Press Release

June 28, 2003

The Sudan Government’s Terror Parade

The Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office is gravely concerned for a new wave of terror that the Sudan Government has been recently escalating with different acts of intimidation to curb the public striving for democracy, restrict the peace progression, and reinstate the NIF (i.e., the National Congress ruling group’s) notorious reign of terror vis-à-vis the increasing influence of the Sudanese Civil Society in the ongoing process of democracy and peace that is consistently gaining momentum in the national and international arenas.

SHRO-Cairo notes with regret the continuous atrocities of the central government’s unabated State violence in the South and DarFur, besides the arrogant abuse of authority by the State Security Department (Amn al-Dawla) which particularly intimidates women and men activists, as well as a large number of democratic professionals, journalists, political opponents, trade unionists, students and the other groups with arbitrary arrest, torturous detention, rude intrusion in the people’s privacy, and unprecedented violations of the freedom of expression and the press under direct supervision of the non-intellectual National Press Council.

The most recent parade of 5,000 heavily armed members of the government-controlled militias, namely the Popular Defense Forces, in the National Capitol Khartoum extends far beyond all of the Emergency Law extra-judicial provisions or repressive practices to pose a real threat to the important activity and well-being of the democratic society of Sudan.

The PDF chaotic institution has never ceased committing the most heinous crimes against the innocent citizens of the South and Western Sudan. Closely led by the government’s ruling party, the PDF parade of terror coincides with the irresponsible threats by the Sudan Government’s senior officials, specifically the head of state Omer al-Bashir, his presidential adviser for peace al-‘Attabni, and his ruling party’s secretary general who all vowed to “defend to death the application of the government’s Shari’a, including the government’s medieval administration of the National Capitol Khartoum” to comply with the regime’s ideologue, namely the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist party that openly called for a holy war of Jihad to defend the non-democratic anti-peace orientations of the ruling party.

At this point, the Organization asks the Sudan Government’s state managers to act in accordance with the responsibilities conferred upon them as taxpayers’ officials of the State, rather than obedient servants of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization.

Seen in the light of the government’s murderous zeal to kill students in peaceful demonstration, escalating the civil war in DarFur and the Upper Nile with armed conflict, disrupting the tranquility and regularity of the civil society activity, humiliating the human rights organizations and the other democratic groups, and disturbing the process of peace, the Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office expresses deep concerns about the government’s inability to control the mode of terrorism it originally instigated in society (from June 1989 up to the present time), which has recklessly developed clandestine terrorist groups (in addition to the government’s formal machinery of terror) to intimidate civil society groups and community leaders.

Here, it suffices to mention the most recent arrests of Journalists Nhial Bol Aken and Nuraddin Medani, the arbitrary interrogation of Lawyer Ghazi Suliman and the other political opponents by Amn al-Dawla, and the clandestine threats by terrorist sources to assassinate Professor Farouk Kadoda of the Omdurman Ahliya University, Jurist Abu Grown, Judge Gharabwi, among many others, “to defend religion from their views or stands,” as the terrorist sources claimed in public statements that were shamelessly received by the complete silence of the “top defenders of the Sudan Government’s Shari’a,” the above-mentioned state managers and their security departments.

The Sudan Government is fully accountable before the People of Sudan (in the first place) for all of the human rights violations committed by the government agencies or officials. The government must honor its obligation towards the IGAD Peace Group, the International Community, and the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The Sudan Government’s commitment to the process of peace should be practically translated to actual State measures for the principled insurance of human rights and public freedoms, without any discrimination or partisan preferences.

SHRO-Cairo insistently asks the Sudan Government – security officials or ruling party - to:

Act as responsible state managers with accountability and transparency: the Sudan Government must immediately stop any overt or covert act of terrorism or terror parade that instigates or encourages terrorism in full compliance with international human rights norms, the Machakos Peace Protocol, and the State regular obligations.

Demobilize the notorious, chaotic, and outlawed government-controlled PDF militias that primitively terrorize the Sudanese people all over the country with heavy armament, sedition, and serious intimidation.

Stop the Sudan Government’s dangerous collaboration with the government indoctrinator the Muslim Brotherhood’s terrorist organization, which continues to work with full support of the state machinery to incite jihad wars all over the country, as well as the neighboring States, to foil peace progression in and outside Sudan.

Protect the Sudanese Civil Society from the State Security Department’s and the National Press Council’s rude intrusions that unlawfully disrupt the regular activities of society.

Insure the safety of human rights activists, especially the women and students, political opponents, trade unionists, and the other civil society individuals or groups from the government-incited repression.

Take serious measures to prepare the country for the next-democratic transition towards the Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Sudan’s Crisis by developing the climate conducive to peace, the abrogation of Emergency Law and the other public order acts, the active insurance of the freedom of expression and the press, the right to peaceful assembly, and the full enjoyment of the civil society groups and political parties to the exercise of cultural, social, and political activities without intimidation by state managers, ruling party leaders, PDF, or security departments.