VZCZCXRO5571
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0866/01 1621448
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 101448Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1004
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000866 
 
DEPT FOR AF/SPG, A/S FRAZER, SE WILLIAMSON, DRL 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL SOCI SU
 
SUBJECT: MASS ARRESTS, TORTURE THREATEN DARFURIS IN KHARTOUM 
 
REF: A. KHARTOUM 847 
      ¶B. KHARTOUM 859 
      ¶C. KHARTOUM 857 
      ¶D. KHARTOUM 788 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Following the May 10 JEM attacks on Omdurman, 
there are reliable reports that the GoS has detained and tortured 
thousands of Darfuris living in Khartoum.  Sudanese civil society is 
scrambling to document the names of the detainees, and Sudanese 
opposition has formed the "May 10 Committee" to provide for their 
legal defense.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Sudanese and international human rights organizations 
confirm that over 250 individuals, ethnic Darfuris resident in 
Khartoum, are known to be in the custody of Government of Sudan 
(GoS) authorities following the May 10 Justice and Equality Movement 
(JEM) attacks in the capital.  Currently, all detainees are in the 
custody of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). 
Khartoum-based organizations and activists have compiled their names 
independent of GoS cooperation.  Not yet charged, all known 
detainees sit in holding facilities in the Khartoum area or in a 
prison on Sudan's Red Sea coast. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In addition, Human rights organizations report 
"disappearances" of many more unidentified Darfuris following recent 
raids of neighborhoods in Omdurman, a Khartoum suburb with a large 
Darfuri population.  All released detainees testify to having been 
beaten and tortured.  Most disturbing, several former detainees 
report that they were released from a military prison, Al Sigin al 
Harabi, where over 3000 Darfuris allegedly are being held. 
 
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EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS SUGGEST TORTURE, 3000 IN ONE PRISON 
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¶4. (SBU) All of the many arrest accounts following the GoS response 
to the May 10 attacks involve ethnic profiling and torture by GoS 
authorities.  One story, judged credible by lawyers and a surgeon 
from a well-known Khartoum-based human rights group, was reported to 
them by a 25 year-old construction technician working in Khartoum. 
Although from the Masalit tribe of Darfur, the young man was raised 
as an IDP in the east of Sudan.  On the morning of May 11, while he 
was taking refuge from the Omdurman fighting with coworkers, the 
group was arrested by uniformed officers in the National 
Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). 
 
¶5. (SBU) Upon arrival at a police station, NISS officers began 
interrogating and torturing the group.  The young man described 
being chained to the wall, kicked and punched, beaten in the 
testicles with water pipes, and subjected to a mock execution - all 
between 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.  One of approximately 500 detainees 
transported to NISS headquarters, he was brought before a captured 
JEM officer, who was randomly "assisting" NISS in separating JEM 
combatants from the crowd.  Although the man had never seen the JEM 
officer before, he was identified as having been part of JEM, and 
sent with others to Al Sigin al Harabi military prison. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Arriving at the prison, the young man said was put in a 
room measuring only ten meters by five meters with 247 people. 
Prisoners received insufficient amounts of food and water, and 
lacking facilities, detainees urinated and defecated on the floor. 
The detainee recounted seeing numerous similar rooms at this prison, 
and estimated that 3000 people were held there, all from Darfur. 
One lawyer, not affiliated with other witnesses, confirmed these 
conditions at the prison, and reported that authorities separated 
the 3000 detainees according to tribal and ethnic affiliation. 
Conditions at the prison deteriorated for four days, after which 
they received buckets for bodily functions and barrels of drinking 
water.  After seven days, the young Masalit man was judged as having 
no affiliation with JEM, and was released on bail. Authorities 
provided him with money to buy clothes and shoes, and within days he 
reached out to the human rights organization for medical treatment, 
where he related his experiences. 
 
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SUDANESE OPPOSITION ORGANIZES FOR LEGAL CHALLENGE 
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¶7. (SBU) Sudanese civil society has quickly coalesced to oppose the 
arrests and torture.  Most prominent is the "National Committee for 
the Protection and Defense of Individuals/Groups Affected by May 10 
Events."  Among its 61 prominent signatories are Darfur rebel leader 
and Government of National Unity Vice President Minni Minawi; SPLM 
chairman Yassir Arman; and former Sudanese foreign minister and 
prominent opposition leader Farouk Abu-Essa. The "May 10 Committee" 
 
KHARTOUM 00000866  002 OF 002 
 
 
aims to provide a political counterweight to the GoS's heavy-handed 
reaction to the JEM attacks, while also providing legal support for 
the detainees and financial support for their families. 
 
¶8. (SBU) In an interview with Poloffs at his Khartoum home, Abu-Essa 
estimated that his organization is mobilizing hundreds of lawyers 
for eventual legal challenges to the detentions. "The government 
will continue searching for plotters," Abu-Essa said, "and the 
number of detainees is increasing day by day."  Abu-Essa called the 
scale of arrests in Khartoum unprecedented, adding that race plays a 
central role in the motivation behind the arrests.  Abu-Essa 
appealed for international pressure on the GOS to release the names 
of the Darfuri detainees, and for them to be transferred from NISS 
custody to of that of the Sudanese police, where under Sudanese law 
they have access to legal recourse. 
 
¶9. Independent legal activists expressed similar hopes for the 
international community. Speaking with Poloff at the Al-Khatim Adlan 
Center for Enlightenment and Human Development, human rights lawyers 
outlined their strategy.  Forced by international pressure to 
release the names of all the detainees, the Sudanese legal system 
will then have to process the multitude of briefs, bringing it to a 
halt, and thereby forcing authorities to release detainees not 
connected with the JEM attacks. 
 
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GOS TRIUMPHANT IN PRESS, CENSORSHIP ON RISE 
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¶10. (SBU) The GoS has adopted a triumphant tone in the press, 
promising to root out "all JEM supporters," which observers 
interpret as a threat to all Darfuris living in Khartoum. 
Censorship continues, with the newspaper "Al-Wahn" still banned from 
publication, and independent newspapers forced to excise even 
uncontroversial articles.  When one English-language newspaper 
attempted to print the Department of State's 2008 Trafficking in 
Persons report for Sudan, NISS censors removed the article before 
publication.  Most ridiculously, an op-ed piece by a GoS official 
accused Amnesty International of conspiring with Khalil Ibrahim and 
JEM against the GoS. 
 
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Comment 
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¶11. (SBU) Last week's government-orchestrated violence against 
Darfuri students at Khartoum University (Ref. A) is directly 
connected with the recent arrests of Darfuris living in the capital. 
 As evidence emerges that thousands of Darfuris are being detained 
at an NISS-run mass lock-up on the outskirts of Khartoum, the sheer 
scale of the arrests indicates that the GoS is responding to the JEM 
attacks by extending its violent campaign in Darfur indiscriminately 
to Darfuris living in Khartoum as well.  In his speech at the June 8 
ceremony presenting the new Abyei accord (Ref. B), Government of 
National Unity First Vice President Salva Kiir pointedly alluded to 
the issue and called on his NCP partners to protect the rights of 
all citizens and not to violate those rights based on ethnic origin. 
 The GoS may bend to international pressure to release the names of 
the Darfuri detainees, but it shows no signs of ending its 
month-long campaign of arrests, torture, harassment and orchestrated 
violence against Darfuris in Khartoum. 
 
DATTA