Abstracts of Contributions originally written in Arabic

1/ Faisal Mohammed Salih
“Sudanese Press and Human Rights”:

This study, written in July 2005, begins with an introduction giving an overall definition of the concept of freedom of speech and expression, as defined in the International declaration of Human rights and how, apparently, diverse issues as mass media, human rights and human development are interrelated.
The first part of the study deals with the situation of human rights in The Sudan and the government’s position with relation to the international treaties addressing human rights issues. Despite the fact that the constitution, imposed by the present regime, recognizes the international treaties, of which the government is a signatory, and despite the peace agreement signed by the government with the SPLM, it is widely agreed, on the part of human rights organizations worldwide, that such rights are systematically violated in the country, specially with regard to Darfur and the Eastern regions. Among the violations listed are the intimidation and coercion to which journalists and political and civic society activists are regularly subjected.
The second part, subtitled “freedom of expression and press in the Sudan” commences with giving a historic overview of press in the country, showing how it tended to flourish during the short-lived periods of democratic rule and decline and shrink under dictatorships. Thus, with the advent of the present military regime, in 1989, most journalists were forced to flee the country, to work abroad, particularly in Gulf countries. Mr. Salih describes in this part of his study the laws set by the regime to regulate local press. “The Pres and Publications Act” issued in April 2004 was the last in a chain of acts issued by the government to control, or better still, to suppress, free press. These laws are to be enforced by a council. Most of the 21 members in this council are appointed by the government while the active journalists are to be represented by only 7 members in this council. The single positive aspect of the latest act is the fact that it feebly tries to loosen the tough grip and the far-reaching power invested upon the council as far as the authority and the discretion to ban the distribution of any newspaper for the maximum of 7 days. Under the new act such a ruling could only be authorized by a court of law.
The third part of the study is subtitled: “Sudanese press and human right issues”. It discuses the role to be played by the press within the society at large, and how it could contribute to the dissemination of education and human right culture. It goes on to illustrate the sort of hurdles that may hamper the realization of such achievement such as the variety of tactics and laws, which are laid to impose shackles on the freedom of the press and the absence of an effective union for the members of the profession to protect journalists. Despite the bleak picture, Mr. Salih believes that Sudanese press has succeeded over the years to play an important role in spreading the culture of human rights by dealing with important issues such as the rights of ethnic minorities; cultural, religious and ethnic diversity and the rights of women, in addition to allocating a substantial space for intellectual discussions and publishing and spreading information regarding the activities of civic society organizations.  The third part also includes a criticism of Sudanese journalism when it sinks, deliberately or not, into being a tool for violating human rights. The examples given were those of using verbal violence, unsubstantiated accusations against government opponents, or those of the ideological position of the particular paper; publishing sarcastic stereotyped anecdotes belittling women or ethnic minorities and finally by not abiding by the principle of the right to respond.
In order for mass media channels to accomplish their anticipated mission, Mr. Salih proposes certain measures and recommendations addressed to journalists and human right activists, as their responsibilities are strongly intertwined.

Faisal Mohammed Salih
Sudanese journalist and the editor-in-chief of Al-Adhwa’a daily newspaper.

2/ Abdalla Ahmed Bashir (Abdallla Bolla)
“The lineage of the Ghoul: On the problem of “cultural identity” and human rights in Sudan. A treatise on that the Islamic ghoul did not descend upon us from heaven.”

Through this, fairly long study, Dr. Abdalla Bola attempts to trace the roots of this intricately problematic question illuminating, in the process, the appalling violations of the human rights of the non-Muslim and non-Arab peoples of the Sudan by the present regime .These violations emanate from, and are deeply rooted, in political, social, cultural and popular establishments representing the overridingly dominating Arab-borne culture of the Sudan.
Exploiting a wide range of glowingly enlightening examples, the author argues that these violations are not newly introduced. The examples are drawn from speeches given by politicians; statements and comments delivered by intellectuals, writers, high ranking government officials and journalists; programs of Sudanese political parties and from widely used stereotyped proverbs, sayings and images. He made it clear that the overbearing supremacy of the Arab-Islamic culture, and all the prejudice and despise against non-Arabic and non-Muslim cultures of the Sudan, that goes with it, was the driving force behind the outbreak of the civil war, waged by the suppressed in defense of their cultural existence and their basic human rights. Our country was plunged into the inferno of a 50 years long war in the South, and many other regional wars and uprisings, still plaguing our country.
It is worth mentioning that the study was initially instigated, and was a response to, the widely quoted question leveled by the prominent Sudanese writer and novelist, Tyeb Salih: “Where did those people come from?” being appalled by the atrocities committed by the Islamists  when they assumed power in the Sudan in 1989. It also represents an answer to those who rejoiced in the mere utterance of the inquisitive question, as if human rights were violated for the first time at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists.
The study was first presented at a conference held at The Hague, the Netherlands, 1996. The Sudanese Human rights Society branch in Holland organized the conference.

