Press Release

July 13, 2003

Sudan Government: A Regime Unwilling to Eradicate Slavery

• Government Must Abrogate the Press Act and the Security Council of the Press
• The Khartoum Monitor Must Continue Free of Persecution

The Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office is gravely concerned for the repressive steps the Sudan Government deliberately planned for and did finally execute with court decision via the National Press Council and the State Security Department to silence the Khartoum Monitor as an independent newspaper.

SHRO-Cairo has repeatedly condemned the unlawful determination, planning, and haunting measures of the government’s censorial body to stop the Monitor from publication. The Sudan Government must not censor the freedom of expression that the editorial board of the Monitor has been legally pursuing, in accordance with the law and freedom of the press.

The active engagement of Sudan Government in acts of terrorism, enslavement, and genocide of the Sudanese indigenous population of the South, especially the Bahr al-Ghazal region, has been thoroughly investigated and strongly condemned since the early 1990s. The heinous crimes committed by the government’s controlled-militias and the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) are not any secretive acts or classified state security issues: terrorism, application of the Jihad religious wars to justify enslavement and other transgression of the people’s genuine freedoms and fundamental rights are heinous crimes against humanity.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission, regular reports by the United Nations Special Reporter on the Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan, as well as authenticated reports by national and international human rights organizations and democracy groups have been widely published with firm condemnation of the government’s criminal part in this scourge. The Organization further notes that the Sudan Government has been strongly urged by the Commission and the UN Reporters, in particular, to eradicate the scourge of enslavement through the legal effort of the security forces, the Judiciary, the Minister of Justice, and the other relevant departments in close collaboration with the concerned families and indigenous communities, as well as civil society groups in and outside the country.

The government’s short-lived announcements in this respect were met, despite their insufficiency, with encouraging remarks from the international human rights community that firmly asked the government to increase the effort with all parties concerned, especially the families of the victims, as well as the Sudanese and the non-Sudanese human rights organizations and democracy groups to find the victims, compensate them, and deal with the wrong-doers in accordance with the law. The Commission, the International Community, and the People of Sudan have continuously urged the government to put a final stop on this scourge, which is a most shameful crime against humanity.

The government’s shameless unwillingness, doctrinal manipulation, and deliberate failure to eradicate the enslavement of the innocent citizens of Bahr al-Ghazal and other regions, especially the children and the women victimized by the government-controlled PDFS and militias, is extra-crimes against humanity: not only that the Sudan Government failed to take the required measures in this concern. The government persecuted the human rights groups that investigated with authenticated reports the ongoing slavery in the country, including SHRO-Cairo, and has harshly dealt with the independent writers who exposed the scourge to the public.

The Khartoum Monitor’s publications in these issues are regular journalism for which the newspaper or any of its editors should be protected by law from the illegal planning or the non-intellectual raids of the government-controlled press council, security departments, and security-incited court decision.

· SHRO-Cairo asks the Sudan Government to take all necessary measures to eradicate slavery in the Sudan, according to the international norms and the specific recommendations of the UN Commission and Special Reporters to the government in this matter.

The government must immediately:

• Allow the Khartoum Monitor, as well as the other independent newspapers, to perform journalist work without censor.
• Free the Press from state censor in accordance with international human rights norms.
• Abrogate the Act of the Press, which provides for the repressive functioning of the National Press Council as a censorial, non-intellectual, Security Council.
• The Sudan Government must act with responsibility towards the needs of the country at this critical stage of the peace process, which needs the full assurance of public freedoms to help create the climate conducive for the just and permanent peace.