MSF officials held over Darfur report

Sudanese authorities have arrested two senior officials of the medical charity Medécins Sans Frontières (MSF) over a report that claimed that hundreds of rapes had taken place in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, MSF said. Paul Foreman, the head of MSF-Holland was interrogated for three-and-a-half hours, then released on a one million Sudanese dinar [US $4,000] bond on Monday in Khartoum, while Vincent Hoedt, the MSF regional coordinator for Darfur, was ordered to the Sudanese capital for questioning on Tuesday. "I’m technically arrested and not allowed to leave the country," Foreman told IRIN on Tuesday morning while on his way to a second round of questioning. "The district attorney charged me with crimes against the state, publishing false information - and they are investigating other areas," he added. Mohamed Fareed, a prosecuting attorney, said in a statement that "upon interrogation, [Foreman] was not able to substantiate the claims nor could he provide any documents to this effect." If the crimes had really happened, the culprits would be punished, he added. The charges relate to MSF's report: "The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur", which was published on 8 March, MSF said in a statement released on Monday. "It was an MSF report based on MSF medical consultations. It was written by MSF, and MSF stands by it," Foreman said. The Sudanese government was angered by the report, which said that MSF doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over four-and-a-half months. More than 80 percent of the victims reported that their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia. The report did not accuse the government of Sudan. Faced with hundreds of women and girls seeking medical care following rape and sexual violence in Darfur, MSF published the report in order to raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women. In a statement on Monday, Jan Egeland, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General, said: "I urge the Sudanese authorities to drop all charges against Mr. Foreman immediately. MSF-Holland is a crucial partner in our relief effort in Darfur. Their work in treating victims of rape and sexual violence, and speaking out about the terrible crimes being committed has been exemplary." "They treated me well. It was a relatively straightforward question-and-answer session," Foreman noted with regard to his arrest on Monday. The MSF head of mission did not think the authorities wanted to put him in jail. "They want me to denounce the report or jeopardise the doctor-patient confidentiality of MSF by releasing the medical dossiers. I’m not going to do either of those." Foreman said the case against MSF had been building up over the past two-and-a-half months, following discussions about the report with the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). HAC representatives said they were "extremely unhappy" with the report, while the medical charity insisted on following its humanitarian principles. "We would like them [the Sudanese authorities] to put their energy in solving the crisis, rather than shooting the messenger," he said. "As providers of medical assistance and as human beings we find it impossible to stay silent when we are witnessing these abuses - wherever they occur. MSF wants to make people and governments aware of these serious violations so that real action is taken to stop them," Geoff Prescott, General-Director of MSF in Amsterdam, Holland, said in a statement on Monday. "Everybody who has looked into the situation in Darfur, including the government of Sudan, has concluded that rape is a problem," he added. Egeland stated that it was an "incontestable fact" that rape and sexual violence were rampant in Darfur. "The Sudanese government, the UN and international NGOs only recently made substantial progress in addressing this issue, efforts that must continue to ensure that all victims of sexual violence receive assistance and protection," he noted. The war in Darfur pits Sudanese government troops and militias - allegedly allied to the government - against rebels fighting to end what they have called marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. Over 2.4 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, 1.86 million of whom are internally displaced or have been forced to flee to neighbouring Chad.