Vigil at US Embassy in Sudan capital for Darfur detainees

On Thursday activists of the families of detained Darfuri students held a vigil outside the US embassy in Khartoum, where they handed over a memorandum of the names of the student detainees, native administrations and hostages, as well as the ongoing human rights violations in the province.

Activist Kamal El Zein told Radio Dabanga that the memorandum included the names of 17 Darfuri students detained by the regime, 8 of them from Bakht El Ridha University and the rest from different universities in Khartoum state.

He added that the memorandum also included the names of 59 detainees from the native administrations of Rizeigat and Maaliya, in addition to 39 others from Birgid.

Darfuri hostages

The memorandum also contained names of 303 Darfuri hostages, some of whom were captured in recent battles with the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minawi’s leadership, the Transitional Council and others in previous battles.

He explained that the memorandum also pointed to the intentions of the government to dismantle the camps and shooting of the peaceful demonstrators of camp Kalma for displaced people in Nyala during Al Bashir’s recent visit to Darfur

He said the aim of the vigil in front of the US embassy in Khartoum is to draw the attention of the United States to the fact that the statements indicating improvements in the human rights situation in Sudan in general and Darfur in particular are not correct.

He said that the vigil also aims to draw attention to the issue of lifting sanctions on Khartoum regime and cooperation with it will give the government free hand to commit further violations against the Sudanese in all states

Darfur Bar Association

The Darfur Bar Association appealed in a statement to the legal activists and human rights organisations to stand in solidarity with the families of the detained students and exert pressure on the security apparatus to force it to release them immediately.

In its statement, the Darfur Bar Association affirmed its solidarity with the families of the detainees and expressed its deep concern about the suffering of the detained students from torture and degrading human dignity treatment, especially student Nasreldin Mukhtar.

In its statement, the BarAssociation  also criticised the police for cordoning the families and students while exercising peaceful freedom of expression in front of the US Embassy as their act is a constitutional expression reinforced by the agreement of the American administration and the regime to include improvement of the human rights situation in Sudan under the terms of the five tracks.

The statement added that “The United States has become involved in human rights in Sudan under its agreement with the regime, in addition to its established constitutional principles that violate its principles and obligations under the terms of the decision to lift the sanctions on Sudan”.