VZCZCXRO5407
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHKH #0905/01 2171505
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 051505Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4199
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000905 
 
DEPT FOR SE GRATION, S/USSES, AF A/S CARSON, AF/C, 
IIP/G/AF, RRU-AF, DRL/Crampton 
NSC FOR MGAVIN 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI UNSC SU
SUBJECT: DEFENDANT IN TROUSERS CASE WOULD ACCEPT LASHING TO 
CHALLENGE SUDANESE LAW 
 
REF: A) KHARTOUM 870, B) KHARTOUM 888 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Sudanese security forces on August 4 fired tear 
gas to disperse protesters at the trial of Lubna Hussein, a 
journalist currently working as a Public Affairs Officer at the 
United Nations.  Ms. Hussein was arrested in Khartoum on July 3 and 
charged with "indecent dress" along with other women for wearing 
trousers in public (Ref A).  Authorities delayed the trial for 
another month.  "I am looking to change the law," Hussein told 
Poloff on August 2, adding that she will persist in her case until 
she either overturns the statutes, or is lashed.  Anecdotal evidence 
indicates that Sudan's Public Order Police (POP), tasked with 
enforcing Sudan's Public Order laws, are policing more aggressively 
due to a recent bureaucratic shakeup in the Government of Sudan 
(GOS).  Experts believe that Sudan's convoluted Public Order laws 
must be addressed before Sudan's laws can meet international 
standards.  The issue remains a sensitive one in the capital and few 
observers are optimistic that such "public order" questions will be 
resolved anytime soon.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Meeting with Poloff on August 2, Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese 
woman journalist currently working as a Public Affairs Officer at 
the U.N., said she has resisted all attempts by both her lawyers and 
governmentprosecutors to dismiss the case, because she intends to 
use her arrest to draw attention to what she described as Sudan's 
antiquated Public Order laws and the Public Order Police (POP).  ?I 
am not looking for innocence,? she said.  ?I am looking to change 
the law.?  After authorities moved the case last week from a Public 
Order Court to a conventional Sudanese civil court, Hussein chose to 
press on with her appeal  despite knowing that she could suffer up 
to 40 lashes and a significant fine for wearing slacks in public. 
Many signs indicate Sudanese authorities are, in fact, eager to 
dismiss the case against her (Ref B), and Hussein believes that she 
was arrested not due to her work as an outspoken journalist, but 
because of overzealous policing by the POP.  On August 3, she called 
publically for civil society activists and international media to 
attend her August 4 court date to continue to bring attention to her 
cause.  ?I want to accept the lashes,? she said defiantly. ?I don't 
consider it my case, but the case of thousands of women who were 
beaten and will be beaten.? 
 
¶3. (SBU) One of nine women arrested on July 3 outside a restaurant 
in Khartoum, Hussein reported that her fellow arrestees have already 
been lashed, including three girls under 18 years of age.  Although 
the POP appeared eager to enforce the Public Order laws against 
immodest dress, officers in the Public Order Court were similarly 
eager to collect bribes from the girls in exchange for lenience. 
According to Hussein, one woman negotiated her freedom with the 
officers down from 600 Sudanese pounds (approximately 250 USD) to a 
final price of 250 Sudanese pounds (approximately 100 USD).  Another 
gave the woman in charge of the lashing 100 Sudanese pounds and was 
whipped with less ferocity.  Hussein described the woman who lashed 
the arrested women as a large, imposing Sudanese woman from the 
north, who uses a traditional Sudanese whip meant for horses and 
camels. 
 
