Anti-torture group expresses concern at amputations

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMTC) on Tuesday expressed its urgent concern that the government of Sudan appears to have resumed the punishment of amputation of limbs, "and that it is beginning systematically to execute sentences of amputation given in 2000 and 2001".

It said in a statement that it had received information from one of its partner organisations, the Sudanese Victims of Torture Group (SVTG), that 46-year-old Anthony James Ladou Wani had had his right hand amputated on 24 January after his conviction on charges of stealing motor-vehicle spares.

Wani was sentenced in May 2000 after a trial in which he had no legal representation, because he was unable to pay for it, and had been detained since in Kober prison, in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, according to the Swiss-based organisation.

It was being alleged that Wani - a Christian member of the Kakwa tribe in southern Sudan - had not received a fair trial, that there had not been enough evidence to convict him, and that judicial procedures had not been followed properly, it added.

The punishment of amputation "is against the Government of Sudan's international obligations, with regards to Article 5 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 of The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights", according to the OMTC.

The use of amputation as a punishment was also prohibited under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which has been ratified by Sudan, it said.

In its statement, the OMTC called on Khartoum to "immediately stop the inhuman practice of amputation" and to abolish the use of amputation - enshrined in the Sudanese Criminal Act 1991 - as a method of punishment. It also urged the Sudanese authorities to commute all sentences of amputation, ensure access to legal representation and guarantee a right of appeal for all individuals.

Muhammad Ahmad Dirdiery, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN on Wednesday that amputations were among the punishments set out under Shari'ah law, and which are practiced through out the Islamic world, not just in Sudan.

"The punishments are part of our religion. Amputation as a punishment occurs throughout the Islamic world, so why single out Sudan?" he asked.

International human rights conventions to which Sudan is a signatory do not prohibit the Islamic interpretation of human rights, according to Dirdiery.

"Because we are part of those conventions does not means we are denied our right to practice Shari'ah. There is a cross-cultural interpretation of human rights, and the Euro-northern hegemony of culture is not our interpretation," he said.

He added, however, that such punishments were rare, and said they had only taken place twice since President Umar Hasan al-Bashir came to power in 1989.

The OMTC statement on amputations came just days after another alert, on 19 February, in which it followed other rights groups in expressing concern for the pregnant, 18 year-old Abok Alfa Akok, who had reportedly received 75 lashes after sentencing by the criminal court in Nyala, Southern Darfur State, on 12 February.

The court had originally sentenced Akok to death by stoning for allegedly being pregnant out of wedlock, but an appeals court overturned that and sent the case back to the lower court for fresh sentencing, Reuters news agency reported on 10 February.

The original ruling was made in line with Shari'ah [Islamic] law, even though Akok - a member of Sudan's Dinka tribe, the largest ethnic group in the south - was Christian, according to Reuters.

The US-based Human Rights Watch expressed its deep concern on 1 February, including in a letter to Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir, about "barbaric punishments" in Sudan. It specified Akok's sentence of death by stoning and the use of amputations as a punishment.
[see http://www.hrw.org/africa/sudan.php]

Sudan is committed to respecting the human rights of everyone under its jurisdiction and believes that this goal is compatible with the country's Islamic and African traditions, according to the Advisory Council on Human Rights of the Government of Sudan.

It says it accepts information from any individual, nongovernmental organisation or governmental organisation considered relevant to improving human rights in Sudan, and invites such people or groups to bring alleged violations of human rights to its attention so that it can try to take action to end or prevent them.
[see http://dcregistry.com/homepages/suahrc.html]