This is a guest post by Abu Faris
Human Rights Watch have released a report on the escalating state terror being unleashed on civilians in Blue Nile state by the secret police and armed forces of al-Bashir’s clerical fascist regime. The report details not only the indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilians, but also the arbitrary arrest, torture and murder of activists by the Sudanese regime.
Blue Nile is a region of north Sudan that borders Ethiopia to the east and the Republic of South Sudan to the south. It is region where the northern arm of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement, the SPLM-North, are particularly strongly supported by the people. The SPLM are the government of the newly formed Republic of South Sudan.
This video details the harrowing cases of those being persecuted and murdered by al-Bashir’s thugs: Two victims of Sudan’s notorious National State Security service gave their evidence to HRW:
A 23-year-old man from Roseris, now living in South Sudan, told Human Rights Watch that national security officers arrested and removed him from his house, accusing him and his 36-year-old brother of being SPLA-North soldiers, and detained them in a crowded cell for more than 3 weeks.
“They tied our hands and put us in the land cruiser and beat us with belts, feet, hands and said, ‘We are going to use you,’ and, ‘You will see many things,’” he recalled. “If you complained that people are sick [the commander] would say, ‘Let them die, they are kufar [infidels].”
During his detention, he saw other inmates badly beaten and, on one occasion, he saw a military official shoot two men in the head at close range outside the cell, killing them instantly. Upon his release, the national security officials pressured him to work with them and ordered him to check in every day.
Issa Daffala Sobahi, a 33-year-old guard for a state minister who is a known SPLM-North member in Damazin, told Human Rights Watch that soldiers arrested him on the morning of September 2 at the minister’s home, beat and shackled him, and insulted him by calling him “kufar” [infidel] and saying,“You don’t know Allah.” He said they detained him in their military compound with other civilians arrested that morning.
“They took people to the river and shot them,” he told Human Rights Watch. “I myself was taken to the river with three others on the second day.They killed two of us.” Soldiers threatened to kill him, but did not.
“They said, ‘You are all with Malik [the governor], we are going to kill you,” he recalled.Later the same day, he saw the soldiers shoot a woman who was carrying a baby as she resisted arrest. He managed to escape from the prison compound that night.
Lawyers following the detention cases believe that the more than 200 people still detained are held in detention centers in Blue Nile or in prison in Sennar and Sinja, in neighboring Sennar state.
Following my report of early this week, video evidence of the burning of a Church in Khartoum has now surfaced. Al-Bashir’s regime of murderers, thugs, crooks and religious fascists are waging an all-out war against their own people, as well against the peoples of South Sudan. All opposition to the regime is being ruthlessly and lethally crushed. Bringing these beasts to book for their crimes against humanity is a matter of immediate urgency.