Sudan Human Rights Organization
- shro-cairo -
Immediate Action | Women's Forum | Links | Contact
|
Reports February 5, 2004 REPORT ON
THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN SUDAN
The Human Rights
Commission, Geneva
Dear Human Rights Activists,
That was Omer al-Bashir’s pledge for the Sudanese Armed Forces and the PDFs government-militias “to crush the rebellion of DarFur” (October 4, 2003). Blood-shedding has been, thus far, the only way for the Sudan Government to rule with the most egregious human rights violations over the People of Sudan.
As with the tradition of the Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office since 1992, The Situation of Human Rights in Sudan periodical report is cordially inviting your human rights conscientiousness to sympathize with the victims of this horrid situation, and to kindly provide humanitarian support for the People of Sudan to improve their full enjoyment of human rights.
Our report reads: “The past four months’ period this report covers witnessed some improvement in the conditions of human rights in the Sudan. Still, the situation is far behind: emergency law unabated, many freedoms were curtailed; arbitrary arrest, especially in West Sudan, was activated; and 6 newspapers were temporarily or even continuously suspended. The human rights of a million citizens in DarFur region were massively violated with escalated military action by government troops and militias.”
With reference to the Sudan Government’s increasing gross human rights violations, as it has ever been since the early 1990s up to this day despite a few promising improvements, the Organization appeal to you to kindly spend more time on the sections about DarFur. Please note more detailed atrocities have been documented by the DarFurian human rights groups, the Masaleit among others, as well as Amnesty International most recent report.
What the head of state, Omer Hassan al-Bashir, commanders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (especially those acting for and running the Air Force aerial raids over the innocent women, children, and elderly population of the border towns, villages, and smaller communities of the assaulted region) have pledged via the most unprecedented abuses of authority to “crush” the anti-government reactions of the three regions of DarFur versus the injustices of Sudan Central Government is indeed a brutal renewal of the devastating civil war, which took half of a century between the Sudan Government and the South/other regions – the genocidal war that devastated the South, killing at least 2-million or more humans, and still is costly under-developing the country.
Although this report is short of documenting human rights violations by the Sudan Liberation Army and the other armed oppositional groups, there is no way that the DarFur rebels could be completely exempted in any sense from moral as well as material responsibility to stop by peaceful ways the ongoing war disasters that the larger disarmed innocent population of DarFur is now suffering under the most dehumanizing conditions of life.
While the negativities of the Khartoum Central Government and regional governorates are strongly responsible for appalling ethnic and administrative injustices, the DarFur armed opposition must know that war is the biggest victimizer of people and is the worst solution, if at all, for civil striving or political problems.
The Organization appreciates the willingness of the DarFur rebels to activate peace talks with the government in Chad and Switzerland. Rebels are required to enhance the cause of development and social justice in DarFur with full consideration to the equal rights of the DarFur civil society organizations and political parties to decide on the future of the region without patronage.
The situation of human rights in Sudan (October 31, 2003 – January 31, 2004) is rampant with gross human rights violations almost in every aspect of the civil, military, political, economic, social, and cultural life. The Organization believes that human rights are inseparable: to enforce a few improvements in the women’s right to travel, for example, is not an alternative for the government’s treaty-body obligation to ratify CEDAW.
CC. The IGAD – Nevasha
(Kenya)
The
Situation of Human Rights in Sudan
The past four months’ period this report covers witnessed some improvement in the conditions of human rights in the Sudan. Still, the situation is far behind: emergency law unabated, many freedoms were curtailed; arbitrary arrest, especially in West Sudan, was activated; and 6 newspapers were temporarily or even continuously suspended. The human rights of a million citizens in DarFur region were massively violated with escalated military action by government troops and militias.
The few human rights improvements in the reported period included the Sudan Government ratification of the international convention on the prevention of mines, the uplifting of travel restrictions from women, cease-fire renewal in the Nuba Mountains and the South, and the SPLA effort to demobilize children recruits.
