By Tamara Alfred
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM and ABYEI, Sudan — An independent United Nations expert on human rights issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing the human rights situation in Sudan that has arisen due to the political, military and humanitarian crises currently engulfing the country.

Fighting broke out in Abyei in mid-May when alleged southern Sudanese forces attacked a U.N. Mission, protected by the Sudanese army, resulting in the deaths of at least 22 soldiers.  The Sudanese army retaliated and took control of the town, expelling southern Sudanese units of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.  The takeover was followed by extreme violence that led to the displacement of thousands of southern Sudanese.

“I visited Abyei and I am concerned not only of the destruction, massive displacement of the residents, and the attendant human rights crisis,” said Justice Mohamed Othman Chande during a news conference in Khartoum, “but also the future status and security of the residents of Abyei.  I received allegations of killings, rape and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment during and subsequent to the attack.”

South Sudan officials estimate that more than 80,000 people fled during the attacks on Abyei.  Many fled to Wau, the capital of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal in South Sudan.  One woman told a reporter that she had journeyed for four days, without food or water, to escape the violence.  Another woman’s two-year-old son died of dehydration on the way.

“I had to just bury him and keep going with my other children,” said the woman.

In addition to the violence, Chande also criticized the lack of humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons in south Darfur, as well as the state of political freedoms.

“The state of emergency in Darfur continues to curtail fundamental rights and freedoms, [including] arbitrary arrests and prolonged detentions without judicial oversight,” said Chande.

U.N. peacekeepers have been stationed in Abyei since 2005 in an attempt to monitor the various peace agreements made in the warring nation.  However, earlier this week, Sudan’s envoy to the U.N., Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, informed the U.N. Secretary-General than UNMIS would not be welcome once the country splits.

Southern Sudan is scheduled to become an independent nation on July 9, after 50 years of civil war between the Arab north and African south.  Abyei lies in a contested and fertile border region that both the north and south claim ownership over.  After the events in May, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir declared that “Abyei is northern Sudanese land.”

For more information, please see:

CNN – U.N. expert criticizes human rights situation in Sudan – 9 June 2011

The New York Times – North-South Clashes Break Out in a Center of Sudan Tensions – 6 June 2011

Slate – So Much for the Peaceful Division of Sudan – 1 June 2011

Foreign Policy – Terror in Abyei – 31 May 2011

by Reta Raymond
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda – Earlier this year, with the help of  the U.S. Army in Iraq, eleven Ugandan women escaped from domestic slavery and were repatriated by the International Organization for Migration. These women are now suing the firm that sold them, Uganda Veteran’s Development Limited (UVDL), the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecution, and the Inspector General of Police for failure to protect and failure to prosecute. One of the women plaintiffs, identified only as “W,” called and “informed [Inspector General of Police, Kale Kaihura] about our situation of slavery in Iraq and he promised to rescue us but did nothing to that effect.”

In 2008, UVDL promised these women jobs as secretaries, nurses, supermarket clerks to earn as much as $700 per month including allowances. But the women had to pay approximately $1000 for a visa, application,airplane ticket and medical examination. Women were flown to Baghdad in groups of a dozen, and delivered to Abu Sami, who took their passports and sold them as servants for $3500. Abu Sami “yelled at us that we were his slaves he had purchased us with his money and we would have to work as housemaids for the people who were waiting for us in his office,” states Y in her affidavit.

Y was forced to clean a Sheik’s mansion from 5:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. After six days, Y refused to work and the Sheik held her at gunpoint and “threatened to throw me in a well of petrol.” Y was returned to Abu Sami, who kept her in a dark room with others until she could be resold. “Abu Sami said I would stay in the room locked up for the period of my contract of 2 years without food,” stated Y.

Z was beaten, raped six times, and given a venereal disease by the man who bought her. She was hospitalized four times for stress and a heart attack. “I could not escape because the family had my passport and I had spent my little salary on hospital bills, telephone calls …  in spite of my sickness I continued to work,” stated Z.

In July of 2009 eight Ugandan women sold by UVDL were rescued by U.S. Marines in Iraq. One of the women, Rachel Malagala testified before Parliament that she “was held in a dark room with three other women some of whom complained that their Iraqi masters sexually harassed them.” Shortly thereafter, the Ministry of Labour revoked  UVDL’s license to export labor, but they were relicensed in December 2010.

For more information, please see:

The Observer – Ugandan Iraq ‘slaves’ sue state – 8 June, 2011

BBC – Ugandan women tricked into domestic slavery in Iraq – 31 March, 2011

All Africa – Uganda: U.S. Marines Rescue Eight Ugandan Slaves in Iraq – 11 July, 2009