This article needs to be updated.(March 2022) |
The Khartoum massacre investigation is an official investigation of the 3 June 2019 Khartoum massacre and other human rights violations of the Sudanese Revolution, mandated under Article 7.(16) of the Sudanese August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, to cover "violations committed on 3 June 2019, and events and incidents where violations of the rights and dignity of civilian and military citizens were committed." [1] [2] The men-only [3] investigation committee of the massacre, rapes [4] [5] and other human rights violations is headed by human rights lawyer Nabil Adib. [6] The No to Oppression against Women Initiative protested against the men-only composition of the commission. [3]
The Khartoum massacre took place on 3 June 2019 in the context of the Sudanese Revolution against a protestors' sit-in in Khartoum. The massacre of 118 [7] civilians and the rape of 70 women and men [4] [5] is generally attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), [8] [9] [10] under the leadership of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ("Hemetti"). [11] [12] The rapes were documented as a deliberate campaign to "break the girls" according to France 24 . [13]
The results of three different enquiries were released in late July 2019. On 27 July, Fathelrahman Saeed, the head of a committee appointed by the Attorney-General at the request of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) to investigate the massacre, stated that 87 people had been killed, 168 injured, no rapes had occurred and no tents had been burnt. Saeed stated that legal cases for crimes against humanity had been launched against eight unnamed high-ranking security officers. The report was considered "poor and defective" by citizens' groups. [14]
The Darfur Bar Association (DBA) released its own report on 30 July, stating that eight rape victims were receiving psychological therapy; one in Omdurman had committed suicide as a result of the rape; one rape victim had been forced by social stigma to search for another home for her and her family. The DBA claimed that it had "ample evidence" of responsibility of the TMC for the massacre and that the "decision to disband the sit-in" took place at a meeting including all TMC members, the Attorney-General, police chiefs and security directors. [15]
The third report was that of a committee created by the National Umma Party and led by Yousef El Amin. On 30 July, El Amin stated that the sit-in was disbanded by "a large military force wearing RSF uniforms and riot police" and that the massacre had been "premeditated and planned". He stated that 47 victims of the massacre died on 3 June, with a total of 124 dying from 3 to 20 June. He confirmed rapes, throwing of bodies into the Nile, and burning of tents. [16]
The 4 August Draft Constitutional Declaration refers to the investigation in Article 7.(16) as an element of the "Mandate of the Transitional Period", defining the scope as "violations committed on 3 June 2019, and events and incidents where violations of the rights and dignity of civilian and military citizens were committed." [1] The investigation committee is to be created under an "order" that "guarantees that it will be independent and possess full powers to investigate and determine the timeframe for its activities". [1]
Article 21 of the Draft Constitutional Declaration gives "procedural" immunity to members of the Sovereignty Council, the Cabinet, the Transitional Legislative Council, governors of provinces and heads of regions, with Article 21.(2) giving the Transitional Legislative Council the right to lift that immunity by a simple majority. [1] [2]
On 21 September 2019, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok issued a decision to create the primary investigation commission of seven lawyers, including a Supreme Court judge, representatives of the Ministries of Justice, Defence and Interior, a "national figure" and two independent lawyers. The decision guaranteed that the committee would operate independently of any other governmental, judicial or legal body. The commission will be required to release a report with its findings within three months and can extend its mandate for another three months. [17]
Hamdok named the members of the commission on 20 October, with Nabil Adib as the head of the commission. [6] The other commission members are Osman Mohamed Osman as rapporteur, Sohaib Abdullatif as deputy rapporteur, colonel Ismat Abdalla Mohamed Taha and Ahmed El Taher El Nur and two unnamed members. [3]
Ihsan Fagiri of the No to Oppression against Women Initiative protested on 22 October 2019 against the men-only nature of the commission. She stated that women should participate as commission members, since many women had been killed, raped or thrown dead into the Nile and three women rape victims had committed suicide after the massacre. [3]
In December 2019, the commission started collecting documents, photographic and audiovisual evidence and invited witnesses to contact the commission via a secure website. [18] By December 2020, the commission had received 150 video recordings of the event and had collected testimonies from 3000 witnesses. In December 2020, the commission started questioning military members of the Sovereignty Council. Yasser al-Atta, a military member of the Sovereignty Council, was questioned for two hours by the Commission on 21 December 2020. Shams al-Din Khabbashi, another Sovereignty Council military member, was expected to be questioned. [19]
On 4 May 2021, Nabil Adib, the head of the commission, commented to Newlines Magazine that "the result could lead to a coup d'état or to mass unrest in the streets. [20]
Chief Justice Nemat Abdullah Khair stated in late December 2020 that trials for the killings of Ahmed el-Kheir, Hanafi Abdelshakour and Ashraf el-Tayeb, three protestors who were killed during events of the Sudanese Revolution other than the 3 June massacre itself, were ongoing by a "special court constellation". [19] The case for Ahmed el-Kheir resulted in the sentencing to death of 29 National Intelligence and Security Service officers, [21] with a final appeal step still pending in the Supreme Court as of December 2020 [update] . [19]
On 23 September 2019, the Attorney-General Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah created a committee of prosecutors and "representatives of the Bar Association, the police, the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Justice, and the Unit to combat violence against women" to investigate the disappearances of the people who remained missing after the Khartoum massacre and provide a report within two months. [22] On 14 September, the citizens' group "Missing" listed 21 people missing. [22]
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, commonly known as Ali Kushayb, is a senior Janjaweed commander who supported the Sudanese government against Darfur rebel groups during the Omar al-Bashir presidency. He was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. He was known as aqid al oqada and was active in Wadi Salih, West Darfur.