On October 13, the government ratified the Ottawa international convention on the prevention of the use, acquisition, production, or trafficking of mines, and the destruction of available stockpiles. This made of Sudan the State No. 140 ratifying the convention. Beginning next April 2004, the government obligations by Convention would include mines’ clearance from all concerned areas within 10 years ending in April 2014.
On November 13, the council of ministers recognized the right of women to travel in all regions and abroad unless restricted by legal procedure. The minister of social affairs announced that the reasons underlying the previous curtailment of the women’s right to travel ceased to exist. “There is now available tranquility in the country that allows free movement for citizens, male of female.”
The Organization, however, believes that the restriction of women’s right to travel by themselves, without guardian (as well as many other restrictions), was based on religious decrees rather than security issues (for more details, see SHRO-Cairo statement: November 22, 2003).
On November 27, the government signed an agreement with the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/SPLA) to extend the pre-approved 6 months’ cease-fire agreements for 2 months. The renewable cease-fire might hopefully end up with a final cease-fire agreement, as soon as a comprehensive peace agreement would be finalized.
On December 24, the Chairman of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) signed an agreement with the Sudan Government First-Vice President supporting the Machekos consensual framework of June 2002, which included agreement on the unity of Sudan, the right of self determination, relations between religion and State, and the call for a pluralist democratic rule based on a parliamentary presidency. By the Jeddah Agreement (JA) a special modality would be established to enhance dialogue between government and the NDA.
The JA was criticized, however, by many groups including members of the NDA Leadership Council. Criticisms rejected the JA approval of the existing situation of government armies and security forces which, in accordance with NDA resolutions, should sufficiently adjust to the rights of all personnel unlawfully purged by the military coup of 1989. The criticisms also rejected the JA approval of a presidential system in the transition to democracy, and stressed, instead, the need to adopt a head of state council as adopted by Sudanese democratic rule and the need to put to trial, without exception, all persons accused of authority abuses throughout the NIF rule (1989 to the present time) before the independent judiciary.
On January 20, the government renewed cease-fire agreements for the 5th time with the SPLM in the Nuba Mountains for 6 months until July 19, 2004. Early on December 19, 2001, the agreement was first signed in Switzerland to enable a Norwegian-led joint-military committee to monitor cessation of hostilities, guarantee free movement of citizens, commodities, goods, and humanitarian aid, secure the essential areas and vital routes, and reinforce development projects to prepare the climate for a permanent and just peace, added to the other tasks concerning cease-fire and application of the Protocol principles.
On January 22, the SPLA demobilized 94 child recruits in the Upper Nile region. The children were returned home as a significant step towards complete demobilization of the UNICEF-estimated previously recruited 800 children for active service in the SPLA.
SHRO-Cairo welcomes the SPLA action to free children from military service. The Organization calls on the Sudan Government to take similar measures towards full stoppage of student conscription, especially the children less than 18 years of age. The efforts so far exerted by UNICEF since 2001 have successfully freed 1,200 children from the SPLA military service.
The Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office calls upon the International Community to allocate financial funds to establish projects that should help children to stay away from armament or engagement in military service.
In these past months too, there was some advancement in the peace talks between Sudan Government and the SPLM under auspices of the IGAD (please see our special report on the peace talks in the next Quarterly, Issue 17).
The government, however, continued to commit gross human rights violations, escalating civil war in DarFur and ascertaining State commitment to inappropriate theological inclinations.
On October 4, the Sudanese president affirmed his insistence to pursue State theology at expense of peoples’ rights. In a conference sponsored by the ruling party for the youth as “pioneers of thought and peace making,” al-Bashir led the conference commitment to maintain State theology, repeating hymns saying:
On November 7th, the head of state, Omer al-Bashir, assured that his government would not abandon the People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) after a peace agreement might be finalized to end civil war in South Sudan. Addressing a public gathering in the city of al-Obied, he ascertained the PDFs would play a role in the next transitional period exactly as they “played a role in the previous stage.”
