Press Release

CONTNUOUS OBSTRUCTION OF PEACE BY THE SUDAN GOVERNMENT's EMERGENCY LAW

December 20, 2002

• NO TO THE EMERGENCY LAW
• NO TO THE PRESS CENSOR

On December 18, 2002, the head of state Omar Hassan al-Bashir urged the national council to extend the state of emergency since "the time is not ripe to lift it,” as he flatly claimed.

There is no doubt that the council, which acts as the legislative branch of the military rulers of Sudan that, in turn, control the government’s national congress party, will favorably respond to the head of state. Such action will make of the state of emergency, which continues unabated for 4 consecutive years, de facto permanent law.

SHRO-Cairo strongly condemns the continuous violation of Sudan’s commitment to the international law, especially the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights that firmly restricts state of emergency to a non-continuous limited period of time among many other restrictions.

In the light of the SPLM/NDA’s cease-fire agreement with the government as part of the national and international effort to restore democracy and peace unto the country, the Organization notes with grave concerns that the government’s intention to prolong the state of emergency is a real threat to the process of peace.

The government’s plan obstructs the ongoing effort to bring the country into the fair and permanent peace through the insurance of human rights, democracy, and civil freedoms to all citizens of the State without any discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs, political stands, or any other criteria.

The Organization notes further that the call for a renewal of the emergency law is deliberately planned to strengthen the government’s persecution of Civil Society groups, including the most recent waves of arbitrary arrest, detention, and torture of students and political opponents, and the gross violation of the freedom of the Press.

On December 18, 2002, the authorities confiscated the editions of three daily newspapers off the printing press. The Al-Horriyah, Al-Sahafa, and Al-Sahafi Al-Dawli newspapers were unlawfully confiscated for reporting factual reports about a livestock-related disease contracted by human beings from beef and milk since they did not comply with the authorities’ instruction not to publish any report on the disease.

The head of state, his council, and his ruling party are shamelessly planning on a continuous enforcement of emergency law to persecute the People of Sudan instead of alleviating the health crisis of the country, the mounting starvation of large sections of the population all over the country, and the faltering economy with the astronomical price rises in the basic commodities that the Sudan Government escalated against the diminishing purchase power of the pauperized population.

· SHRO-Cairo asks the government to abrogate the state of emergency, insure the human rights and civil freedoms for all citizens and institutions without any discrimination, and abide-by the international human rights norms to which the Sudan Government is legally committed although the head of state and his ruling party have been grossly violating since the June military coup to the present day.