Sudan accused of punishing people who report abuses

SUDAN: The Sudanese government is trying to silence those who speak out about abuses in the stricken Darfur region, according to the latest Amnesty International report.

It says the authorities have arrested a number of people who gave information to Organisation of African Union ceasefire monitors about atrocities carried out in Darfur.

Amnesty's general secretary, Ms Irene Khan, said that "instead of arresting those who commit human rights violations, the Sudanese authorities are arresting those who are exposing the perpetrators".

The report appears less than a week before the expiry of the 30-day UN deadline imposed on the Sudanese authorities to disarm the predominantly Arab Janjaweed militias whose campaign of murder, rape and arson has driven more than a million people from their homes and resulted in up to 50,000 deaths.

It also coincides with the visit of the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, to the region.

The 20-page document reports that seven people were arrested for giving information to monitors in Abu Dereja in mid-July, and they were still being held in the national security centre.

It also highlights detentions and restrictions on journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. Anyone who speaks about abuses taking place in the conflict sparked last year by tensions between settled farmers and nomadic herders is subjected to pressure and intimidation, it said.

The organisation stresses that "freedom of expression has been notably absent in political discussions between the Sudanese government, the UN or others". It calls for the international community to ensure that restrictions on the right to free expression are monitored and to place the right to freedom of expression on the agenda of mediation for peace in Darfur and the rest of Sudan.

The report also calls on the Sudanese government to lift controls on the media; to ensure the security services end the detention, intimidation and harassment of people for giving information or expressing opinions; and to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience, arrested solely for the non-violent expression of their opinions. "Amnesty International has also received reports that civilians who report cases of rape are particularly targeted for intimidation by security agents in displaced camps in Darfur."

People have been arrested "for presenting petitions, trying to organise public meetings and opposing the return of those displaced by the conflict to unsafe areas".

Among those arrested was Mr Saleh Mahmud Osman, a human rights lawyer, who is still in prison in Khartoum, without charge, more than six months later.