The government-controlled PDFs militias were established in the early 1990s to support government warring in the South. Largely composed of Islamist elements, the PDFs maintained one of the worst records of war: consistently demolishing villages and crops, massacring civilians, and enslaving women and children. The government insistence on keeping up PDFs forces even if peace agreement might be finalized casts doubt on the peace commitment of the State.
On January 13, the president said the peace talks with the SPLM would not lead to State withdrawal from applying Shari’a law in the North. Advertised by the State radio, he said the government delegates in Nevasha (Kenya) were instructed not to abandon Shari’a or to break apart integrity of the North, but to ascertain the unity of Sudan.
Freedom of the Press and Expression
On October 7th, the authorities suspended for unspecified period of time al-Azmina daily, which published a report the army considered inappropriate about the PDFs. The army negated a suggestion by the Azmina report concerning the possibility of liquidating the PDFs as soon as peace agreement would be signed by the negotiating parties. In the same day, the al-Sahaffa newspaper was suspended for 3 days due to a commercial advertisement of an airline company considered illegal wine advertisement by the authorities.
The suspension decision was synonymously applied with a protesting wave by Sudanese journalists against the escalated government suspension of the press that included 6 papers, namely the Ray al-Sha’b, al-Wattan, Khartoum Monitor, Alwan, al-Azmina, and al-Sahaffa, besides the al-Sabahiya journal which was also suspended despite its legal license. The journalists’ protesting campaign called for the defense of the press freedom as a fundamental right by international law, the urgent need to free the suspended papers from censor, and the eradication of all press censoring laws. The journalists’ memo was signed by 35 journalists representing 17 political papers. The signatories stated that the press was subjected to a state of permanent censor despite the president’s decision to free the press from censor last August.
On Sunday November 16th, the authorities suspended al-Ayyam newspaper following a claim by the National Security Department that the paper was negatively dealing with security and stability and the religious and social coherency of the land. After on week of public protest, the government was compelled to permit the al-Ayyam publication on November 23. December the 2nd, the security authorities, however, re-suspended the paper although the Attorney General’s Office nullified the suspension. On January 25, the security director agreed to withdraw the case of al-Ayyam “abetment and breach of social security” that led to the suspension, as alleged by his department.
November 23, the State-owned national corporation for Sudan communications initiated censorial works on the international internet activities of the country. The corporation’s initiative was suspected for further censor, although the corporation described the initiative “as an attempt to preserve the morals and stability of the nation against indecency.”
On November 24, the authorities suspended the Khartoum Monitor since “it was not serviceable to the cause of the homeland or citizenry, nor did it help to achieve stability.” The Monitor had earlier published articles criticizing slavery in the Sudan and the non-independence of the Sudan Judiciary.
December 16, the police assaulted the al-Jazeera Office in Khartoum annexing radio equipment in reaction to the news reports of the Office about Sudanese affairs. The police arrested Islam Salih, the Jazeera director in Sudan. Subsequently, the office was closed by authority, while Islam Salih was released one week later on December 24.
On December 27, the Khartoum criminal court withdrew license of the al-Qimma sports paper, as requested by the National Press Council.
January the 14th, the Khartoum police arrested Mahgoub Mohamed Salih, the editor-in-chief of the al-Ayyam daily accused of tax eviction, irrespective of his appeal against the proscribed tax. The authorities asked for 100 million pounds to release Salih who at his 85th years of age was released as soon as his friends collected the money. There was public contention that the al-Ayyam Chief’s arrest was part of a government campaign to subdue the left-wing supportive paper.
December 21, the 69 working personnel of al-Ayyam submitted a memorandum to the head of state asking for permission to publish the paper. The workers further asked for compensation of the losses suffered as a result of the unlawful suspension of the paper.
