4 jailed journalists freed in Sudan
06/21/2007 | 10:20 AM
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Officials on Wednesday released four journalists arrested last week while they were reporting on a protest of a dam project in northern Sudan, one of the detainees said.
Some 20 other people were also arrested and four people killed when security forces broke up the June 13 protest of the Kajbar dam, the rights group Amnesty International said.
Sudanese authorities were not available for comment on the protest or the status of the other detainees, which remains unknown.
The Kajbar dam, which will flood an estimated 30 villages, and another larger, nearby dam project have angered many residents in the region of northern Sudan, where poverty is rampant. The population — made up of Nubians and tribes outside Sudan's ruling circle — have grown increasingly vocal in complaining of discrimination and neglect by Khartoum.
Amnesty said it had reports that during the protest in the village of Farraig, police and security forces opened fire on the demonstrators, killing four and wounding eight. The detainees included two lawyers, a university professor, and a freelance journalist, the group said.
The four freed journalists, who belong to independent or opposition newspapers, were held incommunicado for a week and interrogated — but not mistreated — before being released Wednesday in Khartoum, said Alfatih Abdallah, one of the detainees.
He said security services questioned them on their political opinions and had confiscated their cell phones and cameras.
"I told them I didn't have a political color and that I'm just a journalist," Abdallah told The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Khalid al-Tigani, editor of the independent weekly Eilaf, said one of the newspaper's administrators, Saad Mohamed Ahmed, was arrested Monday because he belongs to a committee opposing the dam.
Emergency laws in place since 1999 allow Sudanese security forces to detain people for up to nine months without charge.
A recently formed union of Sudanese journalists sent a memo to President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday to voice "deep anxiety" over the increase in incidents against journalists.
Foreign journalists also regularly face harassment by Sudanese security services, especially when reporting in the western Darfur region, where 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting between local rebels and the government. - AP
Some 20 other people were also arrested and four people killed when security forces broke up the June 13 protest of the Kajbar dam, the rights group Amnesty International said.
Sudanese authorities were not available for comment on the protest or the status of the other detainees, which remains unknown.
The Kajbar dam, which will flood an estimated 30 villages, and another larger, nearby dam project have angered many residents in the region of northern Sudan, where poverty is rampant. The population — made up of Nubians and tribes outside Sudan's ruling circle — have grown increasingly vocal in complaining of discrimination and neglect by Khartoum.
Amnesty said it had reports that during the protest in the village of Farraig, police and security forces opened fire on the demonstrators, killing four and wounding eight. The detainees included two lawyers, a university professor, and a freelance journalist, the group said.
The four freed journalists, who belong to independent or opposition newspapers, were held incommunicado for a week and interrogated — but not mistreated — before being released Wednesday in Khartoum, said Alfatih Abdallah, one of the detainees.
He said security services questioned them on their political opinions and had confiscated their cell phones and cameras.
"I told them I didn't have a political color and that I'm just a journalist," Abdallah told The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Khalid al-Tigani, editor of the independent weekly Eilaf, said one of the newspaper's administrators, Saad Mohamed Ahmed, was arrested Monday because he belongs to a committee opposing the dam.
Emergency laws in place since 1999 allow Sudanese security forces to detain people for up to nine months without charge.
A recently formed union of Sudanese journalists sent a memo to President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday to voice "deep anxiety" over the increase in incidents against journalists.
Foreign journalists also regularly face harassment by Sudanese security services, especially when reporting in the western Darfur region, where 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting between local rebels and the government. - AP
