Sudan Human Rights Record Deteriorating, Rights Group Says
January 22, 2012, 5:50 AM ESTBy Salma El Wardany
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Sudan’s human rights record deteriorated in 2011 with the eruption of new armed conflicts and crackdowns on students, rights advocates and the media, Human Rights Watch said.
“Throughout the year, the government restricted basic freedoms of expression and assembly by breaking up public protests, arresting perceived opponents of the government, and censoring newspapers,” the New York-based group said today in a statement posted on its website.
Fighting in the border states of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan has intensified since South Sudan seceded on July 9, assuming control of three-quarters of the former state’s oil production of 490,000 barrels a day. In Darfur, government forces attacked displaced populations and villages, particularly those inhabited by ethnic Zaghawa, Human Rights Watch said.
“Darfur’s long-running war and the proliferation of conflicts in Sudan this year shows what happens when there is no accountability,” Daniel Bekele, the group’s Africa director, was cited as saying in the report. “Sudan’s conflicts will continue unless the government brings abusers to justice and shows respect for human rights.”
--Editors: Digby Lidstone, Louis Meixler.
To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Khartoum at selwardany@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net