Public Freedoms, the Right to Organization and Peaceful Assembly
On October 29, the Registrar of Organizations and Political Parties decided to cancel his notice of State permission for the Beja Congress political party. The registrar’s decision was based on the claim that the Congress had not complied with the terms of the notice since it maintained a military branch abroad.
During the months of November and December the authorities arrested tens of the al-Moutamar al-Sha’bi (Popular Congress Party, PCP) membership in Khartoum and the cities of DarFur, accusing them of supporting the DarFur rebellion - an accusation strongly rejected by the accused party.
Further accusing the PNC leader of encouraging the rebellion of DarFur, the first vice president ‘Ali ‘Uthman Taha threatened on the 23rd of November to ban the opposition party. The PNC leader was released from arrest on October 13 after 3 years of house detention due to a letter of understanding his party signed with the SPLM.
The second week of December, the security authorities interrogated a number of the Communist Party leaders including Yousif Hussain, Siddig Yousif, Dr. Rashad Hamid, and Mohamed Ibrahim Kabaj. The communists were asked to abort planned popular reception to the party leader Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim at the Khartoum Airport on her return home from exile. The authorities asked the party leaders to limit the reception of Fatima to members of the national committee of the reception with complete avoidance to any gathering crowds at the airport.
September 17, the local authorities imposed dawn to dusk curfew (7 am to 7 pm) in the three regions of DarFur side-by-side with a stand-by for all disciplinary forces of the region. The curfew was most likely meant to provide the government troops and militias with an opportunity to launch revengeful operations against the African groups of DarFur, without censor. By curfew, the authorities banned all peaceful meetings and public gatherings in the whole land.
On December 29, the National Council (government parliament) decided to extend emergency law for another year. This was the sixth consecutive renewal that would end in December 2004 under political and security pretext. The law empowered the security forces with large discretionary powers of arrest for periods extending to 9 months to harass opponents with unrestricted abuses of authority. Security forces were further unaccountable for authority abuses as virtually guaranteed by the other national security, criminal procedure 1991, and public order repressive laws. The emergency law, furthermore, authorized the head of state to abrogate existing laws by republican decree.
On January 4, government supporters violently attacked a group of female students at the University of Khartoum. The injured students included among many others Tayseer ‘Abd-Allah Sa’eed, Rabab Yousif Mukhtar, Rabab ‘Abd al-Rahman, Sara ‘Uthman ‘Abd al-Hay, Zuhal Khalifa Mohamed, ‘Abeer ‘Abd al-Kareem Mohamed, Samari Mustafa Ibrahim, Amina al-Amin ‘Abd al-Qadir, Nasiba ‘Abbas ‘Ali, Manahil Bashir, Iman Maryod, and Hajir ‘Isam Khalil. The assault was launched after the government-supporting Murabitat Sanduq Da’m al-Tolab students’ group intimated the assaulted students, and then inspected student rooms in their absence.
Arbitrary Arrest
October 2, Port-Sudan authorities arrested Sharif Yousif al-Barbari, ‘Awad Muhajir, and ‘Awad ‘Abd-Allah of the Tahrir [Liberation] Party who were distributing a political leaflet criticizing the Nevasha agreement. ‘Uthman Haroun, another Tahrir member, was also arrested in Khartoum for 4 days.
October 6, members of the armed forces in Abu Jabra of the ‘Adila district in Southern DarFur arrested 22 citizens of the Ma’alia people of whom two persons were severely tortured. These citizens were detained for 12 days at the ‘Adila police station without lawful charge or investigation. Mohamed ‘Abd-Allah Adam (a child in his 16th) and al-Rahaima Yousif Suliman (19) were flogged on their backs and burnt with cigarettes and other hurtful objects by ten security men.
