SUDANESE VOICES

   منبر دارفور الديمقراطي

Darfur Democratic Forum-DDF

Working to bring international justice to Darfur
Working for humanity

Human Rights monitoring Office

Date: January 30/2010
No. D/D/F (205)

Description: campaigns (urgent action)

An open letter to the  African leaders and presidents in the African Union Summit meeting in Addis Ababa - Ethiopia

For immediate release:

Gentlemen, the leaders and presidents of African countries gathering in Addis Ababa - Ethiopia for an African Union summit.

Greetings

The Darfur Democratic Forum (DDF) calls you kindly as you are gathering to argue with the issues of the African continent, it appreciates your tremendous efforts to bring peace, restore security and stability to the continent, taking wish to put the issue of Sudan and Darfur in top of your discussions and your upcoming resolutions.

The government of Sudan since 2002, as you know is exercising serious and organized violations against human rights and non-Arab African tribes in Darfur, that entered the Darfur issue to the corridors of the Security Council discussions at the United Nations, Arab League and Africa Union which is became a central issue in all the global summits as the third genocide after Holocaust, Rwanda and Burundi, and was eventually developed as a key issue in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Under a decision of the International Criminal Court in March 2009, the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and other leaders of the Janjaweed militias wanted for international justice and the Security Council follows closely these developments and strongly supported as a threat to international peace and security.

Based on the foregoing, the Darfur Democratic Darfur calls you by this open letter to concentrate this issue in your discussions that would be held in the meeting and demands you the following:

1 - To pressure on the Sudanese government to release all political prisoners, human rights activists and opinion expressionists ruled in detentions and prisons all over the country of Sudan by Sudanese government authorities or to bring them to the fair trial.
2 – To pressure on the Sudanese government to amend the National Security Law stopping arbitrary detentions and to cope with the National Constitution, laws, charters and the international covenants on human rights.
3 – To pressure on the Sudanese government to lift the act of emergency in Darfur and to stop the forced displacement of civilians and the expulsion of foreign residents in the lands and homes of original population.
4 - To pressure the Sudanese government to stop construction of a road (Nyala - Kalma camp - Belail) which is understood as the government’s attempt to dismantle the camp using it as alternative tools after the failure of 2008, when the government tried to dismantle the camp using the weapons and force to committing a massacre of unarmed civilians and displaced at the time, which is one of the crimes against humanity.
5 - To pressure on the UN mission and the African Union in Darfur (UNAMID) to disseminate information about the battles and air strikes against civilians and violations of human rights in Darfur.
6 - To pressure on the Sudanese government on the subject of democratic transformation, the holding of free and fair elections because the lack of seriousness in the census and statistics, voter registration and several other excesses that accompanied the process causes the absence of Darfur in overall political process on Darfur, which is affects and reduces the chances of unification with the north Sudan in the future.
7 - To pressure on all conflict parties in Darfur in order to reach lasting peace to end the suffering of the people of the region.
8 - To pressure on the Sudanese government for the return of expelled organizations and to allow aid groups to work to help displaced people in Darfur.

Finally, the theme of dialectic (peace - justice) for Darfur has become an important issue, The Darfur Democratic Forum believes that there is no peace without justice and redress for victims, therefore it stress the theme of international justice especially when all human rights groups in Sudan and outside Sudan expressed that the Sudanese justice system is not qualified and non - capable of to conduct the trial of war criminals in Darfur, helping the criminals to the impunity from punishment , and also its shown clearly in evident or the recommendations of the report of the Committee of  Former President of South Africa, Mr Thabo Mbeki, who urged the creation of multi-courts (hybrid) to hold the trial of Darfur war committed crimes, which indicates a lack of recognition of the judicial system in Sudan.

The issue of justice for the people of Darfur is not only Sudanese issues but its issue of all African peoples/nations who are seeking for equity and non-impunity.

A tribune hope of Darfur Democratic Forum is that these points to be placed at the heart of your discussions in the forthcoming meeting of the African Summit in Addis Ababa – Ethiopia, and wishes you a successful and fruitful meeting.

Background:
Darfur Democratic Forum (DDF) is a pressure group for social and political rights, its founded by the human rights activists and Darfur lawyers Net to work on the promotion of the Darfur issue globally and locally, and to mobilize community of Darfur to claim their rights and to defend their properties and their rights using the diplomatic and media tools, networking, effective tools and campaigns to achieve its goals.

For interviews or inquiries please contact:

Darfur Democratic Forum
Human Rights Monitoring Officer
Email: [email protected]
Skype: ddf.sudan