Sudan: Rights Defenders in Darfur Detained

(New York, March 9, 2004) - The Sudanese government has arbitrarily
detained two human rights activists, apparently for their work in the
war-torn region of Darfur in western Sudan, Human Rights Watch said today.
Both are feared to be at risk of inhumane treatment, miscarriage of
justice and possible execution.

Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, the head of a voluntary organization that
provides humanitarian assistance and human rights training, was arrested
on December 28 and has been charged with a variety of capital offenses
against the state. Saleh Mahmud Osman, a human rights lawyer, was arrested
on February 1, 2004 and has been held without charge.

"For the past year, the Sudanese government and its militias have waged
war on the people of Darfur," said Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher for Human
Rights Watch. "Now the government is persecuting those who are trying to
protect these voiceless victims."

Since early last year, the Sudanese army and government-backed Arab
nomadic militias known as janjaweed have embarked on a destructive
campaign to rid Darfur of the rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation
Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and
their civilian supporters. These two Darfur-based rebel groups were formed
in the last fourteen months following increasing government- sponsored
attacks on the African Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit communities in north and
west Darfur.

The government-led campaign has led to an estimated 3,000 civilian deaths,
the widespread devastation of the farming areas of the region, and the
destruction of the local economy. Government-backed militias have
attacked, looted and burned villages while the government has bombed
civilian targets and forbidden or severely restricted humanitarian access
to the population at risk in Darfur.

Mudawi, director of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), had
just returned from a humanitarian mission to Darfur, where he distributed
aid to internally displaced persons. He was arrested by security forces in
Khartoum and is detained in Kober prison, Khartoum, where he has been
allowed to see his wife and lawyer in the presence of police. Shortly
after his arrest, he went on a two-day hunger strike, demanding to be
charged or released. On February 8 he was charged with waging war against
the state, provoking hatred among religious sects, spying, releasing
secret information, revealing military information and establishing a
criminal organization. Some of these charges carry the death penalty.

Saleh Mahmud, a human rights lawyer, works in Nyala, South Darfur,
providing free legal assistance to persons accused or convicted of crimes
without fair trial, and in many instances without counsel at the summary
trial proceedings. He is a member of the lawyers' network of the Sudan
Organization Against Torture (SOAT), and many of his clients face severe
punishments, such as the death penalty or cross amputation-amputation of
the right foot and the left hand, or vice versa. He was arrested in Wad
Medani, Gezira state in eastern Sudan, by security forces on February 1,
and transferred to Khartoum two days later. He is currently being held in
Kober prison and he has not been charged with a crime.

Sudan has a record of arresting and harassing human rights defenders, and
of torturing persons suspected of sympathizing with armed rebels,
including in the Darfur region. Incommunicado detention in particular
raises the danger of torture, and Human Rights Watch urges that all
detainees be given access to private visits from family and legal counsel.

Human Rights Watch urges the Sudanese government to release Saleh Mahmud
from detention or promptly charge him with a crime. The government should
also promptly provide Dr. Mudawi with a fair hearing-in which he is
represented by his counsel-to determine whether there is any merit to the
charges against him, and to abstain from seeking the death penalty should
the case against him proceed. The death penalty is a form of punishment
unique in its cruelty and finality. The intrinsic fallibility of criminal
justice systems assures that even when fair trial rights are respected,
innocent persons may be executed.

Human Rights Watch Press release