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First Political Prisoners Freed in Sudan under Amnesty
[An Nahar] Sudanese authorities released six political prisoners early on Tuesday, an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer reported, after President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. vowed to free all political detainees. The six men walked free to tearful relatives waiting outside Kober Prison in Khartoum North. Most of them are believed to have been held for more than two months in connection with a conference in Uganda in January, which led to a charter for toppling Bashir's 24-year regime using both armed and peaceful means. Farouk Abu Issa, who heads the opposition alliance of more than 20 parties, could not be immediately reached for comment. The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... had called in February for the tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! opposition party members to be charged or freed. Mashood Adebayo Baderin, the U.N.'s independent expert on human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... in Sudan, also expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... about the "detention of political opposition figures and other individuals" by the national security service. In a speech opening a new session of parliament on Monday, Bashir said all political prisoners would be freed as the government seeks a broad political dialogue, a move welcomed by the opposition as tensions ease with South Sudan. Posted by: Fred 2013-04-03 |
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