THE TORTURE OF BRIGADIER MOHAMED AHMED ELRAYAH
Source: The Sudanese Human
Rights Quarterly, Issue No. 3, April 1996
The SHRO-Cairo Sudanese Human Rights Quarterly published a letter originally written by Brigadier Mohamed Ahmed Elrayah from his cell at the Suakin Central Prison, which lies on a remote area of the Red Sea. The letter is addressed to the head of state of the NIF rule about the savage tortures made on Elrayah during his arrest by security forces fo the regime. Elrayah letter exemplifies some of the most horrific violations ever committed in the modern history of the Sudan on an individual. With the courage the letter has in every single word of it, it figured out as a concrete evidence of the inhuman practices of the military government of Sudan. That, in fact, is a reason why this letter echoed through the world as it found its way to human rights NGOs, as well as many governmental agencies that all expressed deep concerns about the existing conditions and fate of its brave writer. The complaint of Brigadier Elrayah versus Sudan Government, that has never paid it any serious attention, has further led to a prolongation of Elrayah imprisonment, even after a the head of state announced general amnesty to release political opponents of the regime from detention. For years, Brigadier Elrayah was imprisoned at the Kober State Prison in Khartoum North because he stood firmly against the NIF government's pressure to withdraw his famous complaint for a release from imprisonment. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General Abdel-Aziz Shiddo was completely silent about the strong complaint of Elrayah that was directly addressed to him. The minister acted with disdainful disregard to the noble cause the complaint carried for the sacred issue of justice and the fundamental need of State institutions and public servants for the observance of international human rights norms.
August 15, 1993 ALRAYAH COMPLAINT To Minister of Justice and Attorney General Through the Commissioner of Prisons Through Director of State Prisons, Port Sudan Through Director of Suakin State Prison Greetings and respect to all. Subject: Complaint Dear Sir, the Minister of Justice: I best start my complaint with what God says in the Holy Qur'an: "Allah command the maintenance of justice and the doing of good," and what the Prophet Muhammad, the most noble, said, "How would Allah be merciful to a people whom their strong is unjust to their weak." I, prisoner Brigadier (retired) Mohamed Ahmed Elrayah Elfaki, 52 years of age, that had been arrested from my house by security forces at the night of Tuesday on August 20, 1991, had been forced to reach the Security Department with my own car. When I arrived, they took away the keys of my car and took me to the reception where they asked me about the contents of the car. They wrote the contents on a piece of paper in front of me as follows: A revolver made in Spain, stra 6.35 with 50 bullets, US$8720, German Marks of small value; 5 new tires, Opel car new spare parts, Toyota Cressida car lights and spare parts, a private notebook of a saving account in the German Commercial Bank at Bon, Germany, and a file consisting of correspondence on a tender for the import of arms and spare parts. Captain Asim Kabashi, a member of the committee that interrogated me, showed me all these contents. I asked him to deliver the contents next morning to my brother-in-law, Brigadier Mamoun Abdelaziz Nugud since he would be coming to take my car. Two days later, Captain Asim Kabashi told me that they had delivered the car and the contents to the person named. On my way to the Kober Prison after I had been sentenced and moved from detention at the State Security, I learned that Brigadier Nugud was appointed as a military attaché then transferred to Washington to which he left the country to attend his new job. Regretfully, I knew later from him that he had received the car empty from all of the registered contents. Dear Sir, Minister of Justice: I have been charged and prosecuted by a secretive artificial military court on September 9, 1991, a month after I was arrested. I suffered a lot of pain during this month. I was physically and psychologically tortured in a number of ways by members of the prosecuting committee and the guards of the Security. This kind of torture, which lacked the simplest sense of humanity, continued up until the day I was sentenced on December 3, 1991 with a death penalty that was commuted to life imprisonment. On December 4, 1991, I was transferred from the State Security Headquarters to the Kober Prison. On December 10, 1991, I was again moved to the Shala Prison in DarFur. For a period of 18 months at the Shala Prison, I suffered ways of torture that no one could believe because they contradicted the upright teachings of religion and what State managers, like yourself, keep assuring people of the human rights guarantees that there is no torture for those detained. I say, "No Sir!" Terrible tortures existed but that no religious teaching or even secular principles approved of them. Torture ranged between electric shocks to extensive beating and rape, etc. I personally passed through horrific types of torture that left their hateful marks on my body and made me a habitual patient of Elfashir Hospital. During that time, I tool a lot of medicines and tranquilizers; and yet, none of them helped. Based on a medical recommendation from the Hospital's Committee, I was transferred for further treatment in Khartoum. Dear Sir, Minister of Justice: I feel ashamed and embarrassed having to tell all sorts of tortures that I passed through and the negative impact it had on my physical and psychological health. I would also write the names of the torturers who were members of the interrogation committee and guards of the imprisonment cells. These persons were granted rights to torture the prisoners more than the Nazi of Hitler exercised. The following are the names that the torturers used to call on one another. I do not know whether the names were true or false. However, I can recognize these torturers one by one if I see them.The tortures I suffered included:
