GATS is a membership advocacy human rights group in the USA. It works mainly to raising awareness about the torture worldwide and especially in Sudan.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Torture Memos released
The Obama administration has released four memos from the Bush-era Justice Department that approved and provided the legal basis for the CIA’s use of torture. While President Obama has said he will not pursue prosecutions of CIA employees, he did not explicitly address the question of prosecuting the former Justice Department lawyers who authored the memos. The memos’ release comes as a Spanish court is considering bringing indictments against six Bush-era lawyers.
Read more on the link above
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
A torture survivor's response to the ICC
Local Man Reacts to Charges Against Sudanese President
March 4, 2009 06:08 PM EST
By Marci Izard
AMHERST, Mass. (Abc40)-- On Wednesday, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The news has comes as a relief to Amherst resident Mohamed Elgadi.
Elgadi arrested in Khartoum, Sudan in 1992 for his human rights work. Government officials held -and tortured him- for four months.
"It's a long time but it's still painful. They did everything from electric shocks...beating ... everything, including rape," he says.
Elgadi was finally released under the condition that he work as a Government informant. He consented - then fled.
He and his family have lived in the United States for over fifteen years but they still are active in the fight for justice in Sudan. He says the atrocities in Darfur have put an international spotlight on the violence, which he says, is going on across the country.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
ICC: Arrest Warrant for Al-Bashir
عربي
Today, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, President of Sudan, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is suspected of being criminally responsible, as an indirect (co-)perpetrator, for intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property. This is the first warrant of arrest ever issued for a sitting Head of State by the ICC.
Omar Al Bashir’s official capacity as a sitting Head of State does not exclude his criminal responsibility, nor does it grant him immunity against prosecution before the ICC, according to Pre-Trial Chamber I.
According to the Judges, the above-mentioned crimes were allegedly committed during a five year counter-insurgency campaign by the Government of Sudan against the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and other armed groups opposing the Government of Sudan in Darfur. It is alleged that this campaign started soon after the April 2003 attack on El Fasher airport as a result of a common plan agreed upon at the highest level of the Government of Sudan by Omar Al Bashir and other high-ranking Sudanese political and military leaders. It lasted at least until 14 July 2008, the date of the filing of the Prosecution’s Application for the warrant of arrest for Omar Al Bashir.
A core component of that campaign was the unlawful attack on that part of the civilian population of Darfur – belonging largely to the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups – perceived to be close to the organised armed groups opposing the Government of Sudan in Darfur. The said civilian population was to be unlawfully attacked by Government of Sudan forces, including the Sudanese Armed Forces and their allied Janjaweed Militia, the Sudanese Police Force, the National Intelligence and Security Service and the Humanitarian Aid Commission.
The Chamber found that Omar al Bashir, as the de jure and de facto President of Sudan and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces, is suspected of having coordinated the design and implementation of the counter-insurgency campaign. In the alternative, it also found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that he was in control of all branches of the “apparatus” of the State of Sudan and used such control to secure the implementation of the counter-insurgency campaign.
The counts
The warrant of arrest for Omar Al Bashir lists 7 counts on the basis of his individual criminal responsibility (article 25(3)(a)) including:
Cooperation of States
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
GATS sent a letter to President Obama
المجموعة السودانية لضحايا التعذيب يناير ٢٠٠٩
Date: Jan 30th, 2009
Dear President Obama,
We write to you today as part of the torture survivors’ community in the US to express our appreciation for your commitment to the standard human rights obligations. More than 400,000 torture victims are founding refuge and safe haven in the United States because of the cherished ideals and principles guaranteed by the Constitution.
Mr. President, we thank you for keeping your election campaign promises when you took action in your first day in office and decided to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Your Executive Order to ban the use of torture and inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees speaks directly to the suffering our members had to go through in the prisons of the current Sudanese regime. Waterboarding, stress positions, and hypothermia were actually on our daily torture menu with different names.
As Sudanese-Americans we are also looking forward to the changes you promised to bring about in the foreign policy toward the genocidal regime in Sudan. We call on you, Mr. President, to demonstrate your election campaign commitment to Sudan by:
* Supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC) to bring Darfur perpetrators to justice. The road to a sustainable peace in Darfur is only possible by bringing justice to the families of hundreds of thousands of victims, and millions who lost their homes and properties. We urge your administration to provide evidences to the ICC on the involvement of Albashir’s regime in planning Darfur genocide.