The Cabinet of Sudan usually refers to the chief executive body of the Republic of the Sudan. The Cabinet was dissolved following the 11 April 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. Chapter 5 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration defines the procedures which led to the nomination of Abdalla Hamdok as Prime Minister, and up to 20 Ministers in the Cabinet, during late August 2019, for the 39-month democratic transition. The Sudanese Women's Union protested against this. Under Article 19 of the Draft Constitutional Declaration, the ministers of the Transitional Cabinet are ineligible to run in the election scheduled to follow the transition period.
The International Criminal Court investigation in Darfur or the situation in Darfur is an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into criminal acts committed during the War in Darfur. Although Sudan is not a state party to the Rome Statute, the treaty which created the ICC, the situation in Darfur was referred to the ICC's Prosecutor by the United Nations Security Council in 2005. As of June 2019, five suspects remained under indictment by the court: Ahmed Haroun, Ali Kushayb, Omar al-Bashir, Abdallah Banda and Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein. Charges against Bahar Abu Garda were dropped on the basis of insufficient evidence in 2010 and those against Saleh Jerbo were dropped following his death in 2013. In mid-April 2019, Haroun, al-Bashir and Hussein were imprisoned in Sudan as a result of the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. In early November 2019, the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok stated that al-Bashir would be transferred to the ICC. One of the demands of the displaced people of Darfur visited by Hamdok prior to Hamdok's statement was that "Omar Al Bashir and the other wanted persons" had to be surrendered to the ICC.
The Rapid Support Forces are Sudanese paramilitary forces operated by the Sudanese Government. The RSF grew out of, and is primarily composed of, the Janjaweed militias which fought on behalf of the Sudanese government during the War in Darfur, killing and raping civilians and burning their houses. The RSF's actions in Darfur qualify as crimes against humanity according to Human Rights Watch.
The Sudanese Revolution was a major shift of political power in Sudan that started with street protests throughout Sudan on 19 December 2018 and continued with sustained civil disobedience for about eight months, during which the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état deposed President Omar al-Bashir on 11 April after thirty years in power, 3 June Khartoum massacre took place under the leadership of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that replaced al-Bashir, and in July and August 2019 the TMC and the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) signed a Political Agreement and a Draft Constitutional Declaration legally defining a planned 39-month phase of transitional state institutions and procedures to return Sudan to a civilian democracy.
The Sudanese Professionals' Association is an umbrella association of 17 different Sudanese trade unions. The organisation started forming in October 2012, though was not officially registered due to government crackdowns on trade unions, and was created more formally in October 2016 by an alliance between unions of doctors, journalists and lawyers. In December 2018, the group called for the introduction of a minimum wage and participated in protests in Atbara against the rising cost of living. The SPA came to take an increasingly prominent role in the 2018–2019 Sudanese protests against the government of Omar al-Bashir during 2019.
The Transitional Military Council (TMC) was the military junta governing Sudan that was established on 11 April 2019, after the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état that took place during the Sudanese Revolution, and was formally headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Inspector of the Armed Forces, after Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf resigned as leader one day following the coup.
