Sudan protests should serve as warning: Britain

[YahooNews]

Khartoum (AFP) - Britain said Wednesday that deadly protests over Sudan's fuel price hikes should serve as a wake-up call for political dialogue, as concern mounted for those detained in the crackdown.

Simon Fraser, permanent under-secretary in Britain's Foreign Office, said on a visit to Khartoum he hoped "these protests will be a warning to everyone including the government that the situation needs to be addressed."

Authorities say 34 people died after petrol and diesel prices jumped on September 23 when the government cut fuel subsidies, sending thousands into the streets in the worst urban unrest during President Omar al-Bashir's 24-year rule.

Rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday that security forces were believed to have killed more than 200 protesters, many with gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

At the end of a day-long visit to Khartoum, Fraser called for "an acceleration of a genuine process for comprehensive national dialogue."

"But that does require the commitment of all the parties, and in particular the government, to give confidence through its future actions," the head of Britain's diplomatic service and senior policy adviser to Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters.

Bashir called in April for dialogue with "all political powers" in his country, including armed rebels.

Along with insurgencies and an economic crisis, his ruling National Congress Party faces internal dissension.

Fraser met with government officials including Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti, as well as civil society workers and others.

"We are also expressing our concern about the large number of detentions which have taken place and which I believe are still taking place, including a number of journalists and political activists," Fraser said.

"All indicators are that people are being targeted for arrest for no other reason than they are members of opposition groups, or activists, lawfully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly," said Lucy Freeman, Amnesty's deputy director for Africa.

The husband of a social media activist who works for the World Bank told AFP that she was among those rounded up and has not been heard from since Monday.

Eight security officers took Dalia El Roubi from her family home, her husband Abdelrahman Elmahdi told AFP.

El Roubi, a communications specialist at the Khartoum office of the World Bank, had joined one protest last weekend, her husband said.

Sudan's government says it has arrested hundreds of "criminals" after the protests.

An initial 48 accused went on trial Wednesday and some were sentenced, the semi-official MediaNews service reported, without giving other details.

The government said it had to intervene last week when crowds turned violent, attacking petrol stations and police facilities.

International concern

The intensity of demonstrations has faded this week but witnesses on Wednesday reported three small rallies.

About 30 women stood silently in Khartoum near the military headquarters and Bashir's guest house, one witness said.

"We want justice for the martyrs and the injured," read a banner, while another sign called for freedom of expression, according to the witness.

Demonstrations were also staged at the University of Sudan's campus in South Khartoum, and in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan where up to 100 students took to the streets denouncing the regime, witnesses said.

France, Britain and the United States have all expressed concern at Sudan's reaction to the protests.

Fraser, for his part, reiterated that Britain was "shocked and saddened" by reports that Sudan's security forces had used excessive force.

He had also "raised the question of media freedoms and the closure of some media outlets."

On Tuesday, the foreign ministry in Paris condemned the "disproportionate way" authorities responded to the demonstrations, and the "arbitrary arrests and media censorship."

Last week, Washington blasted the "brutal crackdown."

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog, said Sudan was using "censorship and intimidation" in an effort to make journalists stick to the official line about the protests.

Source: Sudan protests should serve as warning: Britain