* Supporting the end of state-sponsored crime of torture in Sudan as part of your commitment to fight terrorism. Hundreds of Ghost Houses, i.e. torture centers, were created and put under the judiciary of the Sudanese General Security Apparatus since 1989. A large number of these Ghost Houses’ survivors currently live in the US and looking forward to this step.
* Instructing the State Department officials to stop meeting with accused torturers who personally involved in torturing some of the survivors currently live in the US. Those are specifically Major General Salah Ghosh, Head of the Intelligence; and Dr. Nafi’ Ali Nafi’, First Assistant to President Albashir and whose assigned the dossier of Darfur, and the deputy leader of the ruling National Congress Party in Sudan.
Mr. President, we understand and support the foreign policy of ‘engagement’ you promoted during the election campaign however, this is a different case. Those two persons were directly involved literally in torturing people who live here in the United States. Ethically, we should not sit with someone who literally has our blood on his hands.
Sincerely
Mohamed I. Elgadi
For/Group Against Torture in Sudan
Thursday, February 12, 2009
One Thug is almost Down...!
PR- for immediate release
Contact person: Mohamed Elgadi
Tel. 1+215-870-7809
Amherst, MA- Feb 17th, 2009- Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are reviewing the indictment of the President of the Sudan Lt. General Omer Al-Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes; and may decide to issue an arrest warrant for President Al-Bashir. The Group Against Torture in Sudan (GATS) is watching with utmost concerns the threats and calls of violence from the regime of President Omer Al-Bashir against the ICC and the UN personnel if an arrest warrant is issued. These threats have been shown in many signals from the regime’s media and affiliated political groups with the ruling National Congress Party in Sudan.
It’s an irresponsible statement from the Government of the Sudan to claim that more violence and instability would be generated had the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Al-Bashir. This was reiterated by the ambassador of the Sudan in Washington, D.C. Mr. Akec Achiew Khoc on February 6, 2009 at a conference on Darfur organized by the School of Law at Yale University, in New haven, Connecticut.
GATS demands that the Government of the Sudan should take all the measures necessary to guarantee non-violence against civilians in Khartoum and all other parts of Sudan in response to an ICC arrest warrant for President Al Bashir’s.
GATS calls the Government of the Sudan and the UN to prevent the repetition of the “Black Monday” of August 1, 2005 violence in Khartoum, and the violence against innocent Darfuris in Khartoum after May 10th, 2008 following the insurgency by one of the rebel groups in Khartoum.
GATS urges all political parties, NGOs and civil society organizations (SPLM, NCP, Umma, DUP, SCP, etc.) in the Sudan to be practical and exercise prudence in dealing with the ICC’s legal decision. Action should be addressed in the context of the law and not through the threat of bloodshed, vacuous jingoism, and disrespect to the international community.
GATS urges the Government of the Sudan to recognize the legitimacy of the ICC and the obligation of Sudan as a member of the UN to cooperate with the ICC in all its investigations.
GATS petitions the SPLM, since it is a part of the government, to protect the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and to persuade the National Congress Party to cooperate with the ICC in order to avoid confrontations with the international community.
The crisis in Darfur is a natural consequence of the regime’s policy: the Government of the Sudan should be prepared to defend its policy at the international court and the President should be prepared to defend himself against any criminal indictment through legal means recognizing that he is only a suspect and considered innocent until proven guilty.
GATS realizes that peace and justice are inseparable and that any step towards justice is a step towards a lasting genuinely negotiated peace in the Sudan.
The call for accountability does not exclude any perpetrators in Darfur, Gaza, Iraq, or any other place on earth. Our position is to support the investigations by the ICC of violence against civilians in all corners of the world.
The International Community represented by the UN should seriously address the regime’s threats against UNAMID, UN, international NGO workers and all civilians in the Sudan. A warning to Al-Bashir should be issued that any instigated violence will not be tolerated.
A decision by the ICC to arrest the Sudanese president will be considered a landmark and a major step towards combating impunity for horrific crimes in Darfur and other regions in the Sudan. Such a decision will be particularly significant to our group that has been diligently working over the years to bring those who planned and conducted systematic torture against dissidents to justice.
