Yesterday, at the end of the first full day after the crackdown in Khartoum, the State Department finally released its statement condemning the violence used against protesters in Sudan. Calling for restraint and dialogue among all parties, the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, stated:
“I am deeply concerned about these developments and urge all parties to exercise restraint. Negotiations on issues of urgent importance to all of the Sudanese people cannot proceed in an atmosphere of intimidation.”
SPLM leader Yassir Arman arguing with police
Today, at the end of the second day, we have the following to report. First, the Juba alliance announced that it would not hold another demonstration tomorrow, but would postpone the effort until next Monday, December 14. Sudanese newspapers this morning also reported that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir would meet today with Sudan’s First Vice President and leader of the Sudan’s People Liberation Movement (SPLM) Salva Kiir to discuss Monday’s events and to seek solutions on overcoming the roadblocks in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
As for the political climate in Khartoum and much of the rest of the country, it remains tense. Al-Sahafa reports that the Sudan Scholars Authority (Muslim scholars) issued a fatwa (a religious decision) prohibiting Muslims from joining demonstrations organized by the “enemies of Islam” and that the government is entitled to prevent sedition and chaos in the country. The opposition mocked this fatwa and considered it as clearly a propaganda item of the National Congress Party (in Arabic). Afrik.com also has a story claiming that five Ugandan businessmen were killed during the violent clashes between the police and protesters in the Southern Sudanese town of Rumbek. And despite a number of claims by observers and participants, police in Khartoum again denied that they used teargas on Monday against the protestors. Meanwhile, the Sudanese Journalist Network called for an investigation of detentions of and alleged abuses against five reports – including the confiscation of their tape recorders – during the demonstration.
In addition to this fallout from Monday, we also received this news from the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) about the arrest of three lawyers in Sudan on Tuesday:
On Tuesday 8 December, at the Al Kalakla court complex in Khartoum, three lawyers were arrested. Initially the three were arrested for posting fliers on behalf of the Sudan Lawyers’ Democratic Front calling on lawyers to obtain certification and pay membership fees in order to vote in elections to be held in January 2010 by the Sudan Bar Association. A judge named Bashir Rahama ordered the arrest. The women were arrested by the police and interrogated, but released the same day without being charged. Immediately upon their release, an NISS car stopped them outside the police station and re-arrested them, taking them to the NISS office in the Abuadam area in Al Kalakla district. The women remain in custody.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies urges the Sudanese authorities to allow the women access to their lawyers and families, and to expeditiously either charge them with an internationally recognised criminal offence or release them. More broadly, the government of Sudan should not interfere with peaceful political organizing and allow for freedom of expression and association. If these freedoms are not respected, the holding of free and fair elections – whether at the level of the Sudan Bar Association or the national level – will not be possible.
Background
Elections for the Sudan Bar Association are scheduled to be held in January 2010. The previous elections of the Sudan Bar Association were held in January 2006 and pitted the National Congress Party, represented by Fathi Khalil, against the Democratic Alliance, a coalition including the Sudan Lawyers’ Democratic Front and headed by Amin Mekki Medani. The National Congress Party won amid allegations of rigging. The results of the election were appealed in the courts by the Democratic Alliance alleging corruption and fraud. This submission was accepted by the Constitutional Court, but to date no decision in the case has been rendered.
With so much brewing and so many clear examples of individual’s rights regularly being violated in Sudan by the security apparatus of the Bashir regime, it is critical that the Obama administration mean what it said yesterday in the official statement when it called on the Government of Sudan to allow “freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and protection from against arbitrary arrest and detention.” These are not only fundamental to credible elections in 2010 but the democratic transformation originally promised for Sudan in the CPA.
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