Press Release

April 10, 2003

SHRO-Cairo received this statement from the Ramadan Martyrs’ Family League:

The Ramadan Martyrs’ Family League in Sudan, Egypt, the United Kingdom, and the United States renews continuous condemnation of the Sudan Government’s Massacre of the Sudanese Armed Forces’ regulars in April 1990, and asks for the broadest support possible from the People of Sudan, the Human Rights Commission, and the International Community for the League’s legitimate right to press upon the Sudan Government to:

· Locate the cemetery of the 28 army officers and the 200 or more non-commissioned officers who were extra-judicially killed by Omer al-Bashir and his close assistants in April 1990;

· Deliver the wills of the Martyrs to the families of the Martyrs;

· Surrender all official papers of the extra-judicial trials to an internationally recognized Fact Finding Committee under the joint supervision of the Human Rights Commission, Sudan Judiciary, and the democratically recognized Bar Association of Sudan (including independent lawyers with consent of the League), which is not relevant to the existing government-controlled Bar Association;

· Put on public trial in accordance with international norms and the best of Sudan laws all the accused persons, including the head of state Omer al-Bashir, Hassan al-Turabi, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, and the other senior officials of the government, whether military or civilian, at the time of the extra-judicial killings of the Martyrs.

The Ramadan Martyrs’ Family League urges the Human Rights Commission to honor its obligation towards the protection of human rights and civil freedoms of the Sudanese people, renew the Mission of the Human Rights’ Special Reporter, and resume the other activities of the Commission in the Sudan.