The Group Against Torture in Sudan-GATS, is an advocacy human rights group based in the United States. GATS works to raise awareness about torture worldwide and especially in Sudan. While GATS is advocating strongly for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sudan in order to stop the vicious cycle of violence, it’s also working relentlessly to bring perpetrators to justice. Amnesty and forgiveness of perpetrators of their crimes should be given only by the torture survivors.
ARABIC version
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
حول تصريحات سكرتير الحزب الشيوعي برفض محاكمة البشير
برنسيس ان ( ميريلاند )- الولايات المتحدة الامريكية
تتابع المجموعة السودانية لضحايا التعذيب بترقب وقلق شديدين تصاعد بعض الاصوات المناهضة لتيار حقوق الانسان المرحب بتقديم الرئيس البشير للمحكمة الدولية في تهم تتعلق بجرائم نظامه في دارفور وبقية انحاء السودان.
في هذا الاتجاه تدين المجموعة بشدة التصريحات المنسوبة للسكرتير العام للحزب الشيوعي السوداني فيما يتعلق بقرار المحكمة الدولية في حق الرئيس البشير.
تري المجموعة أن تصريحاً مثل هذا يمثل تخلي عن واحد من اهم المطالب لضحايا التعذيب بالسودان، والذي ظلت المجموعة تعمل بصبر دؤوب على انجازه طوال العشرين عام الماضية.
" لم استطع فهم منطق السيد نقد في تصريحه هذا ! ، و لنا ان نقول: اذا كان القضاء السوداني عاجزا حاليا عن محاكمة البشير فلم يرفض السيد نقد ان تتم المحاكمة من قِبل القضاء الدولي القادر علي ذلك ؟".
(صرح بذلك دكتور / محمد القاضي عضو المجموعة و احد ضحايا بيوت اشباح الرئيس البشير ).
وفي ذات السياق تؤكد المجموعة ان تصريحات الدكتور / حسن الترابي ومناشدته للرئيس البشير بتسليم نفسه للمحكمة لن تعفيه هو شخصياً من مسئوليته التاريخية في تلك الجرائم التي دبرها و ساهم بالاشراف عليها .
عليه تجدد المجموعة موقفها الداعم للمطالبة بمحاكمة الرئيس / البشير وكل من تلطخت يده بدماء شرفاء الشعب السوداني .
الجدير بالذكر ان الجرائم التي تتعلق بقضايا الحط من كرامة الانسان وتقييد الحريات، لا تسقط بتقادم الزمن اوبتقديم تنازلات من قبل اجهزة القمع التي إرتكبت تلك الفظائع بحق الانسان، كما و انها لا تُعالج بإبداء مظاهر الاستعلاء أو باستنفار الحس القومي للشعوب، و لا بدعوات الغفران والتسامح التي لا تحترم العقول. لن ينس ضحايا التعذيب الجرائم التي ارتكبت بحقهم و لن يتنازلوا عن مبدأ محاسبة من شارك في تعذيبهم وهذا حق تكفله كل مواثيق حقوق الانسان .
وها هي شهادات الضحايا تاتي فاقعة البيان والوضوح/
" انا الطبيب السوداني علي فضل احمد الان اموت بسبب درب اخترته بوضوح وقناعة , وانني واثق بان آخرين سيواصلون السير علي هذ ا الدرب ".
و هكذا ستتوالي الشهادات والافادات التي سطرها و يسطرها ابناء الشعب من ضحايا التعذيب و من كافة قطاعاته، وستطول قائمة المجرمين، و في الوقت نفسه ستظل المجموعة المناهضة للتعذيب في السودان ترصد كل حالات التعذيب والانتهاكات التي يتعرض لها ابناء الشعب السوداني. و ستواصل حملاتها لاجل تحقيق العدالة و انجاز مبدأ المحاسبة.
من اجل وطــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــن سالم وآمـــــــــــــــــــــــــــن
من اجل ترسيخ مبادئ حقوق الانســــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــان
ناجي ميرغني محمد صالح
سكرتير المجموعة المناهضة للتعذيب في السودان
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Torture of Mr. Eljack
http://www.sudaneseonline.com/cgi-bin/sdb/2bb.cgi?seq=msg&board=180&msg=1229763531