Slavery
| Date : October 4th, 2001
1. The Headquarters of Episcopal Church of Sudan, Diocese of Khartoum in Omdurman stays divided till today. Half of it is illegally occupied by the Khartoum State Government (Ministry of Health) which is insisting to take the other half of this freehold plot of land from the Church. There is absolutely no explanation given as to why the authorities opted to ignore the land laws in this country for this case. 2. Last year the Christian students undergoing military training were denied worship in training camps around Khartoum. This resulted in the dismissal of over 200 students from the training which is a condition precedent to acceptance to universities and other higher institutions of learning. Whereas the training curriculum includes lectures on Islamic religion and the Muslims trainees pray freely, the Christians who sometimes comprise half of the trainees (e.g. the Unified Training Camp south of Khartoum) were told by the authorities not to pray inside the camp or go out on Sundays to partake in the Sunday’s services in the towns of Greater Khartoum. Military training of secondary school students and other sectors should include and guarantee free worship for the followers of other religions just as the Muslims do if the government is serious with its slogan of religious coexistence and tolerance. 3. The oppressive structures and systems originally established by the government are not dismantled yet. They included the Public Order courts and Police who have wide powers of searches and arrests. The trial procedures in the Public Order courts which have this title dropped and are known now as criminal courts result into the complete lack of the due process of law. This year the Public Order Trial Judge refused with no reasons, the defence Advocate in the trial of the Christian youth and students arrested in the All Saints’ Cathedral incident (Easter incident). 4. The discriminatory laws which favour Islam to other beliefs and religions are not repealed. For example, Section 126 of the Sudan Criminal Law 1991 makes it an offence of apostasy for a Muslim to convert to any other religion or belief but it allows others to convert to Islam. This section contradicts article 24 (Freedom of Religion) of the Constitution. It should therefore be repealed but because it promotes the government’s vision of the Islamic society and state, this contradiction is being ignored and bypassed. Last June, the security applied the provision of section of 126 of the Sudan Criminal Law 1991 by arresting a convert to Christian religion, Mr. Alladin Omer Ajjabna, at Khartoum Airport. They kept him for three (3) months incommunicado. He was tortured and asked to revert to Islam with immediate effect. He was released in mid September on medical grounds but to report every day to the security. He was last seen on the 26th September 2001. Before his second disappearance, he told some friends that he was to report back to the security to face the person who accused him of apostasy. There are fears that he is re-arrested. With him is another Mr. Nasir Hassan who is a convert to Christianity and has disappeared from the scene. It is suspected that he is also arrested by the security. They need an urgent help. After the fall of Raga, the Government of Sudan launched a security campaign to arrest, torture and to some extents lynch some members of the Christian community and the Kresh tribe in Western Bahr El Ghazal State at large and in Raga Province in particular. The following are some examples of Human Rights violations. The victims are illegally arrested and tortured for sometimes by the security before they were released at Tamsah, El Daein, Rodim and Nyala in Western Sudan on arrival from Raga after the SPLA occupation: (i) Mr. Sebit Hassan Ramadan war arrested at Rodom and taken to Buram on 13th July, 2001 for sixteen (16) days. He is an employee of Sudatel. He was beaten everyday for the period of sixteen days and he sustained injuries all over his body. He was served very little quantity of food and water at long intervals. (ii) Mr. Haggar Sesingere was arrested at Rodom and taken to Nyala. He spent one and halt months in security detention under constant beating including pulling out some of his finger nails. He comes from the village of Kuravaya which lies between Raga and Boro. (iii) Mr. Osman Robo who is a Sudatel staff who arrived at Raga just before it fell to SPLA on transfer and was arrested in El Daein by the Security for 20 days. He was badly tortured and told that he accepted the transfer to Raga in order to pave ways for the coming of the SPLA. (iv) The Kresh tribe in general and the Christians in particular are targeted by GOS security organs as pro-SPLA in Raga Province. Relief items are in many instances denied to the members of this tribe. (v) All the villages along the road from Wau to Raga have been indiscriminately bombarded to ruins. (vi) Some of the rebel factions which came to Khartoum as a result of the 1997 Khartoum Peace Agreement are behaving like the Somalia warlords who do respect the rule of law. A certain Paulino Matib who has a sizeable militia Khartoum (Kalakala residential area) has in several occasions arrested and tortured his assumed opponents. The government has not one time questioned his behaviour or took his militias to the book. Last Friday, his militias arrested and tortured a citizen Mr. Jumaa at Kalakala residential area, south of Khartoum. 