More than 100 Sudanese still missing after ‘June 3 Massacre’

The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) has documented more than 100 cases of people who went missing during the violent dismantling of the sit-in in front of the army command in Khartoum on June 3.

Three of the people reported missing were found dead. Forty others are found, yet in critical health condition, Noun Kashkoush from the Democratic Lawyers Alliance told reporters in Khartoum conference on Wednesday evening.

She stated that 11 complaints have been submitted to the prosecutor of the Khartoum North Court regarding the reports of disappearance, and a memorandum has been submitted to the National Human Rights Commission to urge the authorities to provide an answer to the question of the missing people.

The lawyers will send a memorandum to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Kashkoush said that many professional groups joined the SPA Initiative for Missing People, including doctors, lawyers, journalists, artists, and members of civil society organisations.

The alliance will launch a campaign on August 30 to search for the people still missing, in conjunction with the International Day of Enforced Disappearance.

Fadya Khalafallah of the SPA Initiative for Missing People reported that apart from forming a number of sub-groups, they established a media committee and a medical committee to follow up the issue of the people still missing after “the massacre of June 3” – in which reportedly more than 127 people were killed. More than 700 people sustained injuries. At least 40 bodies were found floating in the Nile.

She explained that the Initiative, in cooperation with the neighbourhood committees, organised a tracing campaign in the hospitals and police stations of Khartoum. Posters with photos and names of missing persons have been distributed in markets and other public places.

On Thursday, neighbourhood committees in Khartoum and Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira organised vigils in solidarity with the relatives of the missing people.

Investigations

Many opposition groups urged an independent, international investigation into into the violent events in Khartoum on June 3. The ruling Transitional Military Council however, rejected this and instructed the country’s Attorney-General to set up an investigation committee.

On July 27, the committee presented its findings in Khartoum. A number of officers had violated instructions of the Supreme Command. The committee said that 87 people were killed and 168 injured. It denied incidents of rape or burning of tents during the attacks.

According to the truth and fact-finding committee set-up by the National Umma Party, the violence was “premeditated and planned”. The committee recommended the formation of an independent national committee of inquiry to investigate the crimes committed and bringing the perpetrators to trials.

A separately established fact-finding committee of the Darfur Bar Association reported that it has “ample evidence” that the ruling Transitional Military Council is responsible for the killings. The committee also heard the testimony of a few militiamen who fled from the eighth detachment of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). They said that members of the detachment were trained by Russian instructors.

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