Sudan sues, threatens Amnesty International

Khartoum is attempting to counter the international uproar following allegations of the Sudanese government's use of chemical weapons against citizens of Darfur, by filing a lawsuit against Amnesty International.

The representative of the Sudanese security apparatus, Lt. Gen. Abdelrahman Hataba, described the allegations as “serious” and “that have caused many problems” in a parliamentary hearing. He added that they would file a lawsuit with the national court against Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog that released the report on 29 September.

The investigation indicates that at least 30 likely chemical attacks have taken place in Darfur’s Jebel Marra area since January this year, based on satellite images, survivor testimonies, and photos. The attacks killed about 250 people, mostly children, Amnesty reported.

The Ministry has 'a new vision' on how to deal with the organisation

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a new vision of how to deal with Amnesty International in the future,” the representative of Sudan to the United Nations, Hassan Hamid Hassan, said. “The organisation has historically been considered hostile to the Sudan.”

In response, Sudanese lawyer Ali Mahmoud Hassanein said that Amnesty International is concerned with the human rights because Khartoum has violated them by using chemical weapons against its own people.

“It is natural for Amnesty International to expose and reveal Khartoum regime’s practices and violations,” Hassanein told Radio Dabanga.

In fact the lawyer hopes that the Sudanese regime would inevitably go to court. “There it would be exposed by the irrefutable evidence and facts Amnesty has about the regime’s use of chemical weapons in Jebel Marra.”

In Sudan, the publication of the report has sparked wide condemnation of the government's alleged practices against the Darfuri people. The rebel SPLM-N has decided to suspend “all political engagement” with the Sudanese government on peace negotiations about Darfur.

Street protests against the use of chemical weapons erupted in Austria, the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom by those who sympathise with the people in Darfur.

New report

Amnesty published a new report on South Sudan on Monday, in which it accuses President Salva Kiir’s government of targeting members of the ethnic Nuer from which Kiir’s former deputy, Riek Machar. It further found South Sudanese government’s forces responsible for deliberately killing civilians, raping women and girls and looting property in July in the national capital, Juba.