African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(May 2011) Since the successful youth protests in Tunisia and Egypt and demonstrations throughout Sudan organised by the Youth for Change in late January till present, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) and police have increasingly targeted students, likely over fears of their potential organising power.
Demonstrations organised by students and young people have been targeted even when their rallying cause is fairly non-controversial; rather, they appear to have been targetted due to their presumed affiliation with the Youth for Change movement, whose calls for President Omar alBashir to abdicate power have been much more brazen. In the case of arrests following peaceful demonstrations on 28 April in Al Salaam and Abu Shouk IDP Camps in North Darfur against a new aid distribution policy, three of those arrested and subjected to torture are 17, 14, and 16, respectively. They remain detained in Shalla Prison, El Fashir, alongside the rest of the group arrested.
Those involved in the Youth for Change movement were arrested en masse in demonstrations in Khartoum, El Obeid, Wad Medani, and Kosti. The regime reacted violently to the demonstrations, deploying heavily armed riot police, who beat demonstrators. Over a hundred participants were arrested on the first day of demonstrations on 30 January alone, and many were held incommunicado and/or subjected to torture. Subsequent arrests occurred after demonstrations on 3 February. Interestingly, the majority of those detained and transferred to NISS custody were never charged with any criminal offence, whereas those who were held for short durations of time by the police were charged with Article 67 (“rioting”) under the 1991 Sudanese Criminal Code before being released.
A number of demonstrators were severely tortured, and there are reports of new methods of torture emerging. These incidents are further evidence of a crackdown already reported by the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies in the April 2011 report “Silencing the New Front: the Emergence of Widespread Torture against the Youth Movement”. These brutal measures have created a widespread fear amongst the youth movement. Whereas torture has long been used against mid-level members of
civil society, journalists, and members of disenfranchised ethnic groups, youth and students have become the main target of the NISS and police.
Throughout February until the present, the NISS and police continued to suppress demonstrations and the freedom of expression throughout Sudan, particularly when it appeared to collide with those organised by the broader youth movement. For example, on 21 March, police crushed anti-government protests with tear gas when members of the youth movement began demonstrations in Khartoum, Medani, Sennar, and Port Sudan.
Though there was little space for freedom of expression and association throughout the interim period, the fact that demonstrations and isolated distribution of pamphlets have resulted in mass arrests, even where they address issues far less controversial than regime change, indicates a new approach. This development has reflected a wide-net approach by targeting youth organisations not directly affiliated with the Youth for Change. A number of torture tactics that were used against detainees in Khartoum following the demonstrations organised by the Youth for Change, including verbal abuse, electric shocks, and forced exercise, have been transferred to detainees outside the capital and to members of disparate organisations and groups. Disturbingly, in many cases the crackdown was worst in Darfur. As attacks on Darfur continue and negotiations in Doha come to an end, there have been serious threats to the freedom of expression for those for whom it matters most.
Police have attempted to dissuade demonstrators by filing criminal cases against students under Article 51 (“waging war against the state”) under the 1991 Sudanese Criminal Code, which is a capital offence. Though the odds of a death sentence actually being carried out are relatively low, utilising Article 51 enables police and the NISS to prolong detention up to four and a half months without judicial review, and prevents detainees from receiving bail. Generally under the 1991 Sudanese Criminal Code, those accused of capital crimes are only allowed to receive bail under Article 106, which allows for bail to be set only in murder cases where the family of the victim agrees.
The following monitoring comprises an overview of demonstrations and their aftermath organised at universities and markets across Sudan (including Darfur), as well as in Al Salaam and Abu Shouk IDP camps in El Fashir, North Darfur.
Download full report here.
This post is also available in: Arabic