Brigadier General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, generally referred to as Hemetti, Hemedti, Hemeti or Hemitte, from the Rizeigat tribe in Darfur, who was the Deputy Chairman of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) following the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. On 21 August 2019, the TMC transferred power to the civilian–military Sovereignty Council, of which Hemetti is a member. Under Article 19 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, Hemetti and the other Sovereignty Council members are ineligible to run in the 2022 Sudanese general election.
The Khartoum massacre occurred on 3 June 2019, when the armed forces of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council, headed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the immediate successor organisation to the Janjaweed militia, used heavy gunfire and teargas to disperse a sit-in by protestors in Khartoum, killing more than 100 people, with difficulties in estimating the actual numbers. At least forty of the bodies had been thrown in the River Nile. Hundreds of unarmed civilians were injured, hundreds of unarmed citizens were arrested, many families were terrorised in their home estates across Sudan, and the RSF raped more than 70 women and men. The Internet was almost completely blocked in Sudan in the days following the massacre, making it difficult to estimate the number of victims.
The 2019–2024 Sudanese transition to democracy is an ongoing democratic transition in Sudan that began in July 2019.
The Darfur Bar Association is a Sudanese lawyers' organisation created in 1995. In 2020, the group received the Democracy Award for supporting marginalized people in advocating for their rights and providing legal assistance to vulnerable activists before and during protests in Sudan.
The Sudanese resistance committees or neighbourhood committees are informal, grassroots neighbourhood networks of Sudanese residents that started organising civil disobedience campaigns against the government of Omar al-Bashir in 2013 and became a major organised network playing a key role during the Sudanese Revolution.
Abdalla Hamdok Al-Kinani is a Sudanese public administrator who served as the 15th Prime Minister of Sudan from 2019 to 2021, and again from 2021 to 2022. Prior to his appointment, Hamdok served in numerous national and international administrative positions. From November 2011 to October 2018, he was Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). UNECA staff described Hamdok as "[a] diplomat, a humble man and a brilliant and disciplined mind". In August 2019, Hamdok was suggested as a likely candidate for Prime Minister of Sudan for the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.
The eleven-member Sovereignty Council of Sudan was the collective head of state of Sudan from 20 August 2019, when it was created by the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, until 25 October 2021, when it was dissolved following the October 2021 Sudanese coup d'état. The Council was to have been the head of state for a 39-month transitional period, scheduled to end in November 2022.
Lena el-Sheikh Omer Majhoub became the Sudanese Minister of Labour and Social Development in early September 2019 in the Transitional Cabinet of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.
The Sudanese peace process consists of meetings, written agreements and actions that aim to resolve the War in Darfur, the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and armed conflicts in central, northern and eastern Sudan.
The 2019–2022 Sudanese protests are street protests in Sudan which began in mid-September 2019, during Sudan's transition to democracy, about issues which included the nomination of a new Chief Justice and Attorney General, the killing of civilians by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the toxic effects of cyanide and mercury from gold mining in Northern state and South Kordofan, opposition to a state governor in el-Gadarif and to show trials of Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) coordinators, and advocating the dismissal of previous-government officials in Red Sea, White Nile, and South Darfur. The protests follow the Sudanese Revolution's street protests and civil disobedience of the early September 2019 transfer of executive power to the country's Sovereignty Council, civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, and his cabinet of ministers. Hamdok described the 39-month transition period as defined by the aims of the revolution.
Nabil Adib Abdalla is a Sudanese human rights lawyer who was nominated on 20 October 2019 as head of the investigation commission of the 3 June Khartoum massacre that took place during the Sudanese Revolution.
The Sudanese National Human Rights Commission has been headed by Hurriya Ismail, appointed by former president Omar al-Bashir, since March 2018 or earlier and continued under her leadership during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.
On 25 October 2021, the Sudanese military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, took control of the government in a military coup. At least five senior government figures were initially detained. Civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok refused to declare support for the coup and on 25 October called for popular resistance; he was moved to house arrest on 26 October. Internet outages were reported. Later the same day, the Sovereignty Council was dissolved, a state of emergency was put in place, and a majority of the Hamdok Cabinet and a number of pro-government supporters were arrested. As of 5 November 2021, the list of those detained included "government ministers, members of political parties, lawyers, civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and protest leaders", who were held in secret locations, without access to their families or lawyers.
They say that some of the bodies were of men wearing Sudanese army uniforms," the human rights activist reports. Her analysis: "This means the militiamen also attacked some members of the army who showed solidarity with the demonstrators — either because they'd refused to participate in this crime, or because they were trying to protect women and girls from being raped. And so these men were murdered, too.