[women-rights] Sudan: Arrest and harassment of women activists

6/6/2003
Women's Programme
Case SDN 060603.VAW
Violence Against Women
Arrest and harassment of Women Activists / Suspension of Womens NGO

The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in 
the following situation in Sudan.

Brief description of the situation

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Sudanese 
Organisation against Torture (SOAT), a member of the OMCT network, of the 
arrest and harassment of Women Activists in Sudan.

According to the information received, five officers from the Sudanese 
National Security Agency (NSA) arrested 38 women from the Nuba Mountain 
Womens Association and 3 men who accompanied them as they were departing 
for a womens conference for peace and development in Kawda town, Nuba 
Mountain at 10:30 am on Monday June 2nd, 2003.

The conference participants began their journey from the Awda district in 
Omdurman only to be intercepted at Kalakala in Southern Khartoum, where 
they were met by 6 NSA pick- up trucks and 2 cars with tinted windows. The 
NSA officers, armed with kalashnikov rifles and pistols arrested the 
delegates and transported them to the NSA offices in Kalakala East, where 
they were searched in an antagonistic manner and insulted verbally. 
Following this, they were interrogated regarding their movements, the 
intentions of their trip and any relations they may have had with the 
Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLA).

Eight conference delegates were then transported to the NSA offices in 
Omdurman (near Omdurman Traffic Police Station) where they were forced to 
sign a declaration promising that they would not leave Khartoum without the 
permission of the NSA. A number of personal items were confiscated from the 
group-including mobile phones, computer equipment, documents and diaries 
containing private details of contacts. In addition to this, a sum of 
approximately 8 million Sudanese pounds was confiscated and the delegates 
were made to sit on the floor for an hour in the hot sun.

The following people were released at 9pm on Monday June 2nd, 2003, but 
ordered to report to the NSA offices in Omdurman on a daily basis, from 8am 
in the morning until 8pm in the evening: Huda Dawood (f); Huwaida Bashir 
Kumi (f); Jafariya Bashina (f); Etimaad Faqih Ali (f); Samir Abdallah (m).

The following people were taken to the Khartoum NSA offices until they were 
finally released at 2am on the morning of June 3rd, 2003, but also ordered 
to remain in Khartoum and to report to the NSA offices daily: Zeinab 
Balnadiya (f), President of the Ruayya Association, Jumma Durman (f), 
Camilla (f). They continue to do so.

The remaining members of the Nuba Mountain Womens Association were released 
from the NSA offices in Kalakala at 2am on the morning of June 3rd, 2003. 
The offices of the Ruayya Womens Organisation in Al-'Awda, which was the 
initial meeting-point for the delegations trip, has since been closed down 
by the NSA.

OMCT condemns the continuing restrictions on the freedom of association in 
Sudan and the harassment of womens human rights activists.

Action requested

Please write to the authorities in Sudan urging them to:

i. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances of 
these events, in order to identify those responsible, bring them to trial 
and apply the penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
ii. guarantee adequate reparation to the afore-mentioned women, including 
the restitution of the confiscated belongings;
iii. guarantee freedom of association in general and of womens human rights 
activists in particular;
iv. ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination 
Against Women;
v. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms 
throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international 
human rights standards.


Addresses

· His Excellency Lieutenant General Omar Hassan al-Bashir, President of the 
Republic of Sudan, Peoples Palace, PO Box 281, Khartoum, Sudan, Fax: + 
24911 783223
· Mr Ali Osman Yassin, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Ministry 
of Justice, Khartoum, Sudan. Fax: + 24911 788941
· Mr Mustafa Osman Ismail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, PO Box 873, Khartoum, Sudan, Fax: 24911 779383
· Dr Yasir Sid Ahmed, Advisory Council for Human Rights, PO Box 302, 
Khartoum, Sudan, Fax: + 24911 770883
· His Excellency Ambassador Mr Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim, Permanent Mission 
of Sudan to the United Nations in Geneva, PO Box 335, 1211 Geneva, 
Switzerland, Fax : +4122 7312656. E-mail: mission.sudan@ties.itu.int

Please also write to the embassies of Sudan in your respective country.

Geneva, June 6th, 2003

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal 
in your reply.



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