Day: June 1, 2022

Researcher, Africa

On May 29, Sudan’s military leaders announced they were lifting a state of emergency imposed seven months ago that has been used as cover for a relentless attack on the country’s tenacious protest movement and to further entrench impunity for security force crimes. Authorities have also released at least 100 detainees who were held in connection to the protests, according to lawyers. While these are positive steps, ongoing repression and Sudan’s military leaders’ long history of deflecting criticism require scrutiny and pressure for real change to increase, not lessen.

The move occurs ahead of an expected visit by the United Nations designated expert on human rights in the Sudan. During his last visit in February, authorities released 115 people in Khartoum on bail. Shortly after, arbitrary arrests resumed.

Ninety-eight people have been killed during protests since the October 2021 coup. Human Rights Watch has also documented how security forces have beaten and otherwise ill-treated detained protesters, including stripping child detainees naked and threatening sexual violence against women. We also found hundreds had been unlawfully detained, and some forcibly disappeared since the coup, notably by the police and the General Investigation Service (GIS).

No one has been held to account for these crimes. And the repression shows no sign of abating.

On May 28, two people were killed at a protest in southern Khartoum. Doctors have recently reported treating increasingly serious injuries they believe were caused by rubber and frangible bullets as well as by teargas canisters. On May 30, after the state of emergency was lifted, police violently dispersed protesters in and around Khartoum. Doctors said 33 were injured, with six reported bullet injuries.

Friday will mark the third year anniversary of security forces’ violent disbanding of a sit-in on June 3, 2019 that left at least 120 people dead. The committee established to investigate these crimes recently announced it was suspending its activities, citing obstruction by the authorities.

Sudan’s regional and international partners need to make clear they won’t just accept cosmetic steps but will continue to use all tools at their disposal, including individual, targeted sanctions against those leading the repression.

Real change means concrete reform and credible efforts to hold those responsible for serious crimes to account. The victims of June 3, 2019, and of the violent repression since, deserve nothing less.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Minni Arko Minnawi, Darfur Governor and SLM leader, accused the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) of seeking to restore bilateral partnership with the military component and exclude the other political forces.

In an interview with Sudan Tribune on Tuesday Minnawi held the FFC (Executive Council( responsible for the cancellation of the preliminary meeting the trilateral mechanism had planned earlier in May 2022.

The reason behind their rejection of this meeting is “the desire to create a secret bilateral partnership with the military component once again,” he said.

The UNITAMS, African Union and IGAD held a series of separate meetings with different political and social forces instead of a joint meeting to agree on a formula for the intra-Sudanese dialogue to end the current political crisis.

The FFC opposes involving political and civil society forces that were allied with the former regime in the dialogue describing them as “facades fabricated” by the military component to form a coalition enabling them to keep power and thwart the democratic transition.

However, Minnawi ruled out the failure of the dialogue process stressing it is the only option for all the parties.

He underscored that dialogue on national issues has no time limits or restrictions on the issues under discussion.

The facilitators hope to launch the process in the coming days as they emphasized that the political and economic situation does not tolerate further delay, particularly as the coup leaders lift the state of emergency and committed themselves to end bloody repression.

The SLM leader said the political crisis was not caused by the military coup of October 2021.

The stalemate began on April 11, 2019, “when the Forces for Freedom and Change betrayed (its partners of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front) and replaced them with the military component based on racist and ideological grounds.”

“Even the rift and the disruption of institutions existed a month before October 25,” he added.

He went further to say that the events of October 25 were part of a race between the two former partners.

“Maybe the military managed to eliminate them. Nonetheless, that was not the beginning of the crisis, but one of its ramifications,” he said.

After the collapse of the al-Bashir regime in April 2019, the FFC and the armed groups of the Sudanese Revolutionary Forces (SRF) failed to reach an agreement enabling them to join the negotiations with the Transitional Military Council.

The military and civilian components signed a political declaration and the Constitutional Declaration on August 17, 2019, without the SRF groups which opted for peace talks with the transitional government.

Following the signing of the Juba Peace Agreement in October 2020, Minnawi continued to demand to review Constitutional Declaration to end “the grip” of the Forces for Freedom and Change on power.

When Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan rejected to transfer the chairmanship of the Sovereign Council to civilians and refused to implement security reforms, the SLM leader and his allies led demonstrations and sit-ins calling on the army to seize power and dissolve Hamdok’s government.

Rumoured return of Islamists

Minnawi denied the return of Islamists to power after the coup of October 25.

He described reports about the return of Sudanese Islamists as “mere rumours by parties who have fears and want to rule without elections.”

“The return of the Islamists and their control of the state’s affairs will not happen. The fact that they are active in the political arena is a natural right for every Sudanese.”

Unity of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front

Minnawi ruled out the reunification of the alliance of the armed groups.

He said all the political coalitions, including the SRF, only aimed to bring down the former regime but did not have clear policies for the post-Bashir regime.

“S, this hastened the collapse of these alliances after the change”.

“The Revolutionary Front fell on September 15, 2015, when the SPLM-N refused to fulfil its constitutional commitment,” he said referring to a first split that had occurred at the time when Agar refuse to cede the chairmanship of the alliance to a Darfurian group.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Researcher, Africa Division

On May 25, 16-year-old Justin Lisok Lomuresuk, a primary school student from Kiri boma of Kajokeji in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state, was cutting wood when he found the decomposing body of a soldier tied to a tree. He told his siblings, who then reported it to local authorities.

The next day, while villagers, local officials, and police gathered at the scene, around 25 soldiers arrived in a pickup truck and on motorcycles. A commanding officer ordered Lomuresuk, his 18-year-old brother, Saviour Yamba Lomuresuk, and a 38-year-old neighbor, Taka Iga Wani to sit down, then four soldiers sprayed them with bullets, killing them. The authorities had not questioned the three or anyone else about the suspected crime. These heinous summary executions appear to be done as a form of collective punishment.

Later that day, soldiers arrested Lomuresuk’s sister Kabang Jeska and took her, along with her two-year-old child, to the army barracks in Wudu town. The soldiers also arrested Yongo Henry, Taban Shadrach, and an unidentified civilian without specifying their offences. On Tuesday evening, officials released Jeska, her baby, and Shadrach, but two other civilians remain in detention without charge or visitation nearly a week later. Relatives worry they could be subjected to torture or other ill-treatment or even forcibly disappeared.

Civilians should never be held in military facilities. Authorities should release the remaining two and ensure all army officers implicated in these criminal violations are held to account in civilian courts.

State and military authorities have promised to investigate the killings, but their record casts serious doubt on whether their investigation will be credible. On March 7, a military officer summarily killed Philip Wani Yapete in Kansuk, Kajokeji, allegedly in connection with burning of logging trucks by unknown people. An investigation was allegedly opened, but nothing is known about it.

The reality is that South Sudan’s army routinely carries out and conceals heinous criminal violations, such as summary executions and torture, with impunity. Efforts to address this have been fledgling and often focus on low-ranking officers.

It is long overdue that there be a high cost for these flagrant abuses. The military should issue unequivocal orders, followed by swift measures to ensure that these crimes are neither ignored nor tolerated.

Source: Human Rights Watch