Rights group allowed official visit

The rights group, Amnesty International (AI), has welcomed the opportunity to visit Sudan this month for the first time in 13 years. "We had been approaching the government on a regular basis, but were not allowed in," Andrew Anderson, the director of AI's Africa programme told IRIN on Friday. He said the government, led by President Umar Hasan al-Bashir, had not allowed access to any human rights organisations. In 2002, however, efforts had been made "to show openness to dialogue", he added. A statement issued on Friday welcomed the "constructive dialogue" about human rights issues with the Sudanese government, but said AI still had concerns. Restrictions of freedom of the press and association persisted, child soldiers were still being forcibly recruited, internally displaced people in Sudan had urgent humanitarian needs, and the government had failed to publish a report on excessive force used by police against students of the University of Khartoum. "In Khartoum, Bahr al-Ghazal and Al-Fashir universities, students were held in incommunicado detention for up to two months. Some were severely beaten in offices of the National Security. Then scores were dismissed in processes which were arbitrary and lacked transparency." In addition, community leaders and political opponents had been held in incommunicado detention for up to nine months, then released without charge. AI called on the government to repeal sections of the National Security Act, which provides for such detentions to take place without judicial oversight, while also providing immunity for security officers, the statement said.