GAD (Sudan) IDP Statement

This is the text of the document Toby Madut and Ghazi Suleiman circulated and for which they have been charged with violation of articles 66 (spreading false information), 77 (pubic nuisance) and 125 (insulting the Islamic religion) of the Criminal Code 1991. As an international human rights lawyer living in Sudan and advisor to the Ministry of Justice on Human Rights, I have reviewed the document and found it to contain verifiably truthful statements that are supported by evidence known to the Government of Sudan and the allegations of violations of human rights are well-founded. This opinion has been communicated to the Government of Sudan.

Text of communication of Toby Madut and Ghazi Suleiman:

Message to the Sudanese People and the International Community,

On behalf of the Democratic Forces Front (abbreviated from Arabic as GAD), we the undersigned, hereby draw your attention to an important issue concerning serious, gross, widespread and systematic abuses of the human rights the internally displaced persons in Khartoum city and surrounding areas by the Khartoum State government.

We express serious concern and anxiety over the quickly and seriously deteriorating relations between the Khartoum State government and the internally displaced persons in Khartoum city and surrounding areas.

We are especially concerned by the inhumane, cruel and degrading treatment to which the internally displaced persons are subjected on a regular basis. During the last fifteen years, thousands of persons from the South and West of Sudan have come to Khartoum city and surrounding areas. The main reason for this influx has been the war in southern Sudan, the unstable security in the West of Sudan and the drought. When they arrive in Khartoum city and surrounding areas these people are treated like second class citizens and the following situations indicate the inhumane treatment to which they have been subjected by the government:

1. Their houses are demolished in Mayo City, Haj Yousif and Jebel Aulia and they have frequently been left homeless without any alternative housing.

2. Their churches have been demolished in the same areas and they have been deprived of places of worship.

3. Their schools have been demolished and they have been deprived of places in which their children can receive a basic education in accordance with their parent's religious, linguistic and cultural values.

4. Religious leaders of different non-Muslim denominations have been arrested, detained, and mistreated and denied a fair trial. The cases of Father Hillary Boma and Father Lino Sabit are examples of cases that have been recognised as violating international human rights law concerning fair trial standards by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in his most recent report.

5. Women have been arbitrarily imprisoned and mistreated while in custody for brewing alcohol. The mistreatment has reached the extent of torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment when lashes are prescribed and dispensed as the punishment for this crime, while these women have no alternatives for their own and their families economic survival.

6. The children of imprisoned internally displaced persons living in the Mayo City, Haj Yousif and Jebel Aulia areas as well as elsewhere in and around Khartoum have been completely neglected.

The government of Sudan is a member of the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity. The government of Sudan has ratified many treaties that legally binds it to respect the basic rights of the internally displaced persons that are regularly violated. Among these treaties are the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights and the Convention on the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Each of these treaties are being violated daily in respect of the rights to housing, education, health care, religion, enjoyment of culture, freedom of expression, freedom of association, work, and humane treatment of internally displaced person. In Sudan, internally displaced persons are being oppressed to the extent that it threatens their very existence as a group of people in society.

In light of this oppression and violation of human rights, the undersigned call upon all Sudanese, and all members of the international community, to oppose the government's oppression of the internally displaced persons in Sudan and to oppose and take all necessary measures to end the gross and systematic violation of the human rights of the internally displaced persons in Sudan.

Signed Ghazi Suleiman, Chairperson of the Political Office of GAD

Signed Dr. Toby Madut, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of GAD