Testimonies
Case 1:
Sex: Female
Age: 38
Occupation: not working
Date of incident: 1999
This is the statement given by woman showing the type
of treatment suffered in prisons in Sudan, below she describes her ordeal
with her young child:
'The police arrested me and took me to the police station
accusing me of theft. I was detained at the police station for fourteen
(14) days. I was in miserable conditions; I slept on the ground, was denied
food for long periods, and was forbidden to use the bathroom. After the
fourteen (14) days of detention at the police station I was moved to the
women’s prison in Nyala, where I stayed for thirty-five (35) days
without any trial.
In the women’s prison the treatment was very bad.
I and my twelve (12) month old baby were forced to sleep on the ground
in a crowded prison ward that accommodated around sixty (60) women prisoners.
The food was served only twice a day, and was of a very bad quality. My
young baby was not provided with any food except that given to me. No
milk or sugar was available for my baby which affected her health and
caused drastic weight loss. No medical care was given to my baby either.
In prison I was subjected to daily beatings and whippings
all over my body by the female prison guards. They did this for trivial
mistakes or sometimes no reason at all. They used harsh measures like
pulling my hair and slapping my face. These beatings were painful and
cause me to have headaches, dizziness, and cuts. One day whilst I was
cleaning my clothes I was attacked by three (3) of the female guards who
held me on the ground and poured “shutta” chilly pepper liquid
(approximately one (1) litre) down my throat, my anus, and my vagina.
After they had done this they left me and carried on as if nothing had
happened. Because of this sad incident I have serious ongoing health problems
still to this day.
Another time, whilst I was praying, one of the female
guards hit me in the head with a heavy stick causing me to lose consciousness.
I was taken back to the prison ward in a bad condition. Despite suffering
pain and agony due to my bad condition I was given no medical care or
treatment. Still to this day I suffer from recurrent loss of consciousness,
severe headaches, and paralysis to the lower part of my body.
One week after this incident my case was heard by the
court and I was acquitted on all charges and released. Now I continue
to suffer from other recurrent pain, in addition to my paralysis, including;
headaches and pains in my eyes, general weakness, insomnia, and anxiety.
Also, I do not defecate in a normal way'.
Case 2:
Sex: Male
Age: 40 yrs
Occupation: Journalist
Date of Incident: 28 July 2003
On 28 July 2003, Yousif Albashier Musa was arrested by
the security forces, below is a statement of his ordeal:
'I had issued a public statement opposing/ I had written
an article condemning the declaration made by the Wali of Darfur (state
governor); the statement/article was related to the incidents occurring/
security situation in Darfur.
On the 28 July 2003, security force members came to my
house; they forced me in to a car, a Land-Cruiser, and took me to security
offices in Nyala city. I was brought before a lieutenant called Faisal
who interrogated me. He was questioning me on my relations with the British
Embassy and the British Ambassador, also, my sources from which I obtained
information about the Wali and the situation in Darfur. During the interrogation
he was threatening me boasting of their power to do whatever they want
to do to me.
Afterwards, they locked me in a room measured one meter
by a meter and half. The room was absolutely empty, the floor was dirty
and lots of mosquitoes swarming in the room. The light and ventilation
in the room was very poor, there was no lamps or windows to allow some
light to enter the room.
I spent thirteen days in this room I was not allowed
to meet any of my family or friends. They provided me with two meals per
day, one in the morning and one in the evening, consisting only of foul
fava beans sandwiches and water in a plastic bottle. I was completely
forbidden from taking a bath. I was allowed to go to the toilet only once
a day and sometimes twice a day, I noticed that this was subject to the
officers moods. I was torture in the cell during the investigation more
than once.
On the second day of my arrest they conducted an investigation
with me and at 11 pm two persons came to my cell one of them named Ahmed
Musa, nicked name 'albahish'. They forced me into a car and headed towards
the Security Headquarter of the State. I was taken to an office where
I found a brigadier named Saber waiting for me and left me there alone
with him. He stood up and swiftly slapped me on my face, and he began
shouting verbal abuse at me and slapped me twice on face. He called in
one of his officers and asked him to prepare a room for me. They pulled
me to the room which full of sticks, irons bars and ropes; they tied my
hands behind my back, my legs were tied in front of me. They pulled my
trouser down to my knee and unfasten my shirt. They began to hit me with
a thick black water hose, beat me around my head and chest and one of
them kicks me with his foot on my groin; all of this was accompanied insults
and accusations of inciting people in Darfur to rebel against the regime
and continued the beatings for more than one hour. Afterwards, they lifted
me high and tied me to a metal pole, fixed high up, leaving me dangling
from it for a while; then they put an metal bar against my back forcing
me to lean backwards against the metal bar into a semicircle. They began
to hit me in the bottom of my legs/foot with hose; they continued this
for around quarter of an hour.
When they sensed that I was very tired they undid the
ropes then they laid me down on my stomach and brought soft drink bottle,
they started to force the mouth of the bottle into my rectum until I felt
strong urge to vomit. They forced me to sit down with bottle inside my
rectum and kept doing this until I lost consciousness. When I regained
my consciousness on the following day I discover that the bottle was still
on my rectum, the pain was very sharp and severe and I felt completely
in shock/numb. The pain was unbearable and I was extremely tired, when
I made attempt to pull the bottle out the pain intensified even more,
and as the result I suffered from severe bleeding and involuntary urination.
After few hours I asked them to take me to the hospital,
they took me to meet a doctor who did not ask me any questions in their
presence. He just examined the rectum and gave me a medicine; he made
me no effort to keep me in the hospital despite the fact that I was bleeding
a lot and was very bad condition. Shortly after they took me away from
the doctor's and put me back in my cell. This situation continued for
fifty-six days. I was released after they forced me to write a statement
pledging that I will never write or do anything against the regime'.
Case 3:
Age: 15
Sex: Female
Occupation: Unemployed
Date of Incident: 1 October 2003
This is a statement given a young girl who found herself
in an attacks by the National Popular Defence Force (PDF).
'At about the 6 am we heard a group of people quarrelling outside our
house. We shortly realised the fact that my cousin was involved in that
noisy quarrel. The reason behind the argument was that some members of
the popular police force to attack him violently after they claimed that
his clothes were morally unacceptable, that he was wearing only a shirt
without a vest underneath it.
At around 9:30 pm we heard loud noises on the street and suddenly we found
ourselves attacked by the popular police. They entered our house and began
hitting and breaking indiscriminately everything that happened to find
on their way. They hit us all randomly and fiercely and no one was able
to escape from their extreme violence. Then they ordered us to get out
of our house. When we left our house we found a police car parked on the
street close to our house. They forced my father, my brother, two of my
male cousins and female cousin into the police car. After that they throw
me alone on a cart and two police men sat beside me on the cart. The police
car started moving in front of us and our cart followed it, when we arrived
at a dark deserted place our cart was took a turn to a more quieter side
street. After moving a short distance it stopped near the kiosks in Libya
market west of Omdurman, the police jumped down from the cart, they carried
me down and forced me to lie down in the ground. One of them put his hand
against my mouth and began to rape me. Soon the other police man repeated
the same thing and raped me several. I was telling them that I was a virgin
and no body had ever touched me before and whenever I attempt to cry for
help they threatened to kill me if I did. Then they began to hit me on
my face and threatened me with killing all the members of my family if
I told them about my rape. When they finished they took me to a dark street
and left me there. From this deserted area I started my journey on foot
to my home'.
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