detainees in conflict zones, both in Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, who are arrested after each battle between the governmental forces and the armed movements, as suspected, and who become subject to expeditious unfair trials and maltreatment, along with other detention campaigns in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, which included political activists, journalists, students and human rights activists. Meanwhile, some of those had been under detention for long periods without any charges.
The statement pointed out these campaigns, are incompatible with the government's announcement to conduct a comprehensive dialogue with political and civil forces, in which the president pledged to release all detainees, and to lift censorship on newspapers in order to create an appropriate climate for dialogue conducive to address the country's crises. Such practices of arbitrary arrests, attacks on human rights and freedoms, especially, the attack on the freedom of opinion and expression, undermine the government's credibility regionally and internationally, not to mention its contradiction with Sudan's constitution, which identify the role of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in collection of information, analysis and providing of advice to the concerned authorities.
For his part, the General Coordinator of the Arab Coalition for Sudan Wadah Tabir, said "the campaign aims to release all detainees and convicts on political issues", some of those detaineeswere arrested on September 2013, whilst the number of detainees and convicts which the ACS managed to get till now were (203) detainee in all Sudan prisons. Mr. Tabir pointed out that there is a number of programs associated with the campaign including gathering of signatures of all civil society organizations and characters interested in Sudanese issue, with the aid of ACS's representatives in the concerned countries, along with a number of programs and forums that tackle the situation of freedoms in Sudan and the humanitarian situation in conflict zones.
Tabir, also called on all Sudanese at home and abroad (in the Diaspora) to join that campaign and to organize solidarity protests for the release of detainees, he reasserted the campaign also aims to break the Arab and international silence about what is going on in Sudan, especially since the Arab media have forgotten the case of Sudan for years, despite our appreciation of the events taking place in the Arab region. Yet, according to the United Nations statistics, from 2003 to 2008, the victims in Darfur alone reached 300 thousand. The violent conflict is still ongoing and has extended into the regions of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
القاهرة 2 سبتمبر 2014
خبر صحفي