Press release from Human Rights Watch
Dateline London, Tuesday May 31
Darfur: Arrest War Criminals, Not Aid Workers
Donor governments and the United Nations must condemn the Sudanese government's arbitrary arrest and intimidation of aid workers, Human Rights Watch said today. The Sudanese government should drop charges against all aid workers, including the head of Médecins Sans Frontières in Khartoum, Paul Foreman, who was arrested yesterday and released on bail.
The Sudanese authorities detained a second Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff member in Nyala, South Darfur, early this morning. Foreman's arrest followed escalating public threats against MSF in the Sudanese media over the past few weeks. Sudanese authorities claim that an MSF report on rape published on March 8 violated Sudanese law and that the report is "false." The precise charges against MSF are unclear but—according to an article in the Khartoum-based pro-government newspaper Al-Ra'i al-Aam include spying, provision of false information and disturbing the peace.
The government concluded that the report was false, according to Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission, when MSF did not respond to government demands to produce the evidence of rapes. MSF's report stated that the organization had treated more than 500 women and girls in Darfur in a period of four and a half months, and it called on local authorities to do more to stop the abuses. The government sought names and other details, in violation of the doctor-patient privilege.
In addition to the MSF staff, more than twenty aid workers have been arbitrarily arrested, detained or threatened with arrest in the past six months in Darfur, according to Human Rights Watch research. International media are increasingly being denied visas to the region.
Read more.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
