Press Release

January 1, 2004

On New Year’s Eve, War Mongering Renewal of Emergency Law

· Regrettable Failure of the DarFur Peace Negotiations
· National Democratic Government with Fair Representation of Women and Marginal Groups

On new year’s eve, with the Nation’s hopes for the just and permanent peace, the Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office (SHRO-Cairo) conveys best greetings to the gallant People of Sudan with the greatest appreciation to the diligence and the continuous struggles of the Sudanese civil society at Home and abroad for the insurance of the full enjoyment of human rights and civil freedoms, indiscriminately, for all citizens of Sudan.

The Organization reasserts the Sudanese pledge to realize their national legitimate concerns and to put the strongest pressure possible on the Sudan Government to abide-by international human rights norms, as an integrated system, without any particularistic or selective application.

The Organization alerts the International Community to exert effective pressure on the war-mongering leaders of the Sudan Government, “a Government Determined to Genocide its Own People,” to abandon war-mongering, act with sanity, and live up to the Nation’s needs for peace, justice, and freedom.

The disabled handling of state affairs in Sudan by the NIF single-party presidential rule has reached new peak of State terrorism with the renewal of emergency law by the government parliament [national council] followed by immediate threats by the president of state to wage massive war against the dying region of DarFur.

Most regrettably, the State bodies led by the president of state addressed themselves to the DarFur crisis with unprecedented indifference and racism, as if the innocent Sudanese citizens killed in thousands and those displaced in hundreds of thousands by the same president, his security forces, and Janjaweed militias were in need of further genocide by the Khartoum rulers.

The failure of the Chad peace negotiations with the DarFur warring groups is mainly related to the government’s plan to achieve military victory at any cost, irrespective of the consequences, as well as the government’s exclusionary policies against the democratic parties and civil society groups whose participation in the peace talks is essentially fundamental.

SHRO-Cairo condemns in the strongest terms possible the war-mongering attitude of the president of state, the national council, and the commanding security officers towards the political crisis of DarFur which, in actual terms, is a state-incited situation by administrative and development failures, discriminatory policies, and the government-supported Janjaweed racism.

The government-controlled national council’s decision to extend emergency law for another year (December 30, 2003) was granted to please a war-mongering president who hurriedly rushed through his chief security officer to put the blame of the Khartoum’s escalated war in DarFur on the Nivasha peace partner, the State of Eritrea, and other groups specified by the national security agency.

The public announcements on a “military victory” by the governor of DarFur, following a complete shut-out of the DarFur region for security operations, house-to-house inspection, brutalization of women, the elderly, and children, and other acts of State-terrorism against the innocent DarFurians, have been seriously aggravated by anti-peace authoritative threats by the president of state.

The president (December 31, 2003) threatened to engage the armed forces, police, and the government-controlled militias in a large-scale State offensive to “stop the DarFur insurgency by excessive military action.” The consequences of this irresponsible policy have already ravaged the South and other parts of Sudan in a horrible decade of State violence versus increased popular resistance.

The new wave of State terrorism is abusively propagated by government media, while the non-governmental press is forced to silence to frustrate the peace hopes in a day that is consciously celebrated to increase the global effort for peace, economic development, and social welfare in all countries of the world.

The president and his security officers are unwilling to understand that State terrorism will never reduce the humanitarian crisis the country has been seriously suffering, as a direct result of State violence, in the South, Western Sudan, and virtually every other part of the country.

Throughout the presidential terrorist reign, the status of women, the youth, the elderly, and the Sudan Children has been steeply reduced with gross human rights violations, reactionary laws, and suppressive regulations.

The president’s threats are deliberately staged to undermine the peace climates and the relative success that the peace-loving powers are appreciatively exerting for the realization of a lasting peace in our war-trodden nation. As in all civil wars, the innocent women and the other marginal groups will be largely victimized by the new-year presidential threats and subsequent security operations.

The Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office (SHRO-Cairo) strongly condemns this regrettable escalation of civil war by the Sudan Government’s national council, top security officers, and president of state.

In the new year’s eve, with the Nation’s hopes for the just and permanent peace, the Organization alerts the International Community to exert effective pressure on the war-mongering leaders of the Sudan Government, “a Government Determined to Genocide its Own People,” to:

• ·Stop all military action against the innocent people of DarFur, especially the women, the elderly, and children;
• Abrogate Emergency Law;
• ·Cooperate promptly with the UN and the other humanitarian agencies to relief the hardships of the displaced people of DarFur, the South, East Sudan, Southern Blue Nile, and the Nuba Mountains in and outside the country;
• Return immediately to peaceful negotiations with the DarFur opposition groups;
• Establish the NDA-Government Standing Committee to work with and to follow-up the peace negotiations at Nivasha; and
• ·Start immediate negotiations with the democratic opposition and civil society, including equal representation for the women’s groups, under auspices of the UN, the IGAD, and the Sudan Friends to establish a national transitional government that should move the country from a war-mongering presidency to a democracy insuring the full enjoyment of constitutionality, human rights, and civil liberties.