Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 13, 1995 TAG: 9504180028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HATIM AHMED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The parliamentary democracy was terminated by the coup of June 30, 1989. A military junta that called itself the Revolutionary Command Council of National Salvation took control of the country and political parties, their newspapers and other free associations were outlawed, and senior politicians were arrested. This new, self-declared government has adopted political policies that are causing the Sudanese people to suffer.
Since coming to power, the Sudanese government has made the torture and detention of politically active citizens in so-called "ghost houses," the security forces' secret detention centers, a standard practice throughout the country as it crushes political opposition. Many suspected government opponents - trade unionists, activists in banned political parties, students, journalists, Southerners suspected of supporting armed opposition groups - are arrested, tortured, held for short periods, released and then redetained.
The government is forcing citizens to enroll in the military and join its military operations against the armed opposition movement in the South. Gross human-rights abuses occur daily and are causing Sudanese citizens to live in the fear of being tortured and held against their wills for long periods without justification.
As a Sudanese citizen, my family is facing many of these problems. My father was a senior military official before the coup occurred. He was forced to retire and is closely watched by the government. Many of his fellow officers escaped to Egypt in the earlier days of the regime in fear for their lives.
When I visited Sudan two years ago, I witnessed the grave dangers my family is facing. We were continuously followed by military soldiers and frequently questioned. My uncle, who worked in Saudi Arabia, was visiting for the summer and was held for two weeks and tortured without being informed of the cause of his arrest.
I joined the Democratic Unionist Party, which is one of the political parties involved in government opposition, during my summer stay in Sudan. I was barely able to leave the country to return to my studies in the United States. Although the government declared a policy of pardoning students who are studying abroad from enrolling in the military and fighting in Southern Sudan, I was continually harassed and questioned by the soldiers to join the military. It was becoming apparent that if I didn't leave the country, I would be either arrested or forced to fight against my fellow Sudanese citizens in the South.
Sudanese citizens, including myself, are aware of the fact that only a peaceful solution will end the civil war in Southern Sudan. My father was planning to come to the United States with me, but the government confiscated his passport and didn't allow him to leave for six months.
Currently, I fear returning to Sudan, for that would be a threat to my life. I also fear for my family because three years ago one of my father's fellow officers was executed along with 28 army officers for being suspected of trying to overthrow the government. These officers were executed without a trial, and no one knows whether they were actually involved in a coup attempt.
Sudan is a country under siege by its own government. The secretary general of Amnesty International, Pierre San, is urging the United Nations to establish human-rights monitors in the Sudan. He stressed that the human-rights disaster in which thousands have been unlawfully detained, and tens of thousands killed,lies at the heart of the humanitarian emergency facing the country. Sudan was also added to the United States' list of terrorist countries because the government has built terrorist camps there.
All of these facts deeply sadden me because the Sudanese government is threatening the lives of its own citizens. There isn't a moment when I don't think about my family and the fact that their lives are endangered. I pray for their safety, and hope that the international community will step in and end the suffering in which Sudan is living.
Hatim Ahmed, a student at Virginia Tech, is a member of Sudan's Democratic Unionist Party.
by CNB