Abdall Ahmed Bashir (Abdalla Bolla)
Sudanese writer, researcher and artist. He obtained his PhD degree at the University of Sorbonne, Paris. He has published many books, papers and research findings principally concerned with the problem of the cultural identity question in the Sudan.

3/ Yousif Kuwa Mekki
“Things were no Longer the Same”

A Chapter from a book titled : The Right to Be Nuba: The Story of Sudanese People’s Struggle for Survival. Edited by Dr. Suleiman Musa Rahal , Red Sea Press, 2001.

In this interestingly hilarious and stirringly poignant chapter, the late Yousif Kuwa Mekki reminiscently recalls the days of his early childhood, through school days up to the phase of his university studies. He integrates the remembrance, of things past, with his keen awareness of the traditions of the Nuba tribes to which he belonged and the beginnings of his own political awareness. The elections held in 1981 for the regional parliament in his state clearly shaped his future political involvement in the local politics. He was elected a member of the regional parliament for the Khadoglli constituency, after a very tough election campaign against two wealthy Arab candidates who were supported by the non-Nuba business community and who had originally migrated to the Nuba region from the Arabic north. He was then a young poor graduate with meager resources to finance his campaign. His victory in this election was a historic landmark in the current history of the region. It proved to his Arab opponents, as well as his own Nuba people, that “things were no longer the same”.

For more information about this book please refer to the following link”:
http://www.justiceafrica.org/right2nuba.htm#toc1

Yousif Kuwa Mekki (1945-2002)
A graduate of Khartoum University in Political science, Yousif Kuwa served as the governor of Southern Kordofan state, then joined the SPLA/M and eventually became a commandant. Before joining the war, he worked as a teacher before becoming a local politician and political leader of the Kolomo, an underground political movement in the Nuba Mountains region.

Dr. Suleiman Musa Rahal,
A political activist fighting in defense of the Nuba mountains peoples rights, he established “The Nuba Mountains Solidarity Organization Abroad” and he is the chairperson of the board of trusties of the relief and rehabilitation fund of the Nuba Mountains. He is also the director of the International Nuba center for coordination. He is a virologist who resides and works in London, UK.

Sid Ahmed Bilal,
Mr. Bilal is a translator and a poet who resides and works in London, UK. He has translated this chapter into Arabic.

4/ Adil Algassas:
“Was it for the first time? A working paper on human rights violations in Darfur”.
This paper, on the infringement of human rights principles in the region of Darfur, was presented at the workshop held by the Sudanese community center in Victoria province in Australia on the 9th of July 2004.

Successive Sudanese governments regularly used the Christian missionary activities or the communist and/or the Zionist threats, separately or combined together, as an expedient plea for financial, political and military help and support from Arab countries, to go on with its genocidal war in the south of the Sudan.
Such an excuse would not have been palatable to plead for support in the case of the current government war in the Muslim region of Darfur. The pretext put forward, in the case of Darfur war, is to protect the unity of the country in order to enjoy Arab countries support. Yet it is not the first time that a Muslim region of the peripheries rebels against the power of the central/federal government in Khartoum demanding its due rights. Examples of such uprisings can be drawn from the East, the West and even the North of the Sudan. In addition, the paper claims that it was not the first time that such atrocious infringements of basic human rights were to be committed, for they were reported, even during democratically elected governments of the past. The novel thing to be noticed and recorded, in the case of the Darfur war, is the collective rape crimes and the massive displacement of people.

Adil Algassas
A poet and short story writer lives and work in Melbourne, Australia.  

5/ Gussai Hamrror:
“Religious Tolerance is a mandatory condition”

This paper was presented at the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the martyrdom of Ustaz Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, the Islamic intellectual and thinker who was murdered by Muslim fundamentalists, on the 18th of January 1985 during their coalition with general Niemiri’s regime.
On the light of Taha’s enlightening idea that religions of the world constitute an integrally unified oneness, the author discusses the question of religious tolerance and peaceful co-existence between different religions.

Gussai Hamrror
University student who lives in the USA. He is interested in issues of history, religion and philosophy. He has published many papers dealing with these issues.