------------------------------------- 
Bureaucratic Changes Spur Enforcement 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Hussein believed that Sudan's Public Order Police have 
begun policing more aggressively due to recent changes in the GOS's 
internal policing bureaucracy.  General Othman Hashim Mohamed, the 
hardline northern police general who established the POP in the 
1990s to enforce the Nimeiri-era Public Order laws, was appointed 
Head of National Police four months ago.  After serving for ten 
years as the Director of the Office of GOS President Omar Al-Bashir, 
Gen. Hashim now leads Sudan's myriad policing agencies, including 
the POP.  In addition to women's dress and indecent behavior, both 
uniformed and undercover POP officers focus on confiscating drugs 
and alcohol, both illegal in the North.  UNMIS Human Rights Office 
did not have specific figures related to arrests by the POP, but 
Hussein said that anecdotal reports indicated that the POP has 
arrested more women in the last several months for so-called 
?indecent? clothing. 
 
------------------------- ------------------------------ 
NON COMPLIANCE WITH CONSTITUTION,INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS 
------------------------- ------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Sudan's Public Order laws give POP officers wide latitude 
in arresting citizens for any number of offensives, according to 
Mohamed Ibrahim, an Egyptian justice currently employed as head of 
 
KHARTOUM 00000905  002 OF 002 
 
 
UNMIS's Rule of Law unit.  The particular law in the code under 
which Hussein was arrested, ?Section 152, Shameful and Immoral 
Practice,? states: ?Public appearance in indecent dress or 
scandalous or indecent behavior that offends the public will lead to 
a penalty that includes not more than forty lashes or payment of a 
fine or even both.?  Ironically, according to Ibrahim, the laws were 
so poorly designed that the sections of the code that attempt to 
interpret and implement Shari'a Law actually violate the fundamental 
tenets of the strict Islamic code.  Sudan's Public Order laws are 
replete with sections that rule on immorality, interpersonal 
relations and even belly dancing.  Discussion of them is a sensitive 
issue that Sudanese authorities are not eager to address.  For this 
reason, the GOS cancelled its participation in a UNMIS Rule of Law 
forum on the laws in March.  ?The laws are very vague, and they must 
be readdressed by the government to be in compliance with 
international standards and the Interim National Constitution,? 
Ibrahim said. 
¶6. (SBU) Sara Mekki Hassan Abbo, a Sudanese legal scholar and UNHCR 
employee who has analyzed the Public Order laws, said the strong 
showing of Sudanese civil society in support of Hussein took the 
court by surprise, and may lead the court to dismiss the case under 
pressure.  Abbo called the public laws ?embarrassing,? as they have 
been used in the past to ban women from selling tea and coffee on 
the street, and from working in cafeterias and gas stations.  Abbo 
said GOS authorities may retreat from their support of the Public 
Order laws.  The Governor of Khartoum State restricted active 
enforcement of the laws in 2000 amid mounting public criticism. 
¶7. (SBU) However, other human rights advocates in Khartoum are not 
optimistic that Hussein's strong stance will force the Sudanese 
authorities to address inconsistencies in the law, or even restrict 
the latitude given to the POP.  Noted Darfuri human rights advocate, 
Salih Mahmoud Osman, told Poloff on July 29 that by arresting 
Hussein, Sudanese authorities are "restricting the margins of 
freedom."  He noted that Hussein is a charismatic writer and media 
personality with a wide readership and popular support among young 
people in Khartoum.  ?The government's behavior is inconsistent with 
the stated rights in the Interim National Constitution,? Osman said, 
citing the 2005 document that attempted to establish basic freedoms 
throughout Sudan.  A veteran who regularly appeals decisions in the 
Sudanese justice system, Osman believes that if Hussein is 
convicted, it will be nearly impossible for her defense lawyers to 
appeal the verdict for a more favorable outcome. 
¶8. (SBU) Comment: Hussein's defiant stand challenges the 1980s-era 
governing structures set up to institutionalize Islamic extremism by 
using 21st century information technology and the burgeoning power 
of civil society actors on the national scene against them.  While 
today's trial ended in tear gas and fleeing protestors, Hussein's 
stance has the potential to begin a much-needed national 
conversation on the legacy of its Nimeiri-era justice system and the 
wide latitude given to police and security forces in defining 
"indecent" behavior and dress.  End Comment. 
 
WHITEHEAD