Reports

July 19, 2002

Report on Sudan Government-Tribal Conflicts in The Sudan

Sudan Government Must Abolish Existing Penal Code, Emergency Courts, and Physical Punishments

Government Must Stop Partisan Politics that Encouraged Tribal Conflict

SHRO-Cairo calls for the Insurance of Permanent and Fair peace, Democratic Indigenous Administration, and Sustainable Economic and Social Development for the Pastoral Sudanese

According to information received from our Correspondents inside, an emergency "special" court in Niyala (western Sudan) issued sentences on July 17, 2002 against 89 citizens out of 96 citizens put on trial in connection with tribal clashes that took place last May. 88 citizens were sentenced with death penalty, in addition one citizen was sentenced for 10 years imprisonment.

Emergency courts are established by State of Emergency Act 1998. Two military judges and one civilian judge constitute the court bench. The court does not allow legal representation for the accused until the appeal stage of court proceedings. The court's responsibility includes seeing over crimes of armed robbery, crimes against the state, public nuisance and others. The Sudan Penal Code, which has been founded on the government's peculiar interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law, includes a number of penalties, such as limb amputation, death and death followed by crucifixion.

SHRO-Cairo regards these penalties cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments, and inconsistent with international human rights law. In its June 2002 Report, the organization reported that at least 134 people were arrested in the Darfur states of Western Sudan. The Organization has been gravely concerned that these citizens might be put to trial before Emergency Courts. The June Report warned of expected capital punishments: "SHRO-Cairo has every reason to believe that these people, accused of involvement in tribal clashes, will be subjected to death penalty followed by crucifixion."

Tribal clashes in Western Sudan are mainly driven by economic hardship. Government failure to act as a non-partisan regime, however, increased the armed conflict between Sudanese indigenous population.

Most recently, the Massaleit Community in Exile (Egypt) reported that Arab Militias murdered 12 Massaleit peasants in three villages in the south of Geneina town on 11 June 2002. The murders embraced the village of Daltang, 6 persons died. The remaining deaths occurred in the villages of Bredya and Gokar. The attacks left eight persons injured-two seriously. In addition, the militias ruthlessly gang-raped 2 girls.

As the Massaleit Community documented: "The Arab militias receive their guns, training and other forms of support from the Sudanese government. In effect, they operate with the regime's full knowledge and approval. It is only this very government that can bring an end to the militia's pattern of brutality. The international community should press the Sudanese government to put an immediate stop to the massacres in western Sudan."

The sources of armed conflicts among pastoral groups and farmers in Sudan are related to the scarce water resources and grazing land that cause intense rivalry between cattle-raising Arab tribesmen such as the Rizaygat and other groups and the farming communities of A-Mu'alia or the Massaleit, as seriously reported in the latest clashes of June-July 2002.

The Government of Sudan has been worsening the situation of armed conflicts in the area through acts of party politics and partisan dealings against the letter and spirit of State law. Similar policies disrupted the life of tribal groups in the South, especially the Dinka, Anwak, Nuer, and many Equatorian groups, as well as tribal groups in Eastern and Central Sudan.

From the early 1990's, the government adopted a strategy of dismantling the formerly established system of native administration of Sudan. The government vested native administration leadership on the basis of allegiance to the NIF ruling regime, regardless of the citizens' right to choose leaders in accordance with their own choice and indigenous needs.

Sudan Government provided arms and military training to the youths of some of the Arab tribes, particularly those involved in the training camps of the government-controlled Popular Defense Forces. As a result of this partisan policy, the government privileged a few selected ethnic groups with supremacy and hegemony over the others by force.

To redress this disastrous situation:

• SHRO-Cairo calls on the Government to Sudan to abolish the degrading punishments of the Sudan Penal Code, especially the death penalty, crucifixion, limb amputation, and flogging. * * SHRO-Cairo calls upon the Government of Sudan to abolish the Emergency Courts that constitute, in principle, a gross violation of the independence of the judiciary and curtail the right of the accused to appeal or to enjoy all the other international human rights norms.
• Government must suspend the sentences issued against the Nyala citizens, as well as the other citizens who became involved in tribal armed conflicts including the Nuer, Rizaygat and Al-Mu'alia or the others.
• The existing government must cease to act as an enemy of people, executing divide-and-rule policies and pitying sections of the population against the others, especially in the context of the civil war.
• The Government of Sudan must pay full attention to the needs of the Sudanese large pastoral population, that include the regular provision of modern development schemes for health and education, sufficient water and pasture for animals, and democratic system of native administration away from government partisan intrusions and military abuses.
• Sudan Government has been wasting the wealth of the country with civil war and security operations. Government must abandon all wasteful policies in order to make the permanent and fair peace between the armed groups of the nation and correctly operate State tasks, as is required by international human rights norms.