The other detained citizens who were transferred to the Niyala Prison on October 21 with the other ones included Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed, al-Sadiq Adam Ismail, Mohamed Yousif ‘Ali, al-Khair Mohamed Ahmed, Ibrahim Ahmed Mohamed, Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim, Ibrahim Mohamed ‘Abd al-Rahman, Adam Qamar al-Din, Hamad al-Shareef, Hamid Mohamed Ibrahim, Mahmoud ‘Abd-Allah, Jibril Adam Hamad, ‘Awad-Allah Adam Hamdan, al-Zain Ahmed ‘Ali, Mekki Ahmed Mohamed, ‘Abd-Allah Shygora, ‘Asim ‘Eissa Mohamed, Ibrahim ‘Izbayin, Tajadin ‘Isma’il Ahmed, and Ahmed Hamid Mohamed.
December 18th early hours, the security authorities of DarFur arrested a number of active politicians whose majority belonged to the al-Moutamar al-Sha’bi (PCP) in the region. Among the arrested citizens were al-Khair al-Qadil, al-Tigani Saneen, Mohamed Hafiz ‘Abd-Allah, Daoud ‘Attiya, ‘Isma’il Abbashar ‘Arabi, and ‘Isma’il Abbashar Haqar.
December 19, the security forces of Niyala arrested Ahmed Tahir Ahmed Shatta, electronics engineer, Ahmed Hassan ‘Abd al-Rahman, bank employee, ‘Abd al-Shafi’ ‘Eissa Mustafa, a former textile employee, and ‘Abd al-Raouf Mohamed ‘Abd-Allah, an employee with the Sudanese Organization for Relief.
December 21, the authorities arrested pharmacist Mohamed ‘Eissa and engineer ‘Eissa Mohamed Bassi. On December 24, ‘Ismail ‘Abd-Allah Musa, a faculty member of the Neelain University was also arrested.
December 21, the security authorities arrested 9 unions leaders, including a woman. These were Mahgoub Ahmed al-Zubair, Mn-Allah ‘Abd al-Wahab, Nasir Mohamed Nasir, Siddiq Yahya, Had al-Raid ‘Abd al-Mahi Mohamed ‘Attiya (woman), ‘Ali Khalifa Mahdi, Mohamed Suliman Mohamed, Mohamed Mahmoud, and ‘Akasha Babikir Mohamed. These citizens were arrested mid-day from Mahgoub al-Zubair’s house at Shambat in Khartoum North. The unionists were released late at night. They were asked to attend the security headquarters the next day where they were detained until dusk; and then summoned for a next day.
On December 28, Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, director of the Sudanese Organization for Relief, was arrested, his house inspected, and many private documents confiscated with a computer set. He was detained in a clandestine place.
January 2, the Zalingi security authorities arrested 4 citizens of the Fur ethnic group in the market. The arrested citizens were Adeeb ‘Abd al-Rahman Yousif, Sa’eed Imam al-Haj, Arbab ‘Abd al-Moula (all teachers), Ibrahim ‘Uthman (merchant), Suliman Ahmed Hussain, and school principal ‘Ali Khamis.
January 5: following acts of violence by government-supporting students in university campus, the authorities arrested the legal activist Waiyl Taha Muhyi al-Din, student at the University of Khartoum, and student Yousif Fath al-Rahman before the Students’ Union Office.
Between January 5 and January 7, the security authorities of Niyala arrested 3 citizens of the Zagawa African group. The arrested citizens were Yousif Idris (arrested on January 5), Salim Idris (January 6), and Suliman … (January 7). The Organization received information assuring the detainees were subjected to tortures by security men that included beating, whipping, and pouring cold water on them at night.
The government announced the release of all political detainees. However, minister of interior ‘Abd al-Rahim Mohamed Hussain admitted to al-Sharq al-Awsat (January 17) about 18 political opponents were still under custody, most of whom were members of the PCP. This figure, however, represented a small portion of the possibly larger group of political prisoners.
