Arbitrary Arrests, Tortures, and Unlawful Detention

FROM SHRO-CAIRO

APRIL 21, 2005


Press Release

Arbitrary Arrests, Tortures, and Unlawful Detention



SHRO-Cairo received reliable information the government’s security forces attacked violently the Osman Balol’s home in Khartoum early this morning, today April the 21st, 2005.



The force terrorized members of the Balol family and other members of the Ramadan Martyrs Family League inside the house. The League is a civil society group that requires the Sudan Government to set-up a judicial fact finding committee to investigate the extra-judicial killings of army officers and soldiers executed without trial in April 1990 by Omer al-Bashir and other specified army officers and NIF militia and party leaders.


The security forces arbitrarily arrested:


Tariq Mohamed Ahmed Qasim

Mohamed Bashir Amir Abu-Deek

Fawaz Salah al-Seed

Samir Osman Balol

Hamid Mohamed Osman Karar

Shazali Idris Balol

Bahaadeen Abu al-Qasim

Mohanad Bashir Mustafa

Ayman Adil Simsaa


The arrested persons were detained in an unknown detention center by the state security forces. Preliminary reports indicate the arrested persons have been subjected to continuous tortures and violent interrogations.



SHRO-Cairo is gravely concerned the Sudan Government continues to mount up security operations to silence civil society groups, harass opposition activities, terrorize public leaderships, and violently assault students’ demonstrations and the other peaceful forms of assembly, including the privacy of families in residential areas.



This wave of the government’s security offensive erupted in close correspondence with unabated media threats vis-à-vis the opposition and civil society groups by Dr. Ali Nafi’ and other key managers of the State. The government’s offensive is another extension of the horrible massacres of innocent citizens, including many members of the Beja Congress, by the police and other security forces to stop a peaceful demonstration in Port Sudan, a few months ago.



Biased to the minister of the interior and the chief police officers accused of involvement in the massacres, a pro-government investigating committee has not yet begun investigation on the government’s criminal responsibility.



The organization suspects the committee has been largely discredited by Beja people for ignoring effective representation of the Baja Congress and the families of the victims in the adjudication process, as was traditionally recognized in Sudanese Judicial systems.



SHRO-Cairo notes that the government allows full public freedoms to its own supporters to exercise the freedom of organization, assembly, and _expression, including abusive manipulation of the public utilities and media, to harass, insult, and assault national or international personalities, agencies, or even international entities.



The Sudan Government Must Abide-By International Norms:



· SHRO-Cairo condemns the unlawful, offensive, and discriminatory attitude of the government towards the privacy of people, public activities, constitutional rights, and public freedoms.



· Government must allow equal right to all civil society groups, including political parties and all families, community-based or professional organizations, to enjoy human rights and public freedoms, in accordance with constitutional rights and international norms, indiscriminately.



· The Organization asks the government to release the members of the Ramadan League as well as all arrested citizens, including the Darfur sympathizers who have been recently sentenced by summary trials, and an unknown number of students arrested in university demonstrations these past days.



· To enhance the climates of peace and the transition to democratic rule, the Sudan Government must end with unwavering principled commitment all censorial activities against the civil society and the opposition groups.



· Government must stop all arbitrary arrests and police brutalities.



· Government must ensure Independence of the Judiciary, as is required by international law, including the immediate re-institution of all judges unlawfully dismissed by the Authority, to help improve the Judiciary of the Nation.



· Government is required to establish Independent Judicial Committees to release the facts on the arbitrary trials of the Ramadan army personnel in April 1990 and the Port Sudan massacres.



· The Sudan Government must surrender all suspects of the Darfur “Genocide” to the International Criminal Court, without hesitation.