THE SUDANESE HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY - Sudan Tribune

The government prevented unlawfully hundreds of journalists from attendingthe National Assembly session on a new law of the press onMonday November 17th. Harsher prevention by police and security forcesdisassembled peacefully protesting journalists outside the parliamentspace, then arrested and detained 78 protestors.These acts and others inviting the abstention of three English papersand seven Arabic journals from publication constituted a flagrant violationof the Interim Constitution and the parliamentary traditions that allowjournalists to cover parliamentary sessions in the press.SHRO was deeply concerned with the repressive environment thegovernment had been spreading over the public life throughout the lastthree years in the course of implementing the Comprehensive PeaceAgreement (2005) prior to the upcoming 2009 elections. The Organizationhad repeatedly condemned the government’s insistent violations ofjournalist rights and public freedoms.The Organization asked the government, to no avail, to end the unlawfulsecurity intrusions that obliterated journalist columns, restructuredprinted news, and confiscated whole papers, in addition to arbitrary arrests,heavy fines, and possible terms of imprisonment by the notoriousPress and Publications Law.Tortures and Arbitrary ArrestsIn November, Osman Humida, Abd al-Mon’im al-Jak, and Amir Suleimanwere arbitrarily arrested and detained by the intelligence and securityservice accused of collaboration with the ICC. “The Sudanese governmentis well-known for having little tolerance for criticism,” saidGeorgette Gagnon, Africa director at the Human Rights Watch group.“This is part of a wider pattern of trying to silence those who supportjustice and to suppress information about the human rights situation inSudan,” said Gagnon (Sudan Tribune, 27 November 2009).Since December 15, 2008, the National Intelligence had been arbitrarilydetaining the women’s activist Nahla Bashir Adam (25) in the De’ainprison. Ms. Bashir was further subjected to continuous detention in theHajleej town, the notorious national security jail in Khartoum, and theOmdurman Prison where she was still detained without charge.42THE SUDANESE HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLYAn ad hoc publication issued by the Sudan Human Rights Organization - Cairo