Confiscation of issues of English-language daily

SOAT

Sudan Organisation Against Torture



SOAT Press Release: 11 March, 2002

Confiscation of issues of English-language daily

On Sunday March 9, security forces confiscated 3500 copies of the English-language daily newspaper, Khartoum Monitor (issue no. 59, vol. 4, due for release on 9 March 2003).

The copies were taken from the printing works after printing was completed but before the papers could be distributed. No reason was initially given for the action. However, the following morning the editors of the newspaper were told that the reason behind the confiscation was an article written by the journalist Edward Lado Terso entitled “History speaks to Abdalla Ali”. The article was written as part of a debate with a reader called Abdalla Ali from the Humanitarian Aid Commission, a governmental agency. The debate in question was on the subject of the history of Islam in Sudan.

Later in the same day, 9 March, the security forces ordered the managing editor of the Khartoum Monitor, Nhial Bol, and the journalist Edward Lado Terso to report to the security forces offices for interrogation at 1pm that day. Nhial Bol went to the offices alone because he failed to contact Edward Lado, and met an officer called Imad, who asked him to return with Edward Lado yesterday, 10 March.

The confiscation of copies of papers prior to distribution causes considerable financial losses for the newspapers involved, and has been seen as likely to lead to increasing ‘self-censorship’ as newspapers fear seizure of copies and closure of printing works. The Khartoum Monitor has been targetted numerous times over the past year, with copies of the newspaper being seized and its journalists harassed and fined.



SOAT condemns the continuing restrictions on freedom of _expression in Sudan and urges the Government to :



Compensate the Khartoum Monitor for loss of revenue caused by the arbitrary seizure of issues


End restrictions on freedom of the press, and allow full and open reporting of, and comment upon the current peace negotiations


Guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights laws and standards.



The above recommendations should be sent in appeals to the following:



His Excellency Lieutenant General Omar Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
President's Palace
PO Box 281, Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 24911 783223

Mr Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin
Minister of Justice and Attorney General
Ministry of Justice
Khartoum, Sudan
Telegrams: Justice Minister, Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: +24911 788941

Mr Mustafa Osman Ismail
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
PO Box 873, Khartoum, Sudan
Telegrams: Foreign Minister, Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: +24911 779383

Dr Yasir Sid Ahmed
Advisory Council for Human Rights
PO Box 302
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 24911 779173



His Excellency Ambassador Mr Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim

Permanent Mission of Sudan to the United Nations in Geneva

PO Box 335

1211 Geneva

Switzerland

Fax: +4122 7312656

E-mail: [email protected]



His Excellency Ambassador Mr Hassan Abdein

Cleveland Row

St James’s

London SW1A 1DD

Fax: +44 20 78397560



SOAT is international human rights organisation established in the UK in 1993. If you have any questions about this or any other SOAT information, please contact us:



SOAT

The Park Business Centre

Kilburn Park Road

London NW6 5LF

Tel: 020 7625 8055

Fax: 020 7372 2656

E-mail:[email protected]

Website: www.soatsudan.org

The confiscation of "Khartoum Monitor" happened after this articale.



History speaks to Abdalla Ali


By Edward Ladu Terso - [email protected]
Khartoum Monitor
March 9, 2003

This is a historical backup to my previous response to Abdalla Ali of the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) in his letter to the Editor published in Khartoum Monitor, page three, on Thursday, February 27, 2003, where he asked Joseph Bassan to read history again. He also claimed that Islam came to his home area peacefully. But history says otherwise. You can read on and I wish you pleasant reading.

"The governor of Qus carried out a counter raid towards Dongola in the following year, but in 1275, he sent out a full-scale expedition including both Mameluks and Arab tribesmen, to install Shakanda, another Nubian prince, in place of David. A battle was fought in 176 near Dongola, in which the Mameluks expeditionary force was victorious. It was the first Muslim army to penetrate so far into Nubia since 'Abdalla ibn S'ad, over six centuries before.

"Shakanda was crowned in Dongola, and for the first time, a Nubian king took an oath to a sultan in Egypt as his overlord. From the point of view of the Egyptian chancery, Shakanda's status was assimilated to that of a provincial governor, and that of the Nubians to dhimmis, that is, Christians living under Muslim rule and protection, and paying tribute. The two northern fortresses of Ibrim and al-Dawla were placed under the sultan's jurisdiction, and their revenues went to his Privy Purse."

"This pattern of events, the invasion of Nubia to install a pretender as vassal-king, was to recur on several occasions in the next forty years. At no time did the Mameluks sultans carry out, or even attempt, a permanent military conquest of al-Muqurra, although for a short time in the reign of Qalawun there was a Mameluks garrison in Dongola."

"Nevertheless, the remote security of Nubia, which had impressed Ibn Sulaym three centuries before, was at an end. In 1292, one of these vassal kings wrote bitterly to al-Ashraf Khalil, Qalawun's son, after an interruption of the baqt, that the land was wasted because of the invasions of the Muslim armies time after time after time, augmented by the destruction caused by the king of al-Abwab, the southern neighbor of al-Muqurra."

"Another of Qalawun's sons, al-Nasir Muhammad, inaugurated the last stage in the history of Muqurra. Unlike his predecessors, al-Nasir Muhammad was not a warrior king. The last of the crusader territories had been conquered by Khalil: the Mongol rulers of Persia and Iraq had been converted to Islam, and no longer presented a threat to the Mameluks sultanate. The potential danger from Christian Nubia was also brought to an end. A Mameluk expedition to Dongola in 1316 installed as king a Nubian prince, 'Abdalla Barshambu, who had been converted to Islam while a hostage in Cairo."

"The sole significant act of his short reign was the turning of the Church in Old Dongola into a Mosque, an event commemorated in an inscription dated 16 Rabi' 1717 (that is May 29, 1317), which still exists. 'Abdalla Barshambu was soon overthrown and killed by a rival, none other than the current Kanz al-Dawla, whose clan had intermarried with the Nubian Royal family. After further troubles, and another Mameluk expedition in 1323-4, the Kanz al Dawla succeeded in establishing himself on the throne."

In fact, this is what has been going on in north-south conflict. It is the continuation of this very history. The stories, fiction or fact, about some southern political personalities, including some southern chiefs, being secretly stamped, is the personalization of these brutal facts of history. So, there is no need trying to mask everything as if they never happened. History is not dead. Even the present day lies go down into history. Nothing is left to chance.

The issue is "are we now conscience-clear about the bitterness generated by these historical facts? Are we now ready to change the course of history for the good of humanity? Are we ready to convert and chart the path of humanization rather than dehumanization?" These are the issues we should concern ourselves with. Otherwise, the "rat game," of biting and blowing cool air into the wound will not help.

(This excerpt is taken from "A History of the Sudan" co-authored by P.M. Holt, Professor Emeritus of the history of the Near and Middle East in the University of London and M. N. Dally, Associate Professor of history, Memphis state University, pages 22 and 23.)

I beg to apologize for the appearance of this very acknowledgment in the same column on March 8, 2003. It was as if the article entitled, "Skin Bleaching, part four," was authored by the two authors above. But that was a blatant mistake. I deeply regret any inconveniences caused.


Deng.

THANK YOU DENG