Amnesty International Report 1995 - Sudan

Hundreds of suspected government opponents, many of whom were prisoners of conscience, were arrested. Most were detained, often in secret, without charge or trial for periods ranging from 24 hours to a few months. The few political prisoners who were taken to court did not receive a fair trial. Torture was widespread, and numerous floggings were carried out as punishments. The fate of hundreds of prisoners who had "disappeared" in previous years remained unknown. Hundreds of people were extrajudicially executed in war-affected areas. Both factions of the armed opposition committed serious human rights abuses, including torture and deliberate and arbitrary killings. Members of virtually every sector of Sudanese society in both northern Sudan and the war-torn south suffered human rights violations. The government of President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir continued to suppress all independent political activity and a state of emergency remained in force. In the south and Nuba mountains, serious abuses were committed by all sides as the armed conflict, which has cost over one million lives since 1983, continued between the government and both factions of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) – SPLA-Mainstream, led by John Garang de Mabior, and SPLA-United, led by Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon. In September SPLA-United changed its name to the South Sudan Independence Army (SSIA). At the start of the year the government's armed forces launched a major military offensive in the south, recapturing several towns they had not held for many years and burning down numerous villages. The military activity added to the millions of people already displaced. The UN estimated that over two million people required food aid during the year. In September peace talks between the government and both factions of the SPLA, mediated by the foreign ministers of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, broke down. In February the government said that it would no longer cooperate with the UN Special Rapporteur on Sudan following his submission of a critical report to the UN Commission on Human Rights. In August the government ignored his request for a visa to enable him to visit Sudan. In November the Special Rapporteur issued a further interim report to the UN General Assembly in which he concluded that "potentially all categories and strata of the population are affected by violations of human rights committed by agents of the Government". Hundreds of people, many of them prisoners of conscience, were arrested for political reasons. They included members of banned political parties, trade unionists, army officers and aid workers. Most were detained without charge or trial for periods ranging from 24 hours to a few months. Detainees were often held in secret detention centres known as "ghost houses". Many suspected government opponents were made to report daily to security offices and wait there all day, effectively a form of day-time detention. Prisoners of conscience arrested in previous years remained in jail throughout the year. Among them were at least two members of the banned Sudan Communist Party (SCP) who had been arrested in December 1992, including Farouq Ali Zacharia, an economist. At least 50 members of banned political parties and trade unions were arrested in 1994. Former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, the leader of the opposition Umma Party and of the Ansar religious order, was held for 24 hours in April and for 13 days in June and July. Other members of the Umma Party were arrested in February and May. In April Sarah Nugdallah, a leading member of the Umma Party, was detained. She was held for 10 weeks in Omdurman Women's Prison. Members of other opposition political parties were also arrested. Osman Omar al-Sharif, a former minister of justice and prominent member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), was held from February to April. He had previously been imprisoned from 1989 to 1991 and had been detained in 1993. Mahjoub Mohamed Sharif, a member of the SCP popularly known as "the people's poet", was arrested in May and held for over three months. Trade unionists continued to be arrested, questioned, held uncharged, released and then rearrested. Magdi Mohamedani, a doctor active in the banned Sudan Doctors Union, was arrested in December 1993 and detained until April. He had been detained at least twice before. Ali al-Mahi al-Sakhi, president of the Central Mint Workers Union, was among six trade union activists arrested near Khartoum in June. This was at least the third time he had been taken into detention. He was known to remain in detention in mid-October but had been released by the end of the year. Journalists and lawyers also faced abuses. In February Moatisim Mahmud, the news editor of al-Sudani al-Dawliyya (Sudanese International), the first Sudan-based independent newspaper reporting political events to be allowed to publish since the current government took power, was arrested. However, al-Sudani al-Dawliyya continued to publish articles critical of government policy and in early April its owner and editor-in-chief, Mahjoub Mohamed al-Hassan Erwa, and two other journalists were detained and the newspaper banned. All four journalists were freed by June but the newspaper remained banned. Lawyers arrested in 1994 included Ali Mahmud Hassanein, who took a leading role in the defence of 12 men charged with sabotage (see below). He was detained for two weeks in June. In September Mirghani Abdelrahman al-Kadro, a lawyer in the small eastern town of Rufa‘a, was arrested with two women colleagues. The women were released within a week, but Mirghani Abdelrahman al-Kadro was taken into detention in Khartoum where he was known to remain in late October. In the war zones, the security services continued to detain suspected government opponents. There were also persistent reports that troops from the Popular Defence Force (PDF), a government-created militia, on military operations captured women and children for use as domestic slaves. Few political prisoners were taken to court and those who were failed to receive a fair trial. In January the trial of 29 men, including 17 in exile abroad and tried in absentia, opened in a specially convened court in Khartoum. The defendants faced charges relating to sabotage and had a defence team of several prominent lawyers, including Ali Mahmud Hassanein (see above). Detailed evidence emerged that at least five of the accused had been tortured. The judge acknowledged that they had been tortured but he allowed their confessions, which formed the bulk of the prosecution case, to be used in evidence. In April, five of the defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to seven years. The others present were freed. There was widespread torture by the army, other security agencies and the pdf. The victims included children. Routine beatings, harsh physical exercise and prolonged exposure to the sun were apparently regarded as normal methods of dealing with prisoners. At the January sabotage trial, defendants testified that security officers had whipped and beaten them with sticks and lengths of plastic piping, inserted pins in their ears, pressed hot metal on their skin and threatened them with death. One man, al-Hassan Ahmad Saleh, lost an eye after being beaten during interrogation. Court-ordered medical reports confirmed bruising and scarring consistent with their accounts. In April Nadir Abdel Hamid Khairy, a political activist who had been in incommunicado detention since December 1993, died in Omdurman Military Hospital, apparently after prolonged beatings. The authorities refused to release the body to his family. Suspected government opponents arrested in the war zones were at risk of torture in military detention centres and there were persistent reports that captured SPLA combatants were routinely tortured before being extrajudicially executed. Cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments, including flogging, were imposed by court order. Many of the victims were poor women convicted of brewing alcohol. In mid-1994 the Khartoum authorities announced a campaign to eradicate the brewing and drinking of alcohol: in the first 16 days of June, 657 people were charged with alcohol-related offences and many were flogged. The fate of hundreds of people who "disappeared" in previous years remained unknown. The vast majority were civilians from the war zones. The "disappeared" include 230 men arrested between June and August 1992 following an attack by the SPLA on Juba. Among them were Kennedy Khamis, a customs official arrested after he went to Juba military headquarters in search of his missing son; and Joseph W.D. Wai, a geologist who returned to Sudan in late 1991 after studying abroad. The report of a commission of inquiry established by the government in late 1992 to investigate "the incidents witnessed by Juba town" (see Amnesty International Reports 1993 and 1994) had not been made public by the end of the year. In February the government commented that the commission blamed the delay on a "continuous flow of lists" of missing prisoners submitted by the UN Centre for Human Rights. Hundreds of civilians and prisoners were reported to have been extrajudicially executed during the year. In the south, the army and PDF attacked villages and killed civilians. In one incident in April, soldiers on patrol from the town of Aweil in Bahr al-Ghazal came across three men fishing who were from the village of Awulic. Villagers who heard shooting subsequently found their bodies lined up on the river bank. In January and June military trains which passed along the only railway line linking north and south Sudan carried troops who captured and then killed civilians along the route. Unescorted trains carrying aid used the same line, attracting people to the area. Eye-witnesses said that soldiers on the June train killed people at each station in territory not under government control. They reported that about 30 people were extrajudicially executed at Gana and at Kanji. Survivors reported that at Mondit 50 people were killed, that uniformed soldiers raped women and that both men and women were beaten with sticks and axes. A number of adolescent girls were reportedly taken captive into domestic slavery outside the war zones. There were further reports of killings along the railway line in December. There were renewed reports of killings in the Nuba mountains at the start of the year. In January PDF members were said to have killed Mahmud Issa as he tried to defend his wife from being raped. The pdf also reportedly ambushed and killed over 60 civilians travelling from Lagowa to Dilling. Also in January, a group of Nuba was detained by PDF members at Kurgal. Seventeen were shot dead, among them Salah Ibrahim and Hussein Abdalla. A number of survivors were severely beaten by security officials during interrogation. Each faction of the SPLA was responsible for gross human rights abuses. Troops loyal to two different SPLA-United commanders in Upper Nile deliberately killed an unknown number of civilians in early 1994 during internal fighting within SPLA-United. Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes and the delivery of humanitarian assistance by the UN again became an imperative for survival. Dissident SPLA prisoners held by SPLA-Mainstream since early 1993 were released in January, but at least two – Major Robert Akuak Kudum and Captain Gabriel Majok Nyieth – had died in SPLA detention the previous year. In August Carlo Madut Deng, a doctor, was abducted in Uganda and detained and reportedly tortured by SPLA-Mainstream troops in Nimule in southern Sudan. By December it had become clear that he had died in detention. In June SPLA-Mainstream announced that Martin Majier Gai, a judge and an influential Dinka politician, first arrested in 1984 and held until late 1992 before being rearrested in January 1993, had been "shot while trying to escape" in early 1993. The announcement followed the declaration of an amnesty by SPLA-Mainstream for political prisoners following which they would have had to produce Martin Majier Gai. It was believed he was deliberately killed in detention. Amnesty International repeatedly appealed to the government to release prisoners of conscience and to ensure that all political detainees were promptly and fairly tried, or released. It called for action to end torture, floggings, "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions. The organization made two attempts to send a high-level delegation to Sudan to meet senior government officials. The government requested Amnesty International to postpone its visit on each occasion. In June Amnesty International representatives visited parts of Sudan under SPLA control and held meetings with SPLA-Mainstream and SPLA-United commanders. The organization urged both factions to observe basic humanitarian standards and to end deliberate and arbitrary killings and other abuses. In July Amnesty International wrote to the Sudanese Government, both factions of the SPLA and the governments of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, calling for human rights issues to be placed on the agenda of the peace talks. In September Amnesty International published a report, Sudan: Outside the war zones: secret detention and torture in northern Sudan, urging the government to end the use of detention without charge or trial in secret detention centres and to stop the use of torture.