· hard beatings with whips and other plastic materials used for beating on the head and other parts of the body. · Tying a prisoner's body strongly with iron chains, hanging upside down and forcibly standing up to two days. · Tying one's hands from outside the cell door with buckets loaded with wet brick. · Splashing us with hot or cold water in case we get tired of standing. · Locking in containers or in toilet rooms that lack air circulation. · Blindfolding the eyes in a violent way for long hours. · When transferred to the Security Headquarters for investigation we would be ordered to lie down on our backs in cars covered with blankets and plastic materials. The guards would push us down with their boots. If any one tried to move or uttered a voice, the guards would kick us hard with their boots and machine guns. The tortures were carried out by these persons: Kamal, Hassan (whose real name is Ahmed Mohamed from the Eissaliat area) the most wicked and rude. Hussain, Abu Zaid, Omer, Elwqan, Elgamry, Ali, Siddig, Osman, Khugalki, Magboul, Mohamed, Eltahir, and others whom I didn't recognize. · I was personally raped, and solid items were forced into sensitive parts of my body. Captain Asim Kabashi did that with owhomdidn't recognize. · The result of this torture was a partial failure of my sexual organ as a result of the damage caused by pressing on it with an iron rod. It was also Asim Kabashi who exercised this torture. · Boxing in the head and face, also by Asim Kabashi and another captain called Isam, and at one time by the chief of the investigation committee whose name was Abdelmut'al. · Calling indecent names with a continuous threat to abuse my wife before my eyes by Asim Kabashi and Salah Abdalla, whose fame is Salah Bush, that witnessed a few times my interrogation. · Inserting a stick between the legs and twisting the whole body vigorously to the back while kicking hard on the belly, also by Asim Kabashi and Captain Mohamed Elamin who was responsible for guarding, as well as others I didn't know. · Applying electric shocks by Hassan together with the burning of the skin with cigarettes by Asim Kabashi.
All these tortures affected me in the following way: · Continuous headache with a comma nearly similar to epilepsy. · Loss of my left "ball" after it had been totally damaged. · Difficulties in excretion unless I take water injection daily. · Slipped disc in the back between the second and third vertebrae as the medical exams had shown. I had a successful disc operation abroad between the fourth and fifth vertebrae. Now I suffer from acute pain and temporary paralysis in my left leg. · The loss of two teeth and the failure in the gland beneath the lower joint due to harsh boxing and beating. · Acute sight deterioration due to hard and forcible tying on the eyes during the whole period of arrest. Dear Sir, What I experienced in my confinement at the State Security Headquarters is enough to make young people age in a little while. My manhood has been abused and that, I believe, is enough as evidence of the tortures received. I have heard and read about your fierce defense of human rights in the media and your absolute rejection of any kind of torture. I feel sad for your ignorance of the ill practices of your security personnel at the ghost houses, especially at the house of torture that is situated at the cross-point between Elqiyada Mosque and the Dinar Street in which I spent 107 hard days at cells. I submit this complaint now because after my transference by a medical committee from Elfashir to the Military Hospital, I was moved from Shala Prison to the Kober Priosn earlier last May. When the doctors checked me they ordered I should be taken to the hospital for x-ray and further medical attention. First, I met with a general physician and a surgeon under supervision of Brigadier Dr. Abdelaziz Mohamed Nur who started treating my headache. I also saw Brigadier Dr. Azam Ibrahim Yousif, a surgeon, who ascertained after medical checks that my left "ball" was damaged. Unfortunately, at about 11 p.m. by mid June, I was shocked as an in-patient when the director the Kober prison instructed me inside my room at the hospital to pack my belongings and move with him to the prison. The director said he received instructions from the Security Headquarters to transfer me immediately before midnight to the Suakin Prison. The physician on duty protested the transfer but the prison authorities moved my forcibly outside the hospital. An hour later I was moved out of Khartoum. Is this the kind of rights that you defend, Sir? I was astonished why the Security Headquarters interfered in my case even though I am sentenced to prison and had already spent two years while my fellow inmates were released a year or more ago despite their lengthy sentences. What would the Security Forces want from me again after they assaulted my manhood and misappropriated my belongings? I feel shocked by the negative reaction of the prison administration and its laws to which I have been subjected by the highest authority of the State. Why do they allow this sort of interference in their system of work? Why didn't they stop this chaos? Dear Sir, Minister of Justice, I am now in the Suakin Prison. I m having medical treatment at the Port Sudan Hospital where the physicians ascertained the partial damage of my genitals and the slipped disc of my back in addition to a continuous headache. I hereby submit my complaint to you, after God, to do justice to my case. However, if you can't or don't, who else would? Previously, you defended with much suffering and courage a case against which a majority of Sudanese people negatively reacted. Would you consider my complaint seriously to help me regain my rights and force the State to cure me abroad on its own expense? God has laid on you the burden of defending the human rights of the oppressed for whose sake God said, "We have honored mankind." I thank God for not laying the same burden on us as He laid on you: "To Allah we belong, and to Him is our return." I pray for Allah that you do not draw on yourself any sin with the wrong doers. I pray that you do not become responsible for ignoring the injustices of the transgressor. I pray that you do not become a center of their unfairness or a bridge of their tremendous trial, or a ladder for their mischief. Associated with my letter is a copy of the medical report of the primary physician responsible for my case, with thanks and appreciation. Inmate, Brigadier (re.) Mohamed Ahmed Elrayah Elfaki. Copy to: Head of State Chief justice Head of the Human Rights Committee at the Transitional National Council
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