Continuing Extrajudicial Killing and Lawlessness in Darfur
Contact: Osman Hummaida, Executive Director
Phone: +44 7956 095738
E-mail: osman@acjps.org
(6 July 2010) At 10:30 AM on 30 June, residents of Sag Al Na’am locality, approximately 25 kilometres south of El Fashir, brought the bodies of Hurri Mendi Issa, a member of the Zaghawa tribe, and Adam Abdorahman Annor, a member of the Mima tribe, to El Fashir hospital for autopsies to be performed on each body. Both of the deceased were teachers at the Sag Al Na’am Primary School.
According to sources, members of the Popular Defence Forces and Central Reserve Forces based in Kalimendo locality attacked Sag Al Na’am’s market around noon on 29 June. Three unknown residents were injured when they were shot and were brought alongside Mr. Issa and Mr. Annor to El Fashir hospital the following day. Shortly after the attack on the market, the gunmen began inquiring as to Mr. Issa’s and Mr. Annor’s whereabouts. At 2 PM, they arrived at Sag Al Na’am school and forcibly removed them from the building. They were both shot at point blank range in the head outside.
El Fashir’s Chief Prosecutor, Director of Police, and Director of the Central Reserve Forces all viewed the bodies. The Chief Prosecutor confirmed the death and indicated that the armed elements responsible for the two men’s death and the attacks on Sag Al Na’am’s market were still at large.
The extrajudicial killing of Mr. Issa and Mr. Annor comes only a month after 16 members of the Zaghawa ethnic group were executed summarily near Shangil Tobaya by unknown militias, and their bodies left exposed for three days before they were buried in a mass grave (see 16 Members of the Zaghawa Tribe Summarily Executed and Buried in Mass Graves in North Darfur). A Zaghawa Community leader and member of the Commission of Inquiry formed by the North Darfur government to investigate the incident, Mohamed Saleh Haroun, was killed by militias on 5 June when the Commission entered Shangil Tobaya to begin their investigation. The acting Special Prosecutor for Crimes in Darfur, Al Fatih Tayfour, affirmed in early July that a new investigation has commenced, as well as announcing that the investigation into the September 2010 massacre in Tabra, an ethnically Fur village in North Darfur, had concluded. These horrific events exemplify the complete erosion of the rule of law and the scope of impunity throughout Darfur.
Though not officially incorporated into the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the Popular Defence Forces and Central Reserve Forces are allegedly closely affiliated with the SAF. Immunities under the Sudan Armed Forces Act of 2007 preclude members of the SAF being tried for criminal responsibility for acts committed while in service. The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies calls on the Sudanese government and relevant UN representatives to initiate a full and thorough investigation to hold the perpetrators of the attack and extrajudicial killings in Sag Al Na’am accountable, and ensure the independence of the any future Commission established.