Special Courts and Physical Penalties
November 12, a Niyala special court sentenced to death five citizens: Durdayma Bushra Hitala, Adam Yasin Mohamed, ‘Abd al-Kareem Ahmed Hido, Sa’ad Ahmed Mohamed, and Burma ‘Abd al-Rahman Massar. These citizens of the al-Ta’aisha group were arrested last April accused of killing a member of the Missairiya group. The Organization received reliable information that the accused persons were brutalized with heavy sticks, thus badly injured in arms and legs, as well as sensitive parts of their bodies. The torturers were Musa ‘Eissa, Salah al-Din Shukri, Monas Bashar, and police investigator Tigani. The court rejected an appeal by the defendants’ lawyers to test the tortures by medical authority.
December 4, the Khartoum High Court rejected an appeal by a citizen sentenced to death by a special court in DarFur. The High Court approved the sentence issued by the al-De’ain court on September 30 against Bilal Hamid al-Hibbu. Eight other prisoners awaiting execution of the death sentences included ‘Omar al-‘Ajeeb Jubara (De’ain court, April 29), Ibrahim Daoud ‘Abd al-Rahman (Niyala court, May 17), ‘Abd al-Rahim ‘Omar Zakariya (Niyala, May 17), Ibrahim Yahya Yaqoub (Buram, May 29), Hassan Shaqaf ‘Ali (Niyala, June 6), Ibrahim Mohamed Hussain (Niyala, June 8), Ibrahim Ahmed ‘Omar Abbakar (Kas, September 30, 2002), and Mustafa Adam ‘Abd-Allah (Niyala, March 27).
The Appellate Court approved cross-amputation sentence already sentenced by a court in Kas against Mohamed Ishaq Mohamed.
Mohamed Hassan Hamdan, a child whose age was 16, was awaiting execution of cross-amputation as well.
On December 29, a special court sentenced Sanoasi al-Haj ‘Isma’il with death penalty.
December 31, a special court sentenced ‘Eissa ‘Ismail Sabeel with death penalty. Sabeel was arrested last August for wine drinking; however, he was later accused of killing a policeman while he was kept in jail.
January 27, a special court in al-Fashir sentenced al-Tayeb ‘Ali Ahmed to death, being convicted for “waging war against the State to destroy the constitutional system.” The same court imprisoned al-Sadiq ‘Abd-Allah Khamis and Ahmed ‘Eissa Ishaq, who were accused in the same case, with imprisonment for 11 and 7 years, respectively.
None of the convicted persons obtained legal consultation in the trial, according to special court procedures, although it was quite possible to get lawyer services in the post-trial appealing stage.
January 21, the Chief Justice suspended the execution of 100 floggings upon a girl convicted with adultery. The flogging penalty of Intisar Bakri ‘Abd al-Qadir was postponed last September until after she would give birth to her child. In December, the penalty was further delayed due to the girl’s sickness. The Chief justice decision to postpone the flogging would not abrogate the penalty. The delay was aimed to decide on her lawyer’s appeal to release the accused as a minor Christian girl whose age was less than 18 years old. The appeal might be rejected, however, since the girl’s father was Muslim – still, part of the Shari’a jurisdiction, even though she was raised by a Christian mother.
The Sudan law did not recognize the court discretion to dismiss the case all together if the adulterous girl would plea un-guilty, in principle, besides the use of other social measures applied in indigenous adjudication. Based on a version of law dictated by the ruling Islamic party, Sudan law permitted the imposition of physical penalty such as flogging and limbs amputation, which could be legally avoidable under certain conditions unrecognizable by the enforceable law. Section 146 of the Penal Law considered adultery a crime punishable with stoning if the accused was married, or 100 floggings if the accused was unmarried. While an adulterous unmarried woman might be condemned with the evidence of pregnancy, as the Sudan Shari’a blindly implements, the required evidence to condemn an adulterer man consisted of 4 available witnesses whose evidence must be strictly consistent.
The Human Rights of DarFur
The three wilayat [administrative regions] of DarFur suffered the greatest deterioration of humanity with the escalation of civil war that changed the life of a million persons to complete destitution. At least 700,000 people were displaced from their homes to live around cities or to cross the border unto the neighboring Chad.
