IMPORTANT UPDATE: Dr. Mudawi released from custody on May 16, 2005. Human Rights First remains concerned that the serious charges against Dr. Mudawi have yet to have been dropped.

Show the Sudanese Government that We’re Still Paying Attention!

Alert Issued: May 12, 2005

As the crisis in Sudan rages on, the work of human rights advocates becomes more and more important. Sudanese human rights activists work at great personal risk to promote respect for basic rights, and they rely on support from individuals like you.

Over the past few months, Human Rights First has led a campaign on behalf of Sudanese human rights advocate Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam. Our efforts were not in vain. Following an appeal to our Defender Alert Network, Dr. Mudawi was released from detention on March 3, 2005.

But Dr. Mudawi needs our help again.

For the third time in the last 18 months, Dr. Mudawi has been arrested in apparent reprisal for his human rights work in Darfur.

On May 8, only hours before he was to travel to Ireland to receive a prestigious award for his tireless promotion of human rights, Dr. Mudawi was arrested in Khartoum along with two others, Yasir Saleem and Abdalla Taha. Mr. Taha has since been released from custody. Dr. Mudawi is chairperson of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), an organization actively monitoring human rights violations in Darfur.

Human Rights First is seriously concerned to learn that Dr. Mudawi has been charged under Articles 53 and 57 of the 1991 Criminal Code for “espionage against the country” and “photographing military areas.” Human Rights First believes that these charges are unfounded.

It is profoundly disturbing that one of the articles under which Dr. Mudawi was been charged carries a potential death penalty or a penalty of life imprisonment.

Please take a minute to send a letter to the Sudanese authorities letting them know that you have not forgotten human rights defenders like Dr. Mudawi and urging his immediate release.

Background

In the last 18 months, Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam has been detained three times by Sudanese authorities.

On December 28, 2003, Dr. Mudawi was arrested by Sudanese government security forces, and documents regarding development work in Darfur were seized. He was not charged until February 11, 2004, at which point he was accused of several violations of the Sudanese penal code that carried the death penalty.

Human Rights First maintained that the accusations against Dr. Mudawi were unfounded and his prosecution was intended to punish him for his lawful, nonviolent activities promoting human rights. All charges against Dr. Mudawi were dropped and he was released on August 7, 2004.

On January 24, 2005, Dr. Mudawi was again detained. Sudanese government security forces came to his home and took him, along with his friend and fellow activist Salah Mohammed Abdalrahman, to security headquarters in Umm Ruwaba. They were interrogated, transferred to security offices in Al-Obeid, and then held in unknown locations. On March 3, 2005, Dr. Mudawi was released; however, Salah Mohammed Abdalrahman’s whereabouts were unknown until his sister was permitted to visit him on March 17, 2005.

Dr. Mudawi’s most recent detention appears to be another attempt by the Sudanese government to halt his work in support of human rights as well as the activities of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), the nongovernmental organization (NGO) that he chairs.

Human Rights First is seriously concerned to learn that Dr. Mudawi has been charged under Articles 53 and 57 of the 1991 Criminal Code for “espionage against the country” and “photographing military areas.” Human Rights First believes that these charges are unfounded. It is profoundly disturbing that one of the articles under which Dr. Mudawi was been charged carries a potential death penalty or a penalty of life imprisonment.

The detention of Dr. Mudawi also appears to be but one of a series of attempts by the Sudanese government to silence human rights defenders active in Darfur. Some of SUDO’s recent activities include educative workshops on human rights and providing assistance to displaced persons in Darfur.

During the continuing human rights emergency in Darfur, the Sudanese government has engaged in a pattern of targeting human rights defenders. Incidents have included the arrest and detention of human rights lawyers, individuals who met with Red Cross representatives and African Union personnel, and others who spoke out about the conflict in Darfur.

Human Rights First is seriously concerned about the arrest and detention of Dr. Mudawi, as well as the Sudanese government’s persecution of other human rights defenders.

Since 2003, massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law have been committed in Darfur. Civilians have been victims of mass killings and rape, their villages have been burned, and they have been forced to flee for their lives.

The conflict in Darfur - rooted in long-term disputes over resources between farmers and herders - grew out of opposition to the Sudanese government by two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which primarily draw their support from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. The stated political aim of the SLA and the JEM has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of non-Arabs in Darfur. In response to such opposition, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and a government-sponsored militia known as the Janjaweed - largely composed of fighters of Arab background - have targeted civilian populations suspected of supporting the rebels.

In the last two years, estimates indicate that more than two million people have fled their homes and nearly 400,000 people have died, largely as a result of a campaign of violence against civilians in Darfur by the Sudanese army and its proxy militia, the Janajaweed.

In January 2005, the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, which was appointed by the United Nations, found that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed in Darfur by the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed militia forces. The Commission also found that rebel forces opposed to the government have committed war crimes in the region.

Based on these findings, the U.N. Security Council decided on March 31, 2005 to refer the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court, thereby authorizing the Court to hold accountable those responsible for grave crimes in the region.

Tragically, the Government of Sudan has failed to take any serious action to end impunity for the grave crimes committed in Darfur, and it has refused to cooperate with the International Criminal Court.

Under these difficult circumstances, local human rights defenders, like Dr. Mudawi have an essential role to play in informing the world about the continuing human rights crisis in their country and in gathering evidence that can eventually be used to hold those responsible for serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law accountable for their crimes.

Letter:

H.E. Khidir Haroun Ahmed
Ambassador
Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan
2210 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 667-2406
E-mail: info@sudanembassy.org

Dear Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed:

I am deeply troubled by the recent detention of human rights advocate Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam. I understand that Dr. Mudawi and Yasir Saleem were arrested in Khartoum on May 8, 2005. I am seriously concerned by reports that Dr. Mudawi has been charged under Articles 53 and 57 of the 1991 Criminal Code for “espionage against the country” and “photographing military areas.” I believe that these charges are unfounded and are being brought against Dr. Mudawi in reprisal for his human rights advocacy. It is profoundly disturbing that one of the articles under which Dr. Mudawi has been charged carries a potential death penalty or a penalty of life imprisonment.

Dr. Mudawi is chairperson of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), an organization that promotes sustainable development and human rights. It appears that his detention is designed to penalize him for his lawful, nonviolent activities promoting human rights.

Dr. Mudawi’s detention also appears to be but one in a series of continuing attempts to silence human rights defenders in Sudan. Other incidents have included the detention of human rights lawyers, individuals who met with Red Cross representatives and African Union personnel, and others who spoke out about the conflict in Darfur.

The Sudanese government should be promoting the work of peaceful human rights advocates, not placing them in detention. According to the 1998 U.N. Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, all persons have the right “freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

While Dr. Mudawi and Yasir Saleem, as well as Salah Mohammed Abdalrahman, who was arrested previously with Dr. Mudawi, remain in detention, I strongly urge you to ensure that they are provided with appropriate and timely medical treatment and that their conditions of detention meet basic international standards. International human rights law requires that all persons held in detention are treated with humanity and dignity and are not subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Sudanese government should ensure the application of the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the U.N. Body of Principles for the Protection of all Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, which further elaborate the basic standards to be achieved in ensuring respect for the rights of detainees.

Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter. I will continue to monitor this case closely.

Sincerely,