Opposition memos to UN HRs Council, new Sudan security detentions

Agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained three youth members of the National Consensus Forces in Khartoum on Saturday. On the occasion of the 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, 8-26 September, the National Umma Party (NUP) demanded from the Council to appoint a special rapporteur for Sudan. On its part, the Committee of Solidarity with the Victims of the September Demonstrations submitted a memorandum about political detainees in Sudan to the UN Human Rights Council. Security agents detained Khalid Ahmed, Mohamed Abdel Monim El Tom, and Igbal Abdallah, youth members of the National Consensus Forces (NCF, a coalition of opposition parties), on Saturday evening. “They were held yesterday at about 7 pm in a printing house in Khartoum, where they were preparing leaflets for the commemoration of the people who were killed during the September demonstrations against the government last year,” Hala Tajelsir, spokeswoman for the NCF youth group reported to Radio Dabanga on Sunday. “They were taken to an unknown destination. No one has heard about them yet.” Special rapporteur The secretary general of the opposition Umma Party, Sara Nugdallah, submitted a memorandum to the UN Human Rights Council, in which she requested to re-enter Sudan under Article IV concerning close monitoring of human rights abuses, and to appoint a special rapporteur, pursuant to Article X, instead of “a technical consultant”. The NUP therefore demands from the council members to ignore the recommendations presented by Mashood Adebayo Baderin, UN Independent Expert on Human Rights in Sudan in his report to the Council in September 2013. The memorandum further reports about the “continued violations of human rights in Sudan”, referring to the “bloody repression” the Sudanese are suffering from, and the various civil protests in Khartoum, Wad Madani, Nyala, and Zalingei, during which demonstrators were killed and injured by government forces. It mentions the absence of objective investigations into the incidents, and the legal immunity of the perpetrators. The memo also points to the unconstitutionality of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who, recruited and commanded by the NISS, have committed widespread human rights violations in various parts of the country. Political detainees The Committee of Solidarity with the Victims of the September Demonstrations has also sent a memorandum to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “The memo contains a list with the names of 60 civilians, including people from Darfur and South Kordofan, currently being held in Sudan’s prisons for their alleged political activities,” Siddig Yousef, the chairman of the Solidarity Committee informed Radio Dabanga. File photo: The Independent Expert inspecting the facilities and condition of the prisoners in Zalingei prison, Central Darfur (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related:Sudan security threatens families of protest victims (21 September 2014) Darfuris call on Sudan’s HRs Commission to stop violations (21 September 2014)UN human rights expert voices concerns on Sudan (24 June 2014)