Instead of dealing with the material causes of the instability of DarFur as well as the other marginal areas of the country that centered in the injustices of central governments and the lacking thereof of development and authority, the government wrongfully handled problems of the region in terms of stringent security measures versus local robbery gangs. The same wrongful approach had costly resulted in millions of victims and huge losses of private property and public establishment in the South. What was worse is the government’s mobilization of military resources to score whatever triumph might be gained by brutalizing millions of the innocent population of DarFur, having saved by truce the military effort in the South.
On December 30, the head of state pledged to eradicate the rebels of DarFur whom he shunned as “spies, traitors, mercenaries, and renegades.” In his meeting with said delegates of the region, he ascertained, “the first program of the state is to crush rebellion or any outlaws.” This pledge came about hand in hand with full preparedness of the government troops and militias to launch massive attacks in DarFur. On week later, al-Bashir announced “rebellion would be shortly crushed; the war would take only a few days.” Another government official (the Wali or governor of DarFur) assigned February zero point of the operation.
On January 14, the head of state accused the media of exaggerating the situation. He further underestimated the situation by saying that,” the problem of DarFur is nothing but robbery activities against citizens.” He added, “It is taking place only in few places of 3 districts of the Great DarFur.”
These top statements were announced one day before the third round of a one-day peace talks under auspices of the Chadian President Debbi in Um-Jamina, which ceased to continue because the Sudan Government considered “unacceptable” the agenda of negotiating rebel, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM). The government also broke talks with the SLM since “independent military groups did not cease fire in the region, which is a violation of government-SLM cease fire agreements.”
The government’s military escalation, especially in January, produced tragic humanitarian conditions for civilians, in general, and village inhabitants, in particular. Besides the great losses of the civilian population, the public infrastructure of services and properties - marginal as they were – was almost completely destroyed, leaving behind displacement and the other social problems.
The attacks by government troops and militias created the influx of civilians from hundreds of villages to cities, abandoning fields and harvesting, and drying out the food resources. Large areas of Jebel Marrah, Wadi Salih, and the northern and western parts of Niyala were completely abandoned due to acts of robbery, demolishment, and genocide by the government-supported Arab Janjaweed militias. The displacement of the assaulted DarFurians swell the poor cities of the region: Zalingi population increased from 20,000 to estimated 200,000; and Farsilla increased 10 times its former size of only 8,000 inhabitants.
Aerial Attacks against Civilians
November 1, the government Air Force bombarded areas in North DarFur. Moreover, aerial raids increased in the months of December and January to the killing of tens of civilians and the destruction of tens of villages and smaller communities.
December 1, a huge government bomb-carrier plane bombarded the villages of Noon Mountains, north of Jenaina, killing 47 people and injuring ten others. Most of the victims were women, children, and elderly.
On December 10, the aerial attacks targeted the civilians who were fleeing the fierce fighting of North DarFur, killing as many as they could.
January 11, the air force attacked the town of Kornoy and the village of Forawiya destroying more than 100 houses, killing 25 civilians, and bodily hurting more than 40 citizens.
On January 12, the government planes bombarded the al-Teen border town a few days after a governmental ultimatum had been asking the inhabitants to leave the town before it would be destroyed to earth. The aerial raid killed 45 citizens mostly women, children, and aged citizens. Several other villages were also targeted.
In the three remaining weeks of January, air raids never ceased to occur upon the three wilayat of DarFur. The raids were run, in advance, to prepare the grounds for the barbaric assaults of government troops and militias that aimed to “crush” the rebel areas or the rebel-suspect villages and smaller communities all over the place.
|
Home | About | From the Editor | Press Releases | Articles | SHR Quarterly | SHR Reports |
Immediate Action |Women's Forum | Links | Contact
Copyright © SHRO-Cairo