VZCZCXRO2638
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #1675/01 3221043
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171043Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2334
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001675 
 
DEPT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, SE WILLIAMSON, AF/SPG, AF/C, DRL 
NSC FOR PITTMAN AND HUDSON 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL KPKO SOCI AU UNSC SU
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON POLITICAL PRISONERS FROM JEM ATTACK 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  While 42 detainees who participated in the May 10 
attack of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Omdurman wait 
to see if their death sentences will be commuted, authorities are 
trying 87 more individuals in five special anti-terrorism courts. 
Lawyers and UNMIS Human Rights are alarmed and charge that the 
trials are deeply flawed, noting that that among those 87 are nine 
defendants under the age of 18.  Advocates report that up to 500 
Darfuris still remain unaccounted for, and released detainees have 
reported torture during their confinement. End Summary. 
 
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77 DETAINEES ON THE DOCKET, UP TO 500 MISSING 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) After taking a break for Ramadan, Sudan's five special 
anti-terrorism courts returned to session in mid-October, charging 
87 detainees with participating in the May 10 JEM attack on 
Omdurman.  According to UNMIS Human Rights and lawyers with the 
independent Darfur Bar Association (DBA), authorities are trying 32 
defendants at two courts in Khartoum, 42 defendants at two courts in 
Omdurman, and 13 defendants at one court in Khartoum North, in 
trials that are currently underway.  Authorities have granted the 
detainees limited representation by lawyers offering their services 
pro-bono under the auspices of the DBA, but the Sudanese Ministry of 
Justice has restricted contact between the accused and their 
lawyers.  Defense attoney Isa Abdulmoneim told poloff that 
prosecutors are requesting the death penalty for all 87 detainees, 
despite the fact that nine defendants are under 18 years of age, and 
two are mentally-ill.  International observers have confirmed 
reports from defense lawyers that Sudanese prosecutors are basing 
their cases on the testimony of children detained following the 
attacks, and other findings produced three weeks after the attack 
and days after authorities displayed evidence at an open-air 
military fair. 
 
¶3. (SBU) 42 detainees sentenced to death in August for participation 
in the attacks await execution in a prison in Port Sudan, but 
lawyers with the DBA and human rights advocates believe  authorities 
may commute the sentences, d releasing the detainees rather than 
executing them  in anticipation of negotiations with JEM. In one 
public speech, President Omar al-Bashir said he intended to grant 
the detainees a blanket amnesty, but no amnesty has been forthcoming 
as the regime considers when and if to play this card in its game 
with the Darfuri rebels over the nature of peace talks.  For its 
work defending the detainees and assisting their families, the DBA 
has received a US$20,000 grant from the Democracy and Human Rights 
Fund to continue its pro-bono defense. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Since the attacks, the non-governmental advocacy 
organization Khartoum Center for Human Rights and Environmental 
Development (KCHRED) has quietly conducted an investigative campaign 
to determine the number of "secret" detainees held in Sudanese 
prisons, according to Amir Suleiman, director of the KCHRED 
(protect).  Suleiman estimates that between 450 and 500 individuals 
are currently in custody who were arrested in Omdurman in May, held 
without charges since then, and not named in any official documents 
related to the JEM attack and subsequent trials.  Suleiman reported 
that following the attack, authorities rounded up thousands of 
Darfuris living in Khartoum and Omdurman.  d Since then,   hundreds, 
if not thousands of detainees have been surreptitiously released 
without charges.  Through UNMIS Human Rights, KCHRED submitted the 
names of those still unaccounted for to the official GoS Advisory 
Council for Human Rights; while the GoS has yet to openly 
acknowledge that it is holding detainees incommunicado, Suleiman 
said the council does perform its due diligence in checking with the 
security services to determine which individuals are being held and 
by whom.  "If they don't respond," he said, "then we know we are 
right." 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
LAWYER TORTURED BY NISS, INTERVIEWED BY GHOSH HIMSELF 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Abdulshakur Hashem Dirag, a Darfuri public advocate living 
in Omdurman, spoke with Poloff of his prolonged detention and 
torture following the May 10 JEM attack.  Heavily armed officers 
with the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested 
Dirag on May 14 after ransacking his Omdurman office, on suspicion 
of ties to his wife's relatives, including Suleiman Sandal, deputy 
general commander of JEM, and Haggar, JEM field commander.  Dirag 
recounted being beaten immediately upon his arrest, as he was thrown 
to the floor in the backseat of a waiting car, and stomped on by 
seated officers.  During his interrogation, as security officers 
attempted to ascertain his connections to JEM, Dirag lost 
consciousness three times due to the beatings he sustained, and was 
 
KHARTOUM 00001675  002 OF 002 
 
 
revived each time by a cold shower.  Following two days of intense 
questioning and regular beatings, on Friday, May 16, NISS director 
Salah Ghosh personally interviewed Dirag in a seated, one-on-one 
meeting. According to Dirag, Ghosh smoked and drank coffee as he 
agitatedly asked, "What is the alternative plan?" Dirag replied, "I 
don't know the plan. How can I know the alternative?"  After fifteen 
minutes of questioning, in which Dirag insisted that he was not 
active in JEM, and not in close contact with relatives active in 
JEM, Ghosh put his cigarette out in his coffee, stood up, and 
advised Dirag, "You have a chance. Do not miss it."  In Ghosh's 
absence, NISS officers brought him outside and beat him, as he put 
it, "harder, more severely, longer than usual." 
 
¶5. (SBU) Several weeks following Dirag's arrest, NISS also arrested 
his wife, and, as she was still nursing, their 9 month-old baby as 
well.   Mother and child were held for nine weeks in a cell at Kober 
prison.  Dirag himself attended an administrative hearing a week 
after his interview with Ghosh with six uniformed NISS officers who 
warned him, "If you don't cooperate, we will take you to where we 
usually do the shooting."  Dirag continued to protest his innocence, 
and authorities freed him after 14 weeks in detention, and with no 
charges filed against him.  Other detainees with whom poloff spoke 
had received similar treatment, and all reported that their fate is 
far from clear at the moment.  Released on their own recognizance, 
detainees must report every two weeks to NISS headquarters in 
Khartoum to register their continued presence in the capital. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: By relying on children as witnesses in show 
trials, by rounding up hundreds of people based on their ethnicity, 
and by institutionalizing torture, the ruling regime has shown the 
dark side of maintaining power in Khartoum.  While hundreds have now 
been released, many of them should never have been detained in the 
first place. On a slightly more positive note, after several stalled 
prosecutions of those accused of committing war crimes in Darfur, 
the Sudanese did manage to formally arrest, detain and try large 
numbers of people accused of  engaging in acts of war on Sudanese 
territory.  Whether such trials will be fair is very much open to 
question.  Post will continue to monitor the situation of detainees 
and press Sudanese authorities for fair trials, proper treatment of 
prisoners, and the release of those still detained without charge. 
Post will also ask for the names of all those who have been 
detained.  We do expect that the harshness or leniency of the 
treatment of detainees and of convicts is very much a political act 
which will track with the regime's efforts to woo Darfur rebel 
groups into a political process which could - at least superficially 
- bring about a comprehensive peace treaty for Darfur. 
 
FERNANDEZ