Press Release

October 27th, 2001

Release of Four Leading Members of PNC

SHRO-Cairo welcomes the release of six NDA leaders who remained in Detention since December 1999 and the release of four leading members of the Popular National Congress (PNC) who were also detained since February 2000.

Sudan Government, however, did not show any consistent commitment to human rights norms. The announced arrests of more than 36 members of the Popular National Congress (PNC) opposition party while arranging for a press conference on Tuesday October the 2nd are strongly condemned by this Organization. The arrests might have been scheduled along with the release of the NDA opposition groups and a few selected PNCs for political manipulation. Related to this, SHRO-Cairo condemns the continuous arrest of the PNC leader, Dr. Hassan Al-Turabi, under executive claims of security necessities despite the judicial dropping of the charges alleged against him.

The PNC detained members included Abdalla Hassan Ahmed the acting secretary general of the PNC, Ibrahim al-Sonousi foreign relations secretary, Khalifa al-Sheikh Mekkawi, Dahab Mohamed Saleh, Dr. al-Haj Adam, Badr eddin Taha, Ahmed Mudawi, Abdel Moneim Hassan, and Satti Ghurashi.

Equally important, the organization strongly condemns the threats of the security forces to a number of Sudanese women who complained to the United Nations Human Rights Reporter from the arbitrary arrests of their PNC counterparts.

SHRO-Cairo has consistently condemned the arrests of citizens by the existing ruling regime for political reasons. The organization strongly condemns the new selective pattern of arrests that shows the government's manipulation of the right to free expression and other civil freedoms for governmental goals at the expense of human rights. Sudan Government must recognize without any political conditions or maneuvers all of the fundamental rights of all Sudanese citizens to exercise full political freedoms in accordance with international human rights norms. Government must insure the full rights of all citizens to exercise political freedoms without any discrimination, governmental manipulation, or abuse of authority.

The Government of Sudan must stop the security harassing of Sudanese women in the public life. The Government of Sudan must immediately release all political opponents regardless of their ideologies or political stands.