Sudanese civil society barred from holding press conference

Security agents prevented a number of Sudanese civil society organisations from holding a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday.

Tarig El Amin, founder and director of the Beit El Funoun (the House of Arts), told Radio Dabanga that a force of heavily armed security agents arrived at the Teiba Press Centre in downtown Khartoum in six Land Cruisers.”

“They surrounded the place and barred any one from entering the centre. We were all surprised by these arbitrary measures. We just wanted to explain to the Sudanese public to what extent we are suffering since our organisations were closed three years ago, without any good reason,” he said.

In a joint statement later on Sunday, the organisations stated that they will adhere to their “constitutional rights of free expression and gathering”. They said that they will continue to organise a series of meetings in which they will express their views on “the current cultural state of affairs in the country, and the government legislations and practices that shackle any cultural and artistic activity”.

Closure

During the past years, the Sudanese authorities closed a number of civil society organisations, among them the Sudan Social Development Organisation (Sudo), operating in Darfur, in 2009.

In 2012, the Sudanese Studies Centre, El Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development, and the Cultural Forum for Literary Criticism in  Khartoum were closed. The Nuba Mountains-based Organisation for Human Rights and Development was banned too.

The following year witnessed the closure of Beit El Funoun and the Aslan English Language Teaching Centre. In 2014, the Centre for Civil Society Development, Salmmah Women’s Resource Centre, and the Sudan Human Rights Monitor, founded by Dr Amin Mekki Madani, were shut down.

In January this year, the Ministry of Culture cancelled the registration of the Mahmoud Mohamed Taha Centre in Omdurman, the National Civil Forum, and the Sudanese Writers’ Union, without citing reasons or relevant legislation.