5) The handling of the Department of Church Affairs in the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowment by a Muslim, Mr. Abdel Jabir who, we suspect, is a security personnel while we have a good number of qualified and well informed Christians is nothing less than denying the Sudanese Christians their legitimate rights of handling their religious affairs. Having a Muslims in that department means that the department is established for controlling churches and Christian activities. 6) The lengthy and thorough procedures involved in obtaining travel documents for clergy and church employees infringe not only on the individual rights of citizenship but contradicts the much acclaimed government’s slogan of religious tolerance and coexistence. The screening investigations and the general treatment of clergy and church workers who intend to travel out is an obvious act of discrimination and is far beyond the treatment of a convicted criminal. Of course, this same treatment is not accorded to Muslims working in the mosques or with Islamic institutions in the country. 7. Four years ago the churches, through the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) wrote a letter to the government through the Ministry of Social Planning demanding the exemption from the military service of the ordained church ministers, evangelists and church workers as the Christian religion does not permit the killing of a human being but to save lives. The government has ignored the request by the churches till today and continued to enforce its law on this Christian sector. 8. The Catholic Club which is the property of Christians is taken by the ruling party without any compensation. No one can deny that something is wrong but no one is willing to take the right step to redress the situation as this would amount to working against the declared government vision of Sudan. This has not only happened to the Catholic Club but to other church properties e.g. the ECS Church in El Obeid town and the Republican Museum (former All Saints’ Cathdral of the Episcopal of the Sudan) which should have remained as a historical monument. While doing this the government has built a beautiful mosque around the area. 9. On the National Television (Omdurman), everyday the station opens with an Islamic prayer and reading, there are the five (5) daily prayers, there are in addition the Islamic programmes such as Al din nesiha, daiwan al iftha, tazkara etc. and the closing prayer. Every Friday there is over an hour for Friday’s prayers; during the month of Ramadan, there are taraweihs added to Muslim daily prayers and all Islamic festivals have special programmes. There is completely no Christian programmes in the National TV except a one hour Sunday programme. How can a simple Christian of the estimated ten millions understand the slogans like religious tolerance, coexistence etc. In this context, how can the Christians get convinced that there is no religious persecution in the Sudan? 10. The government has a policy of rounding up the street children in the Greater Khartoum and other big towns and take them to camps meant for their rehabilitation. Several of these camps are around the Greater Khartoum. The bulk of the street children come from the displaced communities, which are mainly Southern Sudanese and Christians. After having been taken to these camps, these children are forced by the camp authorities to become Muslims. This process operated and made it impossible for parents who intend to retrieve their children. For when they present their requests to the authorities concerned they are given inmates lists with Muslim names. These authorities have refused the visiting of these camps by some pastors and priests. Their act amounted to a violation of religious freedom. 11. The on going oil exploitation in the Unity State has displaced the Nuer populations from their traditional lands. More than 40,000 Nuer have been displaced from Northern and central western Nuer since April 1998. It is true that there are a few Nuer and Dinka in locations like Heglig which prior to the oil industry was one of the populated area in western Nuer land. Some of those who did not perish in the process of displacement have moved south to Bentieu town which population has of recent years swollen up, and to Bahr El Ghazal (Gogrial and Yirol). 12. The issue of the Christian Cemetery at El Sahafa remains a thorn in the flesh. There is no explanation why the government authorities want to take this sacred place. |