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Bachelet urges Sudan to restore
freedoms, investigate violations and move swiftly to civilian rule.
GENEVA (3 July 2019) – As more details emerge
about casualties during Sunday’s mass protests in towns and cities across
Sudan, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday
called on the Sudanese authorities to lift restrictions on the internet and
launch proper independent investigations into all acts of violence and
allegations of excessive use of force, including attacks on hospitals.
She also urged the authorities to respect
people’s right to protest peacefully and to ensure a swift transition to a
civilian government, in line with the clear wishes of large segments of the Sudanese
population and of the African Union.
The mass protests reportedly took place in
more than ten major towns and cities, including Khartoum, Omdurman, Kassala,
Gadaref, Madani, Port Sudan, Atbara, El Fasher, Nyala, Zalingie and Kosti, in
response to calls from the Sudan Professionals Association to support demands
for a civilian-led transitional authority.
Despite the total shutdown of the internet by
the Transitional Military Council (TMC) on 10 June, the scale and breadth of
Sunday’s protests appear to have been unprecedented in recent Sudanese history.
Bachelet said her office had received a number
of allegations of excessive use of force by the security forces against
protestors. A senior Ministry of Health official reportedly announced late on
30 June that seven people had been killed and 181 wounded during the protests
that day. He blamed much of the violence on the protestors, noting that the
injured included ten members of the security forces.
The Sudanese Doctors Central Committee,
affiliated with the Sudan Professionals Association, also reported that seven
protestors had been killed in Omdurman and Atbara by live bullets allegedly
fired by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and other security forces.
An additional three bodies of local activists
were found in Khor Abu Anga in Omdurman on the morning of 1 July, reportedly
with visible signs of torture, taking the death toll to at least ten since the
start of Sunday’s nationwide protests.
“It is essential there are prompt,
transparent and independent investigations into how all these people lost their
lives, as well as into the causes of such a large number of injuries,” Bachelet
said.
Bachelet said she was especially disturbed by
reports that, once again, hospitals had been attacked by security forces. The
public hospital in Gadaref city was allegedly raided by joint RSF, security and
police forces who chased protestors inside the hospital, firing live ammunition
and tear gas, injuring at least one person.
The UN Human Rights Office received
similar allegations that RSF and police had pursued protestors into the
military hospital in Omdurman firing tear gas and live bullets, and that a
member of the medical staff was shot dead inside the hospital. The Al-Tabib
hospital in Khartoum was also reported to have been raided by the RSF and
police.
The UN Human Rights Chief noted that earlier
calls for investigations into the killings, attacks on medical facilities and
thousands of reported rapes and sexual assaults that took place on 3 June and
subsequent days had gone unheeded.
“The RSF were alleged to have been
heavily implicated in the mass violations in early June,” Bachelet said. “The
fact that no serious action has been taken to investigate what happened then,
and further in the past, simply feeds the belief that members of the RSF and
other security forces have carte blanche to do what they want to protestors and
other people. This is a completely unacceptable situation and the Transitional
Military Council has an obligation to ensure that members of the security
forces are held accountable for any crimes they commit.”
She noted that her offer on 7 June to deploy a
UN human rights monitoring team to examine allegations of human rights
violations committed since 3 June, had gone unanswered.
She said the TMC’s 27 June offer to release
prisoners of war was a welcome gesture, but regretted that the 30 June deadline
set by the African Union for a handover to a civilian authorities had not been
met.
“This recipe of restrictions, unmet promises,
and bouts of unbridled violence which are neither investigated nor punished is
stoking massive resentment – as Sunday’s protests showed all too clearly,” she
said. “If things continue like this, it will be a recipe for disaster.”
The UN Human Rights Chief said the authorities
must issue clear instructions to all security forces not to use force against
peaceful protestors, noting that use of firearms is prohibited unless there is
imminent risk of life or serious injury.*
ENDS
*International standards governing
the conduct of police, security forces and other law enforcement officials are
laid down in the UN Basic principles on Use of Force and Firearms and the Codeof Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.
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