Rights concerns continued through 2001

The Sudanese government in 2001 took advantage of a continued state of emergency in the country to suppress opposition to the ruling National Congress party, according to a recently released report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). "The government kept in force a state of emergency to suppress Islamist and other opposition to the ruling Islamist party," the organisation stated in the Sudan section of its World Report 2002. The national state of emergency in Sudan was extended by the government for a second year in December 2000, to last until the end of 2001, HRW stated. [It has subsequently been extended again to the end of 2002.] The government had also (in December 2000) amended the National Security Act to allow suspects to be detained indefinitely without charge, and denied judicial review for up to six months, the report added. See www.hrw.org After signing a memorandum of understanding with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in February 2001, the leader of the opposition Popular National Congress (PNC), Hasan al-Turabi, was arrested along with at least 20 other PNC officials and charged with treason - a crime punishable by death, the rights organisation reported. Despite charges being dropped in September against Turabi and the other PNC members, Turabi remained under house arrest, it said. Charges of treason and threatening the existence of government were also brought against seven civilian members of the opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after they met a United States diplomat in December 2000, it added. The Government of Sudan said on Wednesday it was keen on improving the human rights situation in the country but said that, as a third world nation, the pace of improving human rights was constrained by insufficient resources and the 19 year-old civil war, which was causing untold human suffering in the south of the country. Muhammad Ahmed Dirdiery, Charge d'Affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, told IRIN on Wednesday that the human rights situation in Sudan had "greatly" improved in the recent past but that little more could be achieved without a comprehensive cease-fire on the part of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). "It is evident that the human rights situation in Sudan is improving. The [Nuba Mountains] cease-fire meeting in Switzerland [which gave rise to a local cease-fire agreement, signed on 19 January] is a testimony to that," Dirdiery said. "We know there is still a lot we can improve on and we think that there is a lot of goodwill within the government to make improvements," he added. "We think the antidote to all the human rights ills in Sudan is to have a comprehensive ceasefire, to create a conducive atmosphere [for peace negotiations]." Controversy surrounding censorship of the press also continued through 2001, according to HRW. The English-language newspaper, the Khartoum Monitor, which helped provide "a political forum for southerners", was suspended on several occasions by security forces or by the National Press Council, it reported. During a visit by the joint African Caribbean Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) mission in 2001, censorship of English-language newspapers was tightened, and papers were forbidden to publish blank spaces indicating where censorship had been imposed, according to Human Rights Watch. The Khartoum Criminal Court on 16 January 2002 ruled that the Khartoum Monitor would have to pay a fine of Sudanese pounds 15 million (or 150,000 Sudanese dinars, about US $6,000) for printing an article alleging that the government permits its railways to be used to transport slaves, AFP reported. "The judge turned down my request for presenting a defence statement, arguing that the case is closed with the confession made by Nhial Bol [managing editor of the Khartoum Monitor]," AFP quoted the newspaper's defence lawyer as saying on 17 January. Bol was released from detention at Omdurman prison on 17 January after the newspaper paid a Sudanese pounds 5 million (about US $2,000) fine imposed on him over the same article, AFP added. The government has repeatedly stated that there is no slavery practised in Sudan, while admitting that there is a problem of some tribal militias abducting civilians. Amnesty International on Monday called on the Khartoum government to stop "harassing the independent daily Khartoum Monitor and its staff." Charges against the newspaper and its chief editor that it was "propagating false news" under section 66 of the Sudanese Penal Code could be interpreted by the Sudanese authorities to include any criticism of the government, and were upheld after a "summary and unfair trial", it said in a press release. The UK-based organisation said "the Sudanese authorities are using excessive fines and arbitrary trials to curtail freedom of expression", a fundamental human freedom. See www.amnesty.org According to HRW, government and army militia forces continued in 2001 to abduct women and children in the south, mostly in northern Bahr al-Ghazal and "often in connection with the military train they accompanied to Wau, a [government-held] garrison town". Although there had been some positive signs regarding abductions with the creation by the government of the Committee to Eradicate the Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC), the Committee had been "ineffective", the human rights body stated. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan, Gerhart Baum, in November expressed concern about the slow progress achieved by CEAWC, saying that the Khartoum government had "not yet taken concrete measures to prevent new abductions". The government has recently indicated its intention to provide for an increase in the scope, mandate and powers of CEAWC, and said it welcomed a proposed US-led mission to investigate accusations of slavery. Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha has said the government plans provide 10 million dinars (about US $40,000) to cover requirements for forthcoming CEAWC activities, Baum stated in November. According to HRW, continued pursuit of the war in the south during 2001 led to continued human rights abuses by both government and rebel forces, including bomb and artillery attacks on civilian targets, forced displacement of people from their homes, abduction and forced labour, and the use of antipersonnel mines. Although the government of Sudan is a signatory to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and the SPLM/A in October 2001 signed an agreement banning the use on land mines, there were "strong indications that both the government and rebel forces in Sudan continue to use antipersonnel mines", the rights organisation added. The Sudanese Charge D'affaires in Nairobi, Mohammed Dirdiery, on Wednesday dismissed claims that the Khartoum government had been laying land mines in southern Sudan. "If they are accusing us of carrying out offensive against innocent civilians, it is rubbish to even speak about land mines. Land mines are defensive weapons, and are not used when carrying out an offensive," he told IRIN. In its 2002 world report, HRW also criticised the SPLM/A's recruitment, which it said was sometimes forcible, of child soldiers. In addition, several reports of torture and ill-treatment during detention had been received during 2001, it said. Most notably, security forces in the southern garrison town of Juba reportedly continued to use a large metal shipping container as a detention cell, "a years-long practice that subjected detainees to life-